How do you tell the age of a tyre?

[Surfer]

I have a Lunar Lexon 640 bought new on the 03/01/2005. The tyres are GTR 378s. I have looked for the 4 digit code to verify the age of the tyres and after the DOT lettering there is a number 2001. Surely this does not mean that the tyres were made in week 20 of 2001? If it does, I am astounded that they fitted tyres that were 3 years old at time of fitting onto a 2004 caravan. In effect if following the 5 year guideline the tyres should have been replaced 3 years ago or 18 months after we bought the caravan.

Visually the tyres look okay with no signs of cracking. The caravan was permanenently on a seasonal site for 2 and a half years. At the time the tyres were always in the shade. At each servcie the dealer was specifically requested to check the tyres but whether they did or did not is unknown.

It is not that I don't trust dealers, I am extremely wary of what they tell you. Am I looking in the correct area for the age of the tyre, that is just after the DOT name?

 

[Sproket]

Hi Ian

Take a look at this link

http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html
Sproket.

 

[Lutz]

Ian, your guess regarding the date of manufacture of the tyres is correct. 2001 after the DOT means that they were made in week 20 of 2001.

There are several possibilities how such old tyres got on to your 2005 caravan. Either shipping the tyres from Indonesia (where GT Radials are made) took so long, or Lunar had them lying around in the plant for ages before fitting them. Or the caravan had been in stock at the dealer for ages before he sold it to you. The worst possibility of all is that the dealer swapped them before sale, but I hope we can discount such perfidious action.

 

[Surfer]

Thanks. It appears that the tyres fitted to the caravan were over 3 years old when fitted! I have been looking at some Pirelli tyres 165/70 R13 79T 4s, M+S marking at

 

[Lutz]

You may be right that the caravan manufacturer is out of line on this one, but you'd have to prove that it wasn't the dealer first as he is your initial trade partner (2 of the 4 possibilities that I mentioned would have been the dealer's responsibility). Whether the guidelines about tyres being no more than 5 years old have any legal standing is probably questionable unless you specifically mentioned to the dealer that he should check the age at the point of sale, although, here too, it would be difficult to prove if it was only by word of mouth without a witness present.

By the way, why are (were) you looking at having tyres fitted with an M+S marking? Unless you intend to do any winter caravanning, they would not be necessary.

 

[gary]

I spoke to my tyre dealer about age and he's of the opinion tyres have a total 'shelf' life of 15 years! 'shelf' being stored in ideal conditions and not subject to adverse temperatures, sunlight or of course load

I would agree then the total 'used' life should be 5yr or 7yr as an absolute, but, these tyres are only just reaching 5 years of use.

 

[Heethers]

Sprocket good site will inspect my tyres this morning as the van is only six months old, off to Sandringham CC on Friday hope the Tyres are within the six year period, hell to pay if they are not.

NGH

 

[Surfer]

Lutz, we used the caravan in summer and winter. Last winter we hit black ice on one trip and on another we could not town the caravan due to the snow and build up of ice on the road. Then of course you have CLs which under the grass are a bog. The main reason for the tyres was price wise but have now seen others for

 

[Surfer]

The tyre people tell me that 165/70 13 79H are probably normal car tyres and not reinforced as tghe tyre has a laod factor of "79" or 437 kgs. MPLTM of the caravan is 1650 kgs.

Quoted

 

[Lutz]

Lutz, we used the caravan in summer and winter. Last winter we hit black ice on one trip and on another we could not town the caravan due to the snow and build up of ice on the road. Then of course you have CLs which under the grass are a bog. The main reason for the tyres was price wise but have now seen others for

 

[Surfer]

I have come across two sites where both state that tyres should be changed at a maximum of 10 years! See http://www.netatyre.co.uk/tyre-tips.asp and http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/advice/motorvehicles/tyres.htm#aging

This contradicts the British Tyre Manufacturers pdf on tyre safety where they state 5 years!

Who do we believe?

 

[Damian]

Ian, whilst the guidelines on the first link do state that tyres should be replaced at a max of 10 years from date of MANUFACTURE, it also goes on to say the following:

Quote "Vehicle manufacturers may recommend a different chronological age at which a tyre should be replaced based on their understanding of the specific vehicle application; it is recommended that any such instruction be followed. "

As a caravan tyre is subjected to different conditions than a car tyre, it must be safest to stick to the recommended tyre life of 5 years.

 

[Surfer]

Damian, although I am not disagreeing with you, I would be pleased if you could direct me to any caravan manufacturer's site where it recommends that the tyres should be changed after "x" number of years whether the tread is good or not. As a matter fo fact any car manufacturer's web site or service booklet where it refers to the age of the tyre. All the blurbs about 5 years come from CC or a Tyre Manufacturer's Association and not the manufacturers of the vehicles,caravans or trailers!

Anyway, today I have had Trading Standards contact me with reference to the tyres supplied with the caravan and it appears that the manufacturer may have been a bit naughty in fitting tyres over three years old onto a brand new caravan. It has now been referred to their compliance divison for further investigation as basically the tyres should have been between a few weeks and less than a year old at point of sale.

As this is also a H & S issue and being deprived of use, it appears TS are taking a dim view of this transgression! In this instance I can't really fault the dealer as it is unlikely that they checked the age of the tyres either. One would expect to have tyres less than a year old fitted to a brand new caravan.