Tires And The Sun

[Lew Silverman]

The truth is that ALL tires have a recommended "service life", no matter what they are installed on (or hanging from a garage wall!). The suggested life of a trailer tire is 6-7 years from the date of manufacture, whether or not the tread-depth indicators are showing. Sunlight accelerates the affects of chemicals in the air, mostly Ozone, from decomposing the rubber of the tire, which is why vehicles that don't see much use have their tires covered when not being used. One less chance for the tires to be damaged by natural causes.


Passenger and light truck tires have about a 10 year service life, depending on the manufacturers recommendations. I've replaced tires on vehicles after 10 years that looked like they could've lasted twice as long (based on physical condition), and had to remove others that had noticeable deterioration after only 5 years. That's why proper air-pressure, balancing and periodic tire rotation is so important. Bottom-line is to buy the best tires you can afford and maintain them properly.

[Myron Piatek]

I had a 16" trailer tire that was stored either inside the trailer or in a garage and was 6-7 years old before it was ever "used". It "looked" perfect. But when I did use it as a spare, the entire tread peeled off of it like a banana before it had 2,000 miles on it! Luckily it still kept full inflation pressure and rode on the steel belts because I had to drive several more miles before I found a place to pull off to change it.

[lorenr]

Lew

Everything I've learned about tires over the years is exactly what you just said.

Additionally, rubber deteriorates naturally and I suspect that it has to do with the way synthetic rubber is made.
Synthetic rubber also does not get along well with steel tire belts and if the belts should get wet because of tire cracks, well, good luck. The cracks just allow more oxygen (ozone is a serious corrosive) and moisture to mix in the rubber.

Loren

[Todd Gross]

I had bought a new three axle trailer in 07. The down turn hit and racing for me stopped. My trailer maybe had 2000 miles on it, if lucky. It sat parked, outside, at a friends place for years. I would pick it up at least once a year to clean and pamper the poor forgotten thing then put it back away.
After about five years of watching it age I decided to sell it. Going over things before delivering I noticed the 3 right side tires were cracked severely. The three lefts looked absolutely flawless. The difference was the right side had constant exposure to the sun. The left side was up against a building, shading it from the sun.
I replaced the three on the right before selling , but advised that the lefts had age.

[Jeff Stout]

Nitrogen filled trailer tires have helped in reducing higher tire temperature when traveling. Taking care of inside of tire may help as much as taking care of outside of tire. I felt leaving trailer in place and weighted down plays a part on tire fatigue in the area thats holding the load. Bottom of tire and constant sidewall stretching becomes damaged over time.

[Eman]

2 weeks ago we heard a huge BOOM and it took a minute to figure out what it was. My always covered spare tire mounted on the frt. of my trailer blew out. I hadn't ck'd the air in it since the end of last year so it wasn't overinflated. This was a 16" 10 ply Chinese tire. I don't know how old it was but I'd say age is what the problem was.