Old Tires

[John H]

I have a set of tires on my recently purchsed 67 Coronet that are in new condition but from 2001. They have no obvious dry rot or cracking other that some hairline cracks on the inside of the tread.
Any thoughts on driving on these tires and safety aspect?

The car was kept in a temperature controlled collectors barn the past 20 years and barely driven.

 

[dadsbee]

Some questions aren't worth the

here as all the experts jump out. The tires on my Superbird are now 33 years old and I'm gonna give in to those "experts" and finally buy a new set after a full repaint. No point blowing a quarter panel now! But I bet the 33 year old rubber is better than what I'll buy next week !

 

[torredcuda]

I replaced my tires with plenty of tread left and no cracks due to being 20 years old, I wasn`t taking the chance of blowing a tire and crashing my $35,000 classic car or hurting someone for the price of a new set of $800 tires.

 

[Jerry Hall]

Up until about a year ago I drove one of my 67 GTX'S with red lines dated from 1979. The spare in the trunk is the original with a 66 date code.

Then.

Now.
The radials on it now, I won't trust over about 7-8 years.

 

[#41]

If you aren't going to change them at 20 years, then when?

I had tires delaminate at 13 years / 33k miles / 60mph. They looked fine. Luckily is was not a prized classic car.

 

[Don Frelier]

If a front tire blows may God help you.
If a rear goes you have a better chance of staying in one lane.

 

[Dave6T4]

I had a Coker red line tire fail in two summer's of use, about 4,000 miles. New tires, plies separated. It's not just old tires that go bad!

 

[dadsbee]

Like I said Dave, I have more faith in my 1990 Goodyears than the ones I have on order !

 

[kramer]

I think there are alot of variables on when to replace tires, I used to live in the Montana area where its pretty cold a good portion of the year and I never had problems with old tires and ran them for years even ones that you could almost see the air in them but I wouldn't recommend it. Now I moved to Las Vegas around 10 years ago and I have had around 7-8 tires blow out on me one on my pickup while I was driving and that tire wasn't that old and had great tread on it but the rest of the tires were ones I had laying around or were on parked vehicles in my back yard. The heat is a killer down here on tires and batteries.

 

[33 IMP]

Got 40 year old Lester's on my 33. I will probably replace em , when I can find $2500 to do the job. No wait, closer to $3000. $6000, if I do both of em.

 

[33 IMP]

My late model pony car tires have twelve thousand miles on em. Pirelli P-zero's. Not gonna replace em just cause they're 11 years old. (Original factory mounting).

 

[kiwigtx]

I'm looking at trading up to Hankook's from my BFG T/A's......gonna be one hellava white out just before the new ones go on.

Twelve years plus old.....and BFG don't have the same rep that they used to in the '80's.

 

[MoparLeo]

An old tire is more important then an old belt.
Compare the cost of tires as opposed to the body damage, potential death/injuries.
Like Clint said " Do you feel lucky ?"
Drive more if you want your money's worth. Tires are only designed to last 6 years average mileage. 15K a year average. 60-70 k miles..
Things deteriorate with age.
Just like maintenance service on a car is in months or miles, which ever comes first.

 

[RT6PK]

I had 3 out of 4 BF Goodrich Radials T/A's delaminate at about 10 years old. The looked like brand new... until they didn't.

 

[69a100]

Tires are only designed to last 6 years average mileage. 15K a year average. 60-70 k miles..

Since when does 15 times 6 equal 60-70?? Not when I went to school!!! I've never seen a tire that will give you more than 60K milage! And where do you get this info from, or are you just blowin smoke? I'll go with the later!

 

[68BabyBlue]

Like I said Dave, I have more faith in my 1990 Goodyears than the ones I have on order !

In 1991, I replaced the bias plies on my third GTX with a set of Goodyear Eagle STs. They were still on the car when it showed up for sale on the internet 27 years later.

 

[MoparLeo]

35 years in the tire business. Retired Bridgestone/Firestone store manager.
15 k is the nation wide average and properly maintained premium tires/suspensions will go 60-70 average. Key word average. some go more, some go less.
Point was tire age. very few people check their tires for wear, air pressure.

 

[maxwedgechar]

Not quite a month ago I posted this on C Bodies:

I try to make 7 years the limit on anything I'm running. The trailer, the van, any of the cars. I'm the guy in the left lane running 70-80 MPH and I do not need a problem. When I put the Max back on the road in 2017 the 30 year old Pro-Tracs were traded out for new ones from Coker. The other thing is I realized that Load Range "E" tires were better for the van than Load Range "D". I got tired of tread separation on the PA 'Pike coming back from Carlisle! When my wife died I inherited her 3 Subarus. I still have them, they are family. I had the '93 Legacy in the shop and they told me it needed a battery and tires. I decided not to have them do anything. Then a month later the battery dies and a little after that I checked the tire dates. They were 12 years old! Yes, and I was running the left lane of I-295 at 85!

 

[John H]

Thank you everyone. Now the question is... what do I buy and where. Sounds like Coker is the place to go. Now what to buy. I have P215/70R 15's on it now. it's a 1967 Coronet 440 with steel rims and dog dish hub caps. I don't understand back spacing etc. so any info you guys have would be great.
I am also going to upgrade the rims asap once the budget allows.

 

[Dave6T4]

Based on my experience, I would advise against Coker Redlines. I bought a set for my 1967 R/T. During my second summer of use, the plies started to separate on one of my front tires. I doubt there were not more than 3,000 miles on them. I replaced the front pair with a similar pair of Diamondback redlines. I found that the Cokers took a lot of weight to balance, while the Diamondback tires took very little. Apparently, Coker bought old BFG Silvertown molds, to manufacture their own tires. Diamondback, on the other hand, has BFG produce custom Radial T/A's , leaving the raised white letters off. Diamondback then adds the redlines to these tires. I have 215/70 R 15's on the front and 235/70 R 15's on the rear on 15 X 7 rims.