Tire Cracks?!

[Muchee]

Hi everyone!
Are these alright? They’ve been sitting for 6 years while I’ve been doing my conversion and I’m now ready to drive it across country. When I bought the bus they had all been replaced the prior year. I live in Savannah GA so they summer sun gets to be pretty intense. Could these cracks be only cosmetic or dangerous dry rot?
Thanks

[cadillackid]

looks like tires that got curbed quite a bit... you can look at the DOT dates on the tires t overify they are truly as new as they say...



I dont like any cracks in tires.. each has their own opinion but cracks in tires to me spells possible issues with them..

[Booyah45828]

We always go by the fingernail rule in the shop. If you can catch a crack with your fingernail, they need replaced.

Like chris said, check the date, as new tires might actually be retreads on an old casing.

Also, your first picture shows a tires that's a prime candidate for a delamination issue fwiw.

If this thing was just local usage, I'd likely not fret about it. But with a cross country trip in the future, I'd be cautious and replace them.

[Sehnsucht]

I wouldn't go further than your local tire shop on those! The fact is many of us advocate checking the quality and date of manufacture on the tires of a potential bus purchase but apart from the maiden voyage home (which I understand can often be a nationwide trip in itself) many of these buses sit for years before their first official road trip. For that reason, it doesn't make sense to invest in tires at the beginning of the conversion but it absolutely makes sense to invest in tires as soon as you're ready to travel in earnest.

If you absolutely want to get the last possible mile out of these I'd at least suggest purchasing your new set of tires and taking them with you. Then when you breakdown on the side of the road and have roadside assistance called out, you'll already have all the spares you need. Saves buying their brand at their prices and with any luck one roadside service call will be all it takes. I only advocate this if you actually HAVE roadside assistance coverage because those rates are not cheap! And to be clear I'm not advocating this approach at all but it's your life riding on those tires. Please just be sure to steer away from the other vehicles when you have a catastrophic blowout at highway speed.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Sehnsucht

I wouldn't go further than your local tire shop on those! The fact is many of us advocate checking the quality and date of manufacture on the tires of a potential bus purchase but apart from the maiden voyage home (which I understand can often be a nationwide trip in itself) many of these buses sit for years before their first official road trip. For that reason, it doesn't make sense to invest in tires at the beginning of the conversion but it absolutely makes sense to invest in tires as soon as you're ready to travel in earnest.

If you absolutely want to get the last possible mile out of these I'd at least suggest purchasing your new set of tires and taking them with you. Then when you breakdown on the side of the road and have roadside assistance called out, you'll already have all the spares you need. Saves buying their brand at their prices and with any luck one roadside service call will be all it takes. I only advocate this if you actually HAVE roadside assistance coverage because those rates are not cheap! And to be clear I'm not advocating this approach at all but it's your life riding on those tires. Please just be sure to steer away from the other vehicles when you have a catastrophic blowout at highway speed.

sometimes tires that have sat for awhile get worse really fast... the tires in my DEV bus didnt look bad but after i put 1000 miles on tem to get home some of them were looking pretty bad! since my go-to-road time was pretty much bought my bus and started driving it.. I went for a set of 6 right away!.. that was almost 7 years ago and havent had an issue 1 with tires

[mmoore6856]

armor all helps prevent this as wheel covers do too however im betting that the tire in the pic is a recap. look for a tag of rubber glued on the side or 2 sets of stamped numbers. everytime a tire is recapped they must affix or stamp a number telling who did it and when . the numbers will indicate week of the year and what year. just like the tires original dot number