GTOguy

Regular air is already over 70% Nitrogen, and what about the oxidation to the outside of the tire? I've seen totally externally rotted tires (usually Michelins....they rot in months) with internal carcasses that looked new. Nitrogen in tires is a hype.

tuxnharley

My point was that post 33 referred to INTERNAL oxidation to the butyl rubber liner. Nitrogen does not oxidize things.

Your experience with Michelins is very different than mine. I have been using them for over 50 years and never had a problem with “rotting”. Hardening of the tread rubber yes, any other problems no - even when over 10 years old.

dahogan

Thats great to know, thanks.

MikeM

Since there's no scientific conclusions about dates on tires, what would you do with that little tidbit that you're so thankful for?

The only facts I've seen or personally witnessed in my many experiences with tires over 100's of thousands of miles is, radial tires can/will, suddenly blowout regardles of the date on the sidewall. Doesn't matter if it's a month or ten years or more.

Bias ply, not really. Why don't the tire guys come up with something that is not so unstable in reliability?

dahogan

DansYellow66

The better half made it home OK so here are some pictures finally. Looks like they were made in late Dec of 2014 and I believe we installed them in Jan 2015.



Sidewall data on tire.





And the ugly part.









Guess I've lived a charmed life as I've never seen a tire go like this. Road service guy told my wife they see more Continental blow out than any other manufacturer.

MikeM

No tire expert here but if that's not an impact damage or manufacturing defect, I'm lyin".

I don't see anything "rotten".

GTOguy

That bottom tire was run flat for awhile before it went. You can see the sidewall wear very easily where it says "cross contact". I used to be in the tire business, and we'd get tires like that all the time.....run on about 12psi at speed, they heat up and fail. Always the tell-tale ring around the sidewall.....and usually, rubber ***** or chunks inside the casing at break-down, if they didn't explode. I suspect this tire was run low at speed and then struck something....a pothole, a brick, whatever....that is not a simple natural failure.

DansYellow66

I kind of doubt this. I maintain this car myself and keep the tires at 32/33 psi. The only one that has any history of losing pressure is the spare which gets below the 26 psi TPS set point every December and I have to crawl under it and air it up. A chore I did right before Christmas when I also topped all the other tires off too. I might add that I drove the car the day before she left town and that left rear tires is right in front of me as I enter the garage - kind of hard to miss. No low pressure light on or sign of under-inflation.

She said the low tire pressure light did not come on until the blow out. After the tire was changed and she re-started the car the light was still on and she called me about that and I told her that was only the flat tire as it had zero pressure now.

The tire blew at 70 mph on the Interstate and she had to ride it down and find a place to pull over on the shoulder. She said she was in sight of her exit and toyed with trying to reach it but decided against it. I'm pretty sure that's why the sidewall is the way it is - it rode a fair distance flat on a collapsed sidewall until she could get the speed down and pull off on the shoulder.

Don't know what happened - possibly did hit something a few minutes earlier that weakened the radial bands. Think I'll take this as a hint though to put something else on the car.

GTOguy

That tire was run at low enough pressure long enough to wear the sidewall thin....look at the 'Continental' side.....it's right there, even more obvious than the reverse side. Not arguing, just sharing my experience working for a tire company for 14 years. If you use your fingers or a caliper, my bet is that the sidewall is thinner where the worn area is compared to the rest of the sidewall. Takes awhile to do that around the entire circumference of the tire....more than a few feet. Takes miles.

Randy G.

It sure looks that way. It might have started out as an undetected slow leak. They heat up fast. TPMS is your friend.

Randy G.

So we should take your word for it rather than the NTSB's? No one has said new tires won't blow out as well just because they have a newer date. It says older tires have an increased risk. I'm not willing to take that risk.

Motorhomes are notorious for having older tires on them because in many cases they aren't driven much each year and owners think that good tread depth equals good tires no matter how old they are. Rather than giving themselves the best possible chance they risk a steer tire failure. Like this. You can see the tread flying behind the motorhome in the slow motion replay:





Do you have a reputable link or study to support your claim? I would hate to have someone read your post, have a blow out related crash and claim tire age doesn't matter because "I thought it was true because I read it on the internet."

MikeM

Maybe you should read what I wrote again and compare it to what you posted.

In a nutshell, I said "there is no solid scientific conclusions that can be drawn about how long a tire will last". And there isn't. Not in what you posted or anywhere else I have looked.

There is all kinds of evidence tires can blow out a block from the tire store or stay on the road 10-15 years.

I recall many years back when I was in charge of tire mounting and balancing in the car plant, we had the tires/wheels go through the mounting/inflating/balancing equipment and go on an overhead chain conveyor for delivery to the line. We had one batch of tires that never made it to the line, they blew off the wheels on the conveyor line.

So much for scientific conclusions. I believe you just like to argue.

PS. Inside tires on a dual wheel RV are more likely to blow out before the outer due to rubber aging. I'll let you guess why that is.

Maybe

I have the same tires on my Chevy. There was a recall on certain dates of manufacture of that tire I believe. Worth looking into.

GUSTO14

It looks like Continental has two recalls ongoing. One is for the Continental Crosscontact LX20 tires P275/55R20 , another involves General Grabber tires - 33 x 12.50R18 LT 118Q. Neither of which seem to involve the OP's tires.

This Consumer Affairs site seems to have quite a bit of info and an extensive listing of different tire recalls. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/tire-recalls

The OP's tire is an LX20 however, even though it doesn't match the size or time frame, it could be worth talking to Continental about. You may find that they will work with you on a new set of Continentals.
https://gm.oemdtc.com/6903/16049-02-...-chevrolet-gmc

Good luck... GUSTO

MikeM

Looks to me like there enough manufacturing problems there to keep the office help busy for awhile instead of grabbing at a coincidental date that just happens to barely cover the tread warranty.

Customer has tires with tread warranty of 75-90,000 miles and goes in for a tread wear adjustment and he's told his tires are too old to warranty? Not a happy customer, eh?

rtruman

You are right getting ready to go to fla my tires were 2011 with 6,000 miles on them I got new ones for my RV.
MY friend saves money and this happened to him blowing out the side of bus and windshield ,this is his second time around.

Randy G.

Maybe you should reread what I posted compared to what you wrote.

How a tire buster becomes an expert on tire aging and can advise people here to go against all conventional wisdom, experiences, available studies, NTSB findings, besides the fact that they can't provide one link from anyone confirming their opinion about tire aging, etc., is beyond me. But like you said, you're the expert.

I don't need to guess why the inside rear duals blow first. But my remark and video has to do with front steer tires. I replaced mine on my rigs every 4 years by rotating them back. I knew too many people that blew front steer tires that looked fine but were six plus years old. I never blew one. If you do, and you're were lucky, it only took out $5,000-$10,000 worth of hood and fenders. One I know of actually got a fuel tank. And those are the ones that didn't wreck.

During the Summer up and down the 5 freeway in California when asphalt temps are 140 degrees or more is a real popular time of year to toss tires, by the way. But the one in the video was on an overcast day where asphalt temp are usually 85-90 degrees, so it can happen any time. But I'll let you decide if you want to run your 15 year old tires and risk your equipment no matter what the conditions are, risk the life of your loved ones or risk yourself.




.

Randy G.

I rotated the front steer tires on my Freightliner toterhomes back to the rear duals at 4 years. In hundreds of thousands of miles we never blew a front steer tire. I did blow inner and outer rears more than once, however. On my trailer I rotated them from front to back by replacing the oldest ones with newer each year. With three sets of axles I never let them get more than four years old after my own personal experience and the experience of many of my friends showed that especially during the Summer when highway surface temps were 135-140 degrees (which can happen anywhere, even on an 80 degree sunny day) you either changed tires over 4 years old at the tire shop or you changed them on the side of the highway. The last time I pushed my luck with older tires I blew 3 of them on my trailer driving from So Cal to the Dallas Texas Motorplex and back. Every one of them was over 4 years old.

How does this apply to passenger vehicles? This guy was lucky the big rig driver didn't run over him.

MikeM

The issue was that six years has been pegged as the time to get rid of tires. I said there is no scientific evidence that that is an accurate prediction. Too many variables to conclude anything. You, somehow have strayed from the subject with your typical California "know it all attitude". You've produced no facts, just tales of different circumstances. No scientific conclusions.

When you decide to get back on topic, let me know. By your own admission, you are the self proclaimed expert, not me. I have no idea what a tire buster is but I know what I've experienced and read. Your experience could be different and that's what makes you an expert..