Shelf Life of [Spare] Tires?

wrote:


But if the tires will go a few years longer by limiting their exposure
to UV, it's a different story. Rotating the three tires through the
spare position every year, for example, means that no single tire would
have more than six years in the weather/sun until the ninth year of
service. Based on my experience, sidewall cracking is related to
exposure on the axle.

RV owners frequently put tire covers on their vehicles tires, since they
often sit for months at time. This would work for many glider pilots,
and eliminate the need to rotate tires.

Whether we should be running a tire after nine years is the subject of
my original question, of course.

I don't have this answer, either. Personally, I'd be willing to have a
10+ year old spare that was in visually good condition, with the
expectation that if I had to use it, it would be at moderate speeds just
long enough to get to the nearest tire dealer for a new tire.


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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

I don't have this answer, either. Personally, I'd be willing to have a
10+ year old spare that was in visually good condition, with the
expectation that if I had to use it, it would be at moderate speeds just
long enough to get to the nearest tire dealer for a new tire.

Yeah, Eric. That's how I got to this point. The spare looks like new,
worked fine all the way home for four hundred miles even at
not-so-moderate speeds, and now I'm looking at it saying, "hey, do I
really need to replace it?"

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"