Sorry if its a re-post, saw this on the Viper truck forum, figured i would pass it along...

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

 

Had not seen that before. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks MUTT, a real eye opener. Just goes to show, you learn something every day, especially on the Crossfire Forum.

 

I have seen this happen, but thankfully on my trailers, not my trucks. A tire on a trailer sees much slower treadwear than on a car or truck, so they stay in service much longer. I am so glad you posted this, as I had no idea how to read the code on the sidewall. Watch the entire video, everyone. The info about the code is near the end of the video.

 

Very shocking... thanks for posting the link.

 

Thanks for the infor. I had no idea and will check the tires I own and ones I buy in the future.

 

Thank for the info. I will be checking my tires in a few minutes.

 

Thanks for the great info!

Also will be checking my tires.

 

Just saw this story on the today show last week.
Good info to know for sure.
Buyer beware.
I wonder if www.tirerack.com can assure that they are selling NEW tires ??

 

Better safe than sorry but I don't totally buy it.
Checking your tires and fluids every fill up is still the safest way.
Just like it was 30 years ago.
If you are going to use a heavy piece of equipment like a car you should learn to safety check it.

 

Rear...............4207 bought from Tiire Kingdom 6 months ago
fronts.............5105 Bought used on Ebay 80% tread when purchased 3 months ago

Got lucky w/ the Fronts

 

The Goodyear A/S F1's I just bought are both dated '08, whew......
The company I work for owns 7 tire & service centers (& since I get a discount guess where I bought them).....I'll have to ask the tire guys just what our policy is on old tires.
I'll let you folks know!

 

same applies to car batteries too.. first digit is month, second is year i.e, "A6" january 2006

 

Excellent information. Both fronts and rears are less than 2 years old. I KNOW I'll wear them out before another year.

This thread should be a sticky!

 

I emailed one of our tire guys & his response is below (spelling errors & his name edited).
I did rewatch the video & noticed that the tire carcasses that they pointed out on the shoulders of the roads all appear to be retread casings probably from semi's. You will hardly ever see any passenger car tire treads lying on the roads.
Here's his response:

Hi there,

Gotta love the news!
The RMA (Rubber Manufacturers Association) has stated that there are no documented accidents because of tire age. The are too many variables to make a blanket statement that tires are too old at 6 years. (Kurts here: I disagree, if there's a chance that my old tire might come apart when I'm passing a truck count me as being concerned!)

As a company we have about 2 tires that would fall into this category when we transitioned the sale of Distribution (Kurts again, we recently sold our tire distribution biz. We were starting to get squeezed from some of the jumbo tire distributors & this part of the business just wasn't as profitable anymore)…I threw away 2 tires that I felt were too old). We turn our inventory too many times to end up with tires this old. A couple of the obsolete/discontinued tires might fall into this category.

USAF…the company we now purchase our tires from have a corporate policy of not selling tires that are more than 3 years old.

There are companies out there that have inventories that are so deep they could never move them quick enough and might end up with old stuff.

For our part, I don’t see any problems with however this ends up in the future.

Xxxxx Xxxx
Team Leader/Advisor
Xxxx Xxxxxxx Companies
phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx, fax: xxx-xxx-xxxx


Good morning, Xxxxx!
A question: I saw an ABC News blurb a few days ago pointing out the danger of driving on old-sold-as-new tires – those that are 6 years old & older. Evidently, in the U.K., their tire lobby has strongly recommended that all tires 6 years old or older NOT be sold to the public. Somewhere here in the states a gentleman whose daughter was killed in an auto accident & was driving on newly purchased ‘old’ tires successfully sued the tire dealer & the tire manufacturer (Goodrich).
What’s TSC’s policy for old tires? Do we keep them & try to sell them or do we return them?
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4988518


Kurt Xxxxxxxx
System Support Specialist
Xxxx Xxxxxxxx Companies
phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx x362 x400, fax: xxx-xxx-xxxx

 

I've been posting this stuff while at work (& my co-partner in IT is off today) so I didn't have the chance to add my own thoughts on this.
I would think that places like Tire Rack move enough tires that this shouldn't be an issue for our cars BUT, like anything else, knowledge is power. At least we can all be aware of what to look for & raise holy heck if we get sold old product! I know I've brushed 130+ several times & I want to be reasonably assured that my tires aren't going to blow up while I'm doing it!!!

 

This is some good info to have and now poses new questions to ask of those selling tires on E-bay

 

Thanks for the info. After seeing the news story I had to check the 08 xfire tires. Conti's made in 3707 car born on 10/31/07. Now I am on a mission to check all tires on all of the family cars kids included.