Tires look brand new, but are 11 years old. Keep or discard?

[WM75Guy]

I keep track of tire age on my vehicles and trailers. I tend to err on the side of caution. If it were my truck, it would get new tires. Here is the Discount Tires position, which I where I get my tires. They would not service them. And yes, I have replaced tires based on age that looked brand new, such as spares which never hit the ground.

 

[jyoutz]

5 years? Sheesh, I bet 1/2 the country's vehicles are riding on tires over 5 years old.
Another step towards “the wussification of America”

I have tires older than that on my truck and my stock trailer. I was mistaken. It’s 6 years on the date code where most tire shops recommend replacement.

 

[deserteagle71]

I bought a bumper-pull 14k trailer in 1997 I think. Still on the original tires today. Very few miles on the trailer - tread looks like the tires are brand new. Trailer is stored in my pole barn so not exposed to sunlight or to any fumes of any sort. Every time I hook on to it and pull it out of the barn I check the tires very carefully for any signs of deterioration. So far no sign of aging at all so until I see cracking or something like that I'm going to keep using those tires. Goodyear brand...but I don't remember the exact model.

 

[jmc]

I've had the entire tread come off of one tire of my empty, dual axle dump trailer. Maybe 1500 miles on it, max. But 20 years old! Stored inside on concrete 99.9% of the time.

 

[not2old]

I recently purchased a new to me 2011 travel trailer with the original tires where the tread looked like new. One tire had very minor cracks in the side wall near the bead and I've replaced them, keeping the spare. I've heard too many stories of people losing a tire while far from home and can't easily find a replacement. A few years ago I was ignoring the age if the tire looked good and lost a large chunk of the tread on tires I had bought used, ten years previously. I felt the bumping, got out and looked at all tires, truck and trailer. All looked good so I continued on my way, thinking I had a spark plug problem, jerking the truck. After another few miles at 60 MPH, I looked again to see the missing chunk but still holding air. Don't want to repeat that experience. My plan now is to run the new tires for about five years and then find a buyer for them to subsidize the purchase of new ones.

 

[plowhog]

Not sure where you are coming up with that price . . . $500 each should be easy to find ...

I'm talking with potential buyers. I am getting a *LOT* of feedback from truck operators that they won't touch my 11 year old tires with a 10 foot pole. They want me to replace them, or credit them so they can get it done. Some are worried of personal liability if they were hauling a load, blew out an 11-year old tire, and caused an accident.

Still curious-- if I replace them-- is there some other use for them? Kind of hard to sell a "set" of tires to use as a spare, but I'd be OK having one of these as a spare on my truck. Any other ideas?