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Old Tires

Assaracus

New member
City
St Louis
State
Mo
Guys,

Just bought a Scrambler with Baja Claw 35’s. They look almost brand new, but took them to the tire shop to be balanced and they wouldn’t touch them due to age. According to the date stamp, they are 10 years old. So I guess age is just as important as mileage and heat cycles.

Tires have zero cracks or visible dry rotting and even have the white lines from the factory.

They said it’s extremely dangerous to drive on tires older than 6 years. Is this true or are they trying to sell me new tires?

Thanks in advance!

Craig
 

ag4ever

Average Nut
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Silver Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Richmond
State
TX
Correct. Tires age and get hard. You may not see cracks in them now, but drive a couple hundred miles and you will see cracks develop.

Motorhome tires are often replaced with 90% tread left, but they are bad due to age.
 

Jeep Addict

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
City
Baton Rouge
State
La
I have a set of 31x10.50 Goodyear Wranger MT/Rs on my first CJ that I purchased in 2001. They were on it when I bought it. No cracking and I do drive it frequently about 20 or 30 miles so not too far. No cracking yet and plenty of tread left. I know I'm pushing it but I just haven't bought new tires yet. My Jeep is always stored indoors so that may have helped. If one goes out while I'm driving a have a new matching spare just as old to use to limp home on...
 

MikeV

Always learning
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Monroe
State
NY
This looked fine and blew out loudly on me but I was only going 30 mph luckily. Wheel started vibrating and I slowed down on the back road I was on. Plenty of tread but found out after looking at the DOT # they were old. The burst of smoke scared the lady tailgating me into almost running off the road herself. This pulled me across the road but no oncoming traffic thankfully. Learned my lesson and bought 5 Cooper AT3's.ripped tire.jpg
 

wm69

Scrambler Junkie
Silver Member
Lifetime Member
City
God's Country
State
AR
If you're running at highway speeds replace them. If you tend to toot around town and don't drive over 35-40 and they don't show any cracking I'd run them.

I have BFG KO's from 2002 on my green CJ-7. It rarely gets driven over 30mph so I roll with them.

The Scrambler had BFG MT's from 1986-87 on it. They still had 99% tread on them but started cracking from age, so we replaced them. Once they started cracking I got rid of them about 4-5 years ago. Sold the old tires for $150 to a guy who was going to use them on a hunting lease Jeep (never on pavement).
 

Assaracus

New member
City
St Louis
State
Mo
Thanks guys. I think I’ll replace them just for the safety factor. Thinking about going with a set of BFG KO2s.
 

certifiablejeep

Definitley Certifiable
Lifetime Member
City
Bedford
State
NH
Yeah, this thread got me outside checking numbers as well.

A lot of the Jeeps just don't get driven that much, but year after year, the tires/dates do add up.
I found a lot of them 7 years old, but a couple older than that... wifes Jeep will be getting some new tires sooner than later.

cb
 

Jeep Addict

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
City
Baton Rouge
State
La
Now y'all are going to have me squeezing out diamonds every time I go on a joy ride. :rotfl:
 
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