Car Trailer Tires

DocFiberglass said

An old-school tire-guy up-here told me the reason why many of these tires self-destruct is that they do not use natural-rubber like they used to.

I have a set of O L D nylon tires on one of my motorhomes that I am REdoing .... there is ZERO sidewall "damage" or cracking. The tires were put on in the late 70's or early 80's.

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You can't go by appearance. I had a new, never used, 8 year old E-rated 16" trailer tire that was stored in a garage or inside the trailer. It looked perfectly "new"! But when I did use it after I had a flat, that "new looking" tire lost it's tread down to the steel belts after less than 2,000 miles.

Things are made "cheaper" these days, but the DOT does have tests that need to be passed. But either way, tires do have a limited "shelf-life".