I needed a tire to mount so I could roll a car around my shop. All I could find was a new tire wrapped in plastic that was in the trunk of my 65 Special I bought in 2004. This tire had never been on the ground, zero miles. I was mounting it, the bead popped and 2 seconds later it exploded. Luckily, the side that exploded was facing down on the tire machine. The building shook, people 100 ft away came running to see if I was OK.
Glad you're ok. I would have tried it, too...I'd expect a road failure, not a failure like that! I think too many folks judge tires by appearance. This another good reminder not to. Devon
Tires are safe 5-6 years, driven or not. After that you're rolling dice and the odds stack exponentially against you beyond that time. Back in my US of Air Force days, I was tasked with WRSK "Wartime Readiness Spares Kit" logistics, inspection and rotation duties. We kept "Spares Kits" (OK, we hoarded parts like every guy does or wants to...) but those parts age. Many aircraft parts are time change (set calendar days) or hourly (cycles, hours used, etc.) and that applies to parts in inventory. You can't just grab some NOS part, attach it to the jet and send it. So, tires were one of those things we rotated out of "Spares Kits" and replenished Talk about a lot of extra effort in the background, to keep all of it up to speed. But tires were a biggy, in that old tires failed and often got a lot of attention when they went boom. You can be lucky, but that does not mean smart or thrifty. The cost of pushing what you can't see being dangerous, is beyond any savings being lucky. No one should ever shame anyone trying to be safer.
It hurts to trash a tire full of tread but we have to do it if they get old. One last burnout and off they come. Cliff
I was in a shop once when one let go (was in a cage). Everyone there must've been used to it - Nobody flinched but damn it was loud. Knew a truck driver that got pretty messed up just from the shock wave airing up one of his trailer tires and the sidewall zippered. Airing commercial (i.e. steel sidewall) tires that have been run low on air is extremely dangerous no matter how old they are!
I must be on borrowed time. Between cars and boat trailers I must have 50 old tires. I asked my tire guy who is over 70 and has been doing tires for 50 years daily and he said he has never had one blow. He does all my old tires but mainly dismounting. He puckered some mounting an 80psi used truck tire the other day....took all of 80 to seat the bead......
One blew in a service station bay I was working in back in 1967, really loud. Best I remember about it, wrong size tire on a smaller rim. It was on the tire changer at the time and I believe it was a 16.5” truck tire on a 16” rim. Not sure about the tire size, but very sure about the noise.
I have noticed that my name brand tires (Goodyear, Michelin, Firestone) look fine, even at 20+ years old but the tires I have that were made outside the USA (name brands that are unfamiliar to any of us) are showing severe aging as early as 4 or 5 years old. I acquired an open trailer recently and the 6-year-old tires are dry rotted to the point that you would think that they are 25-years-old.
Local HD truck / tractor tire shop OK'd my old tires for use. They dismounted 'em, cleaned the rims, put in all new tubes & flaps. They're 10-ply, but they are old enough to preceed date coding (1972). I once manually cut 2 of these off some spare rims, it was an exhausting nightmare to simply cross-cut thru them- I think it took me 2 hrs ea. Modern passenger car tires get 'ply ratings, but they're merely 'equivalent strength ratings'; not indicative of actual plys. I kept a chunk of the tires I sawed thru- you can see the 10 nylon plies. I've only driven the truck 3 times on residential roads - it's a bear to drive without PS, plus I'm putting it on the market this summer.
I'm guessing 95 since 4 matching sitre were on the car when I bought it. Usually the bead set about 20 PSI, it was a few seconds after that so I'm guessing 25 or so. There was no fire or smoke, it was over by then. I was in the pits at Laneland speedway and one of our guys was helping the team next to us by taking a wheel over to the Hoosier trailer to have atire mounted. It exploded and killed him. I guess that's why it scared me so much. When I fill old tires on a car, I try to make sure some sheet metal is between my head and the tire so only my hand is exposed.
Youtube tire failures. They can easily cause loss of life. If you hear the velcro noise when filling a tire, run for your life! Lots of tire chucks for big trucks are locking and have a long hose for a reason. @Dano is correct- any tire that has been driven on while low is very dangerous, especially an HD tire.
