Tires Are Not What they Once Were.

[Dave P]

Yup, that's the painful part....

 

[AR67GTX]

There’s been a lot of discussion on the Corvette C2 forum about - tires today are not the tires of yester-year. Some have even advocated for quality bias-belted tires with a nylon cord cap because of a perceived lack of at-speed blow out failures. I don’t know about that but I think BF Goodrich T/A’s heyday was in the 70s and 80s - old technology now. And now they are made by Coker.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

6 years = new tires for me. Ask any major tire supplier, they can not sell a tire that is 6 years old

 

[Charged440]

Now you have to replace all your tires after 6 years no matter what, 99% tread, replace them, no dry rot whatsoever, replace them. Has got to be one of the biggest scams of the century considering it never use to be that way.

 

[Cranky]

Same here. All the "modern" vehicles here run Michelins and I swear by them.
Pricy, sure - but nothing else out there touches them.
If they made them in the sizes I need for Fred, he'd have them too.

EDIT: I did do a bit of a clutch dump on Fred yesterday on the way to vote.
At first, I thought the clutch was slipping....no smoke!
Then I realized, those old BFG's are getting hard. They were spinning all right, just not terribly sticky anymore.

You may have read this before but years back (mid 90's or so) I was going to enter my 71 340 Cuda in a burn out contest so went to the track the week before to test a pair of old bias ply tires that were on my trailer. They felt hard and were checking pretty good so I figured they would be good to burn up but wanted to do a test before the contest. Drove through the water in the burnout box and went to town on them. My goal was to try and keep the rpm down off the red line and even get into 3rd gear but that didn't happen. After getting into 2nd and letting off the throttle just a bit, they started pulling the engine down so back into 1st and get the wheel speed up where it was and shifted into 2nd again. This was all within less than 15 seconds and ya gotta go 1 minute in a burnout contest. At less than 20 seconds into this, I saw that going into 3rd gear probably wasn't going to happen unless the rpm was kept pretty high so I drove out of the burnout and staged (this was in time trials for a regular night of bracket racing) and when I launched, it broke a motor mount! That pretty much told me that these old and 'dried' up tires became soft and had bite when hot lol. Don't think I'd do that with an old steel belted radial though.

6 years = new tires for me. Ask any major tire supplier, they can not sell a tire that is 6 years old

I won't accept a new tire from a dealer that's older than 6 months! If they won't service them once they are 6 years old, then I want my tires to be as fresh as possible when I buy them. Crazy part is they wouldn't touch the tires on my garden tractor and they are not even DOT's!!! I wanted tubes to be put into them because of leakage.

Now you have to replace all your tires after 6 years no matter what, 99% tread, replace them, no dry rot whatsoever, replace them. Has got to be one of the biggest scams of the century considering it never use to be that way.

Well, the big box tire retailers don't want to touch them but some won't bother to check while others will but there's plenty of private shops that don't care how old they are.

 

[YY1]

My $500 tire changer is only getting more valuable every time I use it.

 

[Cranky]

My $500 tire changer is only getting more valuable every time I use it.

Wish I hadn't sold my manual machine! Problem is just trying to pick up anything more than 40 lbs makes my back complain.....heck it's getting where it ******* for a couple of days after picking up 30 lbs!

 

[streetmachine]

Also, just wanted to remind everyone here that Cooper is now owned by Goodyear and I believe only a couple of sizes are made in the USA with the rest elsewhere. Also, BFGoodrich is owned by Michelin which has a history of premature dry rot (weathering). My understanding is that in the later 2000s something was changed in the rubber compound to make tires more environmentally friendly plus probably a change in other materials as well.

 

[Budnicks]

disclaimer;
not to say the issue isn't real, I'm sure it is
I see posts by members I really trust & respect
But;
there must be a common denominator on why this is happing
condition or storage lack of usage, flat-spotted, weathered/cracked etc.
(I don't know all the details of all of them)
other than "the brand is **** or the tires are junk"

I've had BFGs & by the way they are owned & produced by Michelin,
1990 acquired Uniroyal & Goodrich Tire co. not Coker
Coker has licensed rights to specific styles they reproduce,
they don't own BFG

Had them on all my streetcars & sports cars,
I've never any issue ever since like 1975, now 47-year track record
(hope I didn't Jynx myself)
I do know about the casing age deal too,
I've pushed it way beyond 6-7 years
even kept out of the weather & in a garage always
all tires have a shelf life,
no matter what brand



Worst luck I've had was;
Good Years on my Dakota 4x4
& Firestones that were on the F350 4x4 Dually Diesel
OE installed org. tires (both are ******* junk)

(I have had decent luck with Good Year Slicks & older Firestone slicks
I use to run a lot of M&H way back when
I prefer M/T or Hoosier now, depending on the compounds or size
Whether I'm racing on the asphalt or on concrete too
& unless you buy 'a race tire', from either of them, they take
more care/attention & are hand made & they have shelf lives too
unfortunately, some NHRA classes have 'a spec tires' & require Good Years)

By the way also Mickey Thompson are made by Good Year Tire co

I have Open Country (made by Toyo & Nitto) from Les Schwabb
32x11.5" on my 99 Dakota
Japanese-owned Mother co. distributed/mfg's in US, Mexico & Canada
the POS G-Ys didn't last 19,000, started ballooning,
or showing belts on the sidewalls & they wore like ****,
I have 41,000+ on these O-Cs & still have 1/2 the tread
great traction snow & mud, they ain't cheap either...

No cracks, no discolorations, no bubbles,
no belts/band showing on the side walls
& no funky cupping BS
I had with the Coopers, Good Years or Firestones on other rigs

I check all my tires for cracks, I rotate them regularly
from side to side or front to back X patterns 'when applicable'
(hard to do with bigs & littles thou)
& keep on top of the air pressures constantly
especially if you live in an area that has huge temp swings
between seasons or high humidity
driving around on underinflated tires will break them down/overheat them
& cause 99% of the issues we hear about
tires just can't sit forever, they need to be driven
& kept cycles going, keep them pliable, not flat spotted
the more they sit
the more prone they are 'for/to failure'
no matter who's brand

I had horrible luck with Coopers, on both my F350
(it eats tires, it's a Ford 4x4, they always have)
& a few DD type cars, Lisa's old Toyota Supra, my son's Eclipse
the daughters Toyota 4x4 & others, had quite the fleet

by the way;
Coopers are now owned & produced by & in Hangzhou, China
(no longer a USA company, very few are made in Ohio now)
most all their Truck tires are made in China too

I swore to never buy another Cooper branded tire, ever

your results may vary



my $1.25

 

[wahya]

No letters turning brown here(someday I’ll wash em). Just went out to the garage and looked, 44th week of 2019?. I will not buy a tire that is over 5 months old, so they have to have been on the car for over 2 years. I would had guessed at a year, time flies.
When I put these tires on,I was going to use one of the tires that I took off for a spare. Tire man wouldn’t do it, because they were over 5 years old. Company won’t allow it because of liability issues.

 

[Cranky]

No letters turning brown here(someday I’ll wash em). Just went out to the garage and looked, 44th week of 2019?. I will not buy a tire that is over 5 months old, so they have to have been on the car for over 2 years. I would had guessed at a year, time flies.
When I put these tires on,I was going to use one of the tires that I took off for a spare. Tire man wouldn’t do it, because they were over 5 years old. Company won’t allow it because of liability issues.View attachment 1280080

You can ask for your tire though....after all, it's yours and it's not hard to mount one yourself with simple tire tools. Automotive tires are actually easier to mount than motorcycle tires are!! I have a few non corporate tire stores near me and they will mount them. It's been several years but I even got a local corporate store to give me a set of take offs that were within range of the 6 year mark. Told them I had a car in storage and the tires on it were leaking and needed to be able to roll the car out of the storage building from time to time without having to take air tanks with me to get stuff out or put stuff in and didn't want to mess up the car walking by it with big heavy stuff.

 

[Kern Dog]

Now you have to replace all your tires after 6 years no matter what, 99% tread, replace them, no dry rot whatsoever, replace them. Has got to be one of the biggest scams of the century considering it never use to be that way.

I agree. You can’t even get a shop to rebalance old tires even though you’re not dismounting or even clocking the tire on the rim. Because of this, I decided to go with super soft compound with a low treadwear number like
100 to 200. I’d rather wear out the tires than just replace them due to age. In the meantime, these sticky tires corner, brake and grip better than longer wearing 300, 350 and higher number tires.

 

[sam dupont]

The A509 Yokohama street legal race rubber on my Triumph was said to be good for 20,000 miles of restrained driving. I got 6,000 as I couldn't rotate the Revolution wheels that have different offsets front and rear. They were sticky and fun, so I bought another set. Don't know what I will do next time as nobody was making street legal 13" autocross tires the last time I looked.

 

[wahya]

You can ask for your tire though....after all, it's yours and it's not hard to mount one yourself with simple tire tools. Automotive tires are actually easier to mount than motorcycle tires are!! I have a few non corporate tire stores near me and they will mount them. It's been several years but I even got a local corporate store to give me a set of take offs that were within range of the 6 year mark. Told them I had a car in storage and the tires on it were leaking and needed to be able to roll the car out of the storage building from time to time without having to take air tanks with me to get stuff out or put stuff in and didn't want to mess up the car walking by it with big heavy stuff.

I feel less likely to mount my own tires now then I did 2years ago.
Wife was driving motorhome a couple of months ago and had a blowout on steering axle tire. We had just got off the interstate and on a lower speed road when it blew. Had some “expert” tell me that it was caused by low air pressure and sidewall flex. I told him bs, that tire blew like somebody fired a shotgun from under the coach. The darker areas is from driving safely over to parking lane after blowout. She did a great job of controlling it to get off the road.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

I am not saying that anyone else needs to replace their tires at 6 years. That is just my personal preference. I drive my van 65K a year so the tires on that get replaced often, my pick u on the other hand is about 3-5K a year so they have 18-30K on them when I replace them. A set of tire is less expensive to me them damage from a tire that comes a part on the highway.

 

[sam dupont]

The A509 Yokohama street legal race rubber on my Triumph was said to be good for 20,000 miles of restrained driving. I got 6,000 as I couldn't rotate the Revolution wheels that have different offsets front and rear. They were sticky and fun, so I bought another set. Don't know what I will do next time as nobody was making street legal 13" autocross tires the last time I looked.

Found some and they look hot:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tyt-103180

 

[33 IMP]

You can ask for your tire though....after all, it's yours and it's not hard to mount one yourself with simple tire tools. Automotive tires are actually easier to mount than motorcycle tires are!! I have a few non corporate tire stores near me and they will mount them. It's been several years but I even got a local corporate store to give me a set of take offs that were within range of the 6 year mark. Told them I had a car in storage and the tires on it were leaking and needed to be able to roll the car out of the storage building from time to time without having to take air tanks with me to get stuff out or put stuff in and didn't want to mess up the car walking by it with big heavy stuff.

Found some and they look hot:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tyt-103180

Not in stock......

 

[moparedtn]

I just looked up the two sizes of BF Goodrich I run on Fred:
225/70/15
275/60/15
Both these particular tires are manufactured in Mexico.

If you go to tirerack.com and look at the specs for a given tire, it will tell you the country of origin.

EDIT: I just checked the same sizes in Cooper Cobra Radial GT.
Guess what? Same country of origin as the BFG's.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/Tire...&rearRatio=60&rearDiameter=15&performance=ALL

 

[cosgig]

Get ready for some sticker shock when buying tires post Covid. Just priced some tires for Nellas van, over $1100! And tires for the travel trailer? $750. I need both sets in the next 5 weeks, and that’s not including tires for 2 of my classics. Gonna be a tire buying year for me I guess, to the tune of about $4k

 

[Slap Stick]

disclaimer;
not to say the issue isn't real, I'm sure it is
I see posts by members I really trust & respect
But;
there must be a common denominator on why this is happing
condition or storage lack of usage, flat-spotted, weathered/cracked etc.
(I don't know all the details of all of them)
other than "the brand is **** or the tires are junk"

I've had BFGs & by the way they are owned & produced by Michelin,
1990 acquired Uniroyal & Goodrich Tire co. not Coker
Coker has licensed rights to specific styles they reproduce,
they don't own BFG

Had them on all my streetcars & sports cars,
I've never any issue ever since like 1975, now 47-year track record
(hope I didn't Jynx myself)
I do know about the casing age deal too,
I've pushed it way beyond 6-7 years
even kept out of the weather & in a garage always
all tires have a shelf life,
no matter what brand



Worst luck I've had was;
Good Years on my Dakota 4x4
& Firestones that were on the F350 4x4 Dually Diesel
OE installed org. tires (both are ******* junk)

(I have had decent luck with Good Year Slicks & older Firestone slicks
I use to run a lot of M&H way back when
I prefer M/T or Hoosier now, depending on the compounds or size
Whether I'm racing on the asphalt or on concrete too
& unless you buy 'a race tire', from either of them, they take
more care/attention & are hand made & they have shelf lives too
unfortunately, some NHRA classes have 'a spec tires' & require Good Years)

By the way also Mickey Thompson are made by Good Year Tire co

I have Open Country (made by Toyo & Nitto) from Les Schwabb
32x11.5" on my 99 Dakota
Japanese-owned Mother co. distributed/mfg's in US, Mexico & Canada
the POS G-Ys didn't last 19,000, started ballooning,
or showing belts on the sidewalls & they wore like ****,
I have 41,000+ on these O-Cs & still have 1/2 the tread
great traction snow & mud, they ain't cheap either...

No cracks, no discolorations, no bubbles,
no belts/band showing on the side walls
& no funky cupping BS
I had with the Coopers, Good Years or Firestones on other rigs

I check all my tires for cracks, I rotate them regularly
from side to side or front to back X patterns 'when applicable'
(hard to do with bigs & littles thou)
& keep on top of the air pressures constantly
especially if you live in an area that has huge temp swings
between seasons or high humidity
driving around on underinflated tires will break them down/overheat them
& cause 99% of the issues we hear about
tires just can't sit forever, they need to be driven
& kept cycles going, keep them pliable, not flat spotted
the more they sit
the more prone they are 'for/to failure'
no matter who's brand

I had horrible luck with Coopers, on both my F350
(it eats tires, it's a Ford 4x4, they always have)
& a few DD type cars, Lisa's old Toyota Supra, my son's Eclipse
the daughters Toyota 4x4 & others, had quite the fleet

by the way;
Coopers are now owned & produced by & in Hangzhou, China
(no longer a USA company, very few are made in Ohio now)
most all their Truck tires are made in China too

I swore to never buy another Cooper branded tire, ever

your results may vary



my $1.25



View attachment 1280084

Btw, Cooper has NEVER been owned by the Chinese. They entered into partnerships and eventually bought one tire company. They were in a partnership in Mexico and eventually became full owners. Mickey Thompson was a Cooper brand until Goodyear bought Cooper in June 2021.