5u 4m 001x how old are these tires?

 

Wrong characters. Federal law says they're XX YY, where XX is the week of the year and YY is the last 2 digits of the year.

 

I will look again. All I saw was that and the size

 

Date code 1109 November 09 I guess tread is good. When should they be replaced .drive about 5k a year

 

That's the 11th week of 2009. Pretty old rubber.

 

New tires would be much softer I'm guessing

 

Determining the Age of a Tire

When it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire Identification Number (often referred to as the tire's serial number). Unlike vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and the serial numbers used on many other consumer goods (which identify one specific item), Tire Identification Numbers are really batch codes that identify the week and year the tire was produced.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires that Tire Identification Numbers be a combination of the letters DOT, followed by ten, eleven or twelve letters and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location, tire size and manufacturer's code, along with the week and year the tire was manufactured.

"When it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire Identification Number (often referred to as the tire's serial number)."

Tires Manufactured Since 2000
Since 2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

Example of a tire manufactured since 2000 with the current Tire Identification Number format:

DOT U2LL LMLR 5107
51 Manufactured during the 51st week of the year
07 Manufactured during 2007

While the entire Tire Identification Number is required to be branded onto one sidewall of every tire, current regulations also require that DOT and the first digits of the Tire Identification Number must also be branded onto the opposite sidewall. Therefore, it is possible to see a Tire Identification Number that appears incomplete and requires looking at the tire's other sidewall to find the entire Tire Identification Number

The use of a partial Tire Identification Number on the one sidewall reduces the risk of injury to the mold technician that would have to install the weekly date code on the top sidewall portion of a hot tire mold.