tnt76vette

I was about 80 miles from home this weekend when I had a tire separate on me on I-75 going about 75-80 mph. Much more excitement than I planned on! Got it hauled down, put on the spare, went to the nearest tire store and bought 4 new White Letter Dayton Daytonas. Figured if one went they were all close to blowing out. The BFGs that came off were indeed old but still had LOTS of tread left. Check Your Tires Guys! Tread wear isnt the only factor in determining tire safety. :cheers:

mvftw

I had Dunlops that were G-60-15...tell me about old.:eek: I just replaced them with a set of Yoko's 255-60-15 :D


[Modified by mvftw, 7:00 PM 8/18/2003]

My69

Glad your alright. That can be an unnerving experience at any speed. :thumbs:

Mike

page62

Thank you for mentioning that. Old tires are MORE dangerous than bald tires :eek: The rubber compounds tend to degrade and dry out over time. If your tires are more than 6 years old and you drive the car at speed...hey, c'mon tires in our sizes are cheap! :cheers:

Alwyn678

I just replaced mine they were 7 years old......I burned them off proper before putting the new BFG/s


[Modified by Alwyn678, 7:41 PM 8/18/2003]

Les

Glad you & your Vette survived intact! Your point is well taken.
mvftw,
I've has a set of the Yokohamas for a few months now & have been very happy w/ the handling. How do you like yours?

The Money Pit

I budget for tires every 2 years need em or not. In most cases I need them.

PRNDL

Good reminder. When I bought my car it had raised white letter Eagle GTs, decent tread. When I checked the dates there was a last digit only, so I couldnt tell if they were from the 70s or the 80s :lol: (Definitely NOT original tires, tho) either way, I said time to replace - I now have BFG H rated T/As.
MJ

Riceater

something similar happened to my driver side rear tire couple of weeks ago on the way to Detroit Metro. Didn't realize it until i got home and had a flat tire with steel belts showing. They were well worn Goodyears, but i thought i had a few more miles in em.

We won't discuss the lack of tools or air in the spare. :crazy:

Dwayne 76

Is there a date printed on tires? I hae BFG's and don't know what age they are.

Corvette ED

I have T/A's that are good but don't know how old they are. I also have 4 original Goodyear Steel Guard raised white letters that were spares in four different cars. The tires were never on the ground and were original equipment on 73-75 Corvettes.

I had thought about using them on my car to make it look original, but I am afraid they will blow out because of age.

ddecart

Ouch Tom! Any damage to the Vette? Hope not.

Any idea how old they were?

SharkAttack

I had a BFG Radial T/A separate on me and damage the right front fender of my first Vette. The tire was only one year old, so needless to day, I wrote BFG a stern letter and they promptly paid for everything. :cuss

74-Roadster

Sorry to hear that. :eek: Makes me feel better about my new tires. I looked my car over for 4 hours before I bought the car. Then I drove it about 400 miles. Two days later I was loking through the rceipts and didn't find one on the tires. I e:mailed the previous owner and he said he'd never replaced the tires, so mine were 1983 vintage. I bought new ones that week, now I know I made a good decision.

Thanks for sharing! :seeya

PRNDL

There are several websites that help you "decode" all the numbers/letters that are on your tires. I can't remember the details, but there is a code that tells you if the tires were original equipment or replacement tires, and there is a digit that represents the year of manufacture - the problem I had was the digit was 8. I was quite sure it wasn't 1998, but not sure if it was 1988 or 1978!! Check around. I believe Tirerack has some of the info, but there are other websites as well. :) MJ

Buffalo Dude

My tires were as old as I am. Replaced them as soon as I found a chunk missing out of one of them :eek:

Got brand new BFG Radial T/As :yesnod:

DMONSVETTE

Thanks for the word of advice, I had better stop stalling on buying new tires.
I just can't decide what rims to put on and who to buy them from and what size.
:confused: :nopity :seeya

RJR99SS

my one buddy had a 74 vette that he bought new. It only has about 3000 miles on it currently i think. Mainly because he just keeps it in his garage and polishes it every now and then.

Anyway he'd always brag about how he still had the original tires on it, he'd spray it with that silicon junk that makes them look all shiney, but i believe it damages the sidewall rubber (and makes it real fun to handle the tire if you ever take them off).

I told him to get some new tires on that thing, i dont think 25 year old bias ply tires are very safe, but he knows everything and all. So one day he went crazy and actually drove the vette, The funniest thing is that both his rear tires basically disitigrated right in front of my house, cause as he was going by he floored it to show me up.

Since then the vette has just sat in the garage for about 5 years now, i dont think its even been started.

68shark

Glad you're ok tnt....agree though with your post. My tires were very old, but still had ok tread. My brand new tires feel so much grippier (both old and new are BFG TA's) and smoother riding. I figure I'll replace them in five years, no matter how much tread is left. :cheers:

battsup

Why would anybody store a 74 vette :crazy: Its never gonna be worth the 30 years of wasted floor space with nothing to show for it. JMO