The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk used tires and their age

Don't know about the rest of you,but buying a used tire to replace one in a set or just some scrubs for the daily driver is tough. I learned that you should avoid anything over two years old because they deteriorate with age. You can tell the age of the tire by checking the sidewall for a string of letters that start with "DOT". At the end there is a 4 digit number that tells you the week and year the tire was manufactured. Example 2609 would be the 26th week of 2009. If you are looking to save some coin hope this will help.
Hank

The date code will only be found on 1 side of the tire, the rest of the DOT number will be on both sides. The DOT code also has the manufacturer code, which tell where it was made. That code is the first 2 characters in the code. If anyone needs to know where their tires came from, let me know, I have all the plant codes.

Bill, if the list isn't very long and you have the time, how about listing them here for the record?

The book is about 40 pages, all but 13 of them are codes. I could break it down to the common tires that we might run across on a 'Bolt, with maybe some of the odd ones just in case.
I do know off the top of my head one code that is no longer used. Now, this isn't a joke, but the code is VD. That was the code for Decatur IL Firestone plant, which has been closed. That's where most of the Wilderness tires form the Explorer fiasco came from.

I think its also worth noting that the dating of tires is a recent thing compared to our old trucks. I don't know off hand when it started, perhaps Bill does, but I know I have tires that pre-date the system.

For those who are worried, none of those really old tires are on anything that is licensed and runs on the road!

I beleive it started in the late '80s. The dating system changed in '00 to the current 4 digit format. The early format was 3 digit, using the first 2 as the week and the last was the year.

This did start sometime ago. I remember when the "gov't" would send you the code book free. It was sent to me out of Colorado and I used it for a long time. Then when I tried to get another one they didn't have them... well, they sent me something but not even close to what I wanted.
Bill, its good to know they still publish something. Is there a chance we can get one of the books????

Also, there was much talk here a while back, and a nice article describing the situation in Old Cars Weekly not long ago. The thinking then, by the "officials" was that tires should NOT be used after they are 6 years old. Which means the tire companies would have to watch their inventory and buyers of "discount" tires would have to be careful. I have seen tires that were ran often, and kept inside that still looked great after several years. But they may be the exception. It would depend on temperature, moisture, tire dressing if any.... and other factors I'm sure. That Old Cars Weekly article was very good describing the chemicals and all the other stuff and their lifes expectancy. Wish I had cut it out and kept it.

EDIT: the book I got from Colorado with the info was back mid to late 70's.

I guess typing it up would be a hassle. Never mind.

Especially since someone already did.

Tire Manufacturer Codes

Just a few seconds on Google and here it is.

The tire date code goes back farther than most people think. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or just DOT) is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966 and began operation on April 1, 1967. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Transportation.