Are my tires too old?

[harrishawk]

These tires have been on my 84 Silverado for about 12 years.  They have maybe 10,000 miles on them - The truck only has 88,000.  The truck sits alot - but when we do drive it - the tires feel good and don't make any noise.  Just wondering if I should have them replaced.  Thanks!

[78 Chevyrado]

Could go either way.  Heck my trailer came with 11 year old tires on it (i found out when i checked the date codes) and that was back in 2001 and the same tires are still on it working fine.  Id probably not trust them to high speed driving regularly though.  they will look fine and then suddenly not be fine any more.

[69byrd]

Since you dont drive it much, I am guessing that when you do its local and not long road trips at higher speeds, so personally I would not be to concerned with the tires. If they are not dry rotted and they look fine I wouldnt worry to much. My dad has a 83 that we use to pull a boat to the river and the tires on it are 10 years old and they do just fine. I would keep an eye on them and if they started to show any signs of going bad replace them.

[Irish_Alley]

they do look like the tread is about to fail "come off the tire" not sure about how long but like they said if its not at high way speeds it should be OK

[okuma]

You have some " EXPIRED " tires but GOOD condition ...

I wouldn't change them, Unless you are planning  a long trip on them tires!!

[Chevalade]

Pic 2 looks like there is a fair bit of cracking in the sidewalls. Personally I would replace them......especially if the family is riding with me.

[79K20]

Look at the DOT number printed on the sidewall. The last 4 digits represent the date that the tires were manufactured. This is a good thing to keep track of because rubber WILL eventually dry rot and crack, its just a question of when.

(See pic below: Example, "4104" means that it was manufactured in the 41st week of 2004)

The only reason I say this is that the tires could be even older than you think. A lot of tires sit in a warehouse for MANY years (I've seen up to 7 years) before ever being sold to a customer as "new." Trust me, it happens more than you may think. That means yours could be as old as 20 years and, frankly, I wouldn't be caught driving on 20-year-old tires.

If you really want to be sure, you should have them dismounted and look at the inner lining. If it is not cracked and the shoulders are not cracked, then you are good to go for a while.

My $0.02 this snowy morning in Denver (supposed to get 10-18 inches!)

[Trukk]

I've personally had tires on a truck with only 33k separate on the highway. They were the OEM E-load tires and were 13 years old. 2 tires actually went at the same time - I can only guess that the rear one ran over part of the cap from the front one and caused it to go.