Spare a thought for your Tires....

Gareth from Waikanae

It's a bit long.... Sorry 'bout that.
FYI.... I am not selling anything and am not associated with anyone selling anything.

This is for safety information only and it is up to you what you do with it.

Something that we rarely give any thought to are Tire on our vehicles.Sure the tread depth gets measured at WoF time and if it's above the legal limit they get forgotten about 'till next WoF.
But the checking really needs to go deeper than that.

What most people never think about is that with a car you only have 4 small areas, each not much bigger than the palm of your hand, that are in contact with the road that have to do all the work of accelerating, braking, steering, cornering etc in the dry and in the wet.

Check them out and see if there is a series of tiny cracks in the side wall (see photo).
If there are then it's more than time to think about replacing it.
Even a tire that has never been run can reach this state as rubber drying out is a time dependent thing as well as a usage thing.

All tires have a manufacture Date Code on them and although there is no law against running older tires as long as the tread is legal it is generally reckoned that at around 5-6 years they should be replaced. If the date code (see photo) is 0116 or older (week 1 of 2016) you should seriously think of replacing them.
Sometimes the date code is on one side only so if you can't see it ask at your next WoF if they can tell you how old it is.

Several things occur as a tire gets older which cause the tire to become less useful as it ages. Firstly, the process of vulcanization which gives the tire it's elastic properties and strength continues as the tire is exposed to movement, light and heat. The consequence of this is that the tire becomes increasingly hard and stiff as it ages.

Regardless of tire age, you should not use tires if they are showing signs of bulging or cracking in either the sidewall or tread.

Before you buy a new tire check (or ask) the date code. There is little point paying premium price for a 2 year old 'New' tire, you need a tire manufactured within the last 6 months (9 months at the outside).

Since 2000 the date code has been 4 digits, the first 2 are the Week Number and the last two are the year Code... i.e. 3819 is week 38 of 2019.
The old numbers were 3 digits like 418 which was week 41 of either 1978, 1988, 1998 no way to actually tell the exact year.

It is entirely up to you what you do with this information I am just pointing it out to you in case you were not aware of it.

The last photo is the state of a tire on a car that the Derbyshire police stopped in the UK with a mother driving her children around on it....

I got quite passionate about educating myself on tires after having a rear near side tire blow out while going round a roundabout in a rag-top MGB when I was 20 and living in the UK. I am lucky to be alive as if it had have skidded and hit the curb and flipped over I would have been crushed, and it was very hard to control and bring to a stop in a safe place, probably lucky it was past midnight and very few cars on the road.

As I said, it is up to you what you do with this information and I am selling nothing and am not associated with anyone selling anything.

I hope someone finds this useful.