Found a gash in my tire

Happened to glance at my tire as I was walking by my truck, and saw this staring back at me. No idea how long it's been there. It's pretty deep, I think I can see steel down there. My gut says put a new tire on ASAP. What do you guys think? Dammit I had hoped to be done posting in this forum for a while.

Edit: by 'this forum' I mean wheels and tires. Not the whole site

 

Where you get em from? Warranty on em?

 

What brand to tire?

 

Dick Cepek Fun Country. Bought'em used. Date code is 2014.

 

Yes, that looks like dry rot split to me.

 

2014 is getting up there in age. I'd look to replace all 4, especially if others are starting to dry rot as well.

 

If I replace just one with a new tire, will that be hard on the truck? My other three all have about half tread remaining, and have started to dry rot.

For sure replacing all four is the best long term approach. That is my last resort at this time. My wife and I just paid off two credit cards in the past month, so we are extremely cash poor right now. I pretty much refuse to put four new tires on a CC.

 

That dry rot can cause you some problems.
I had one blow up on me on my previous truck. I did not use the truck much so there was still enough tread left on it, but age caught up with it.
It is usually not good to replace one tire with something different than what is on the other side of the axle. It causes uneven distribution through the differential if the tires are not the exact same size, weight etc. If you don't want to replace all 4, at least make sure that both on the same axle are the same.
But, as mentioned, dry rot might be reason to replace all 4.

 

I wouldn’t replace just the one— that tire looks in rough shape age wise, so I would guess the other 3 are bad too. If you cannot afford new tires, see if a tire shop has a set of used you can get. I wouldn’t mess around safety wise with tires that are breaking down like that on the road. The expense sucks, but it will cost more in the long run if you don’t deal with it now.

 

My Nitto tires were in better shape than that and newer (installed in 2015). I got hairline cracks like yours (but no big crack) and it would not pass inspection here in PA.

 

I found a picture of mine. This was already deflated since I was concerned about it exploding, but you can still see the bulge in the lower left on the photo. Due to dry-rot, air got in between the rubber layers and the belts and caused it to swell up like a balloon. I wish I had a picture of before I deflated it - that bulge was at least 2 inches high from the normal tread level. Driving down the road it started bucking to where I thought I was going to loose control. If it actually burst it might have been a different story; fortunately I was able to pull over and I could literally see it expanding before I took the valve stem out.

 

Tread separation. Good thing it didn't unwind on you. It's not good to have the entire tread separate at 70 mph except for one little area. I found out the hard way...smashed off the step board and beat the front fender to hell before I could get it stopped.

 

Damn that's a big one I also have a small gash somebodies spare tire fell on the freeway and I went right over it going like 70mph scratched the underside of the body and damaged my running boards from the bottom other then that not much damage I'm actually surprised

 

Scary stories, guys. I definitely don't want to add my own because of this. I'll get on replacing them asap.

In the meantime while I'm still driving on it, would it be safer to put it on the rear of the truck in the event it blows out?

 

The one that you show has to go. I don't mess with trying to keep tires too long. I'd rather replace them too early than too late.

 

Yes, I think you have a much better change of keeping control on a rear tire blow-out than a front.

 

Thanks. I don't go above 35mph a whole lot, so a high speed blowout it's unlikely.

This is a lesson learned for me. I had about $2k earlier this year to split between a level kit and tires. I thought I could get by on some used tires for a while which allowed me to splurge a bit on suspension. Next time I'll do things one at a time. This is going to end up costing me several hundred extra vs if I had just bought new tires to begin with.

 

Check facebook marketplace and craigslist for some newer takeoffs. Should be tons of options on there, I just picked up a set of nearly new Hankooks for $300.

 

I've looked, so far the only 37x12.50 I've found is this What size were those Hankooks you picked up?

 

Where I used to work my truck sat in the sun on hot asphalt every day getting fried in the hot summers. I never seemed to get the mileage I should have from my tires, as the sidewalls would start to dry rot or as I say 'fry rot' long before the tread started to look worn out. I always buy new tires when I see them start to crack. Decades ago, a sidewall blowout taught me not to play roulette. Sounded like a shotgun blast and 3 seconds later my car was stuck on the freeway onramp... thankfully I was only going about 20mph, having just turned onto the onramp. Aint worth taking chances, I would have been doing 70 a few minutes later and that would have been fun, front passenger side looked like the Alien came out of it.

Don't ever skimp on the part that connects your truck to the road (I don't mean money when I say 'skimp', I mean quality/condition). Hopefully you can get a good quality 'take-off' set and save a few bucks; I hear you about the CCs. Paid mine off a couple of decades ago and live on what I make and what I save in my emergency fund. The CCs are for serious emergency no other way to pay and I eat top ramin till it's paid off. Saved a shit-load in interest payments over the years. I would consider safe tires an emergency item for the CC if my fund was depleted, due to how bad it can be if they fail at the wrong time.

 

As others have mentioned, that tire looks like it is starting to dry rot. If your other tires are starting to look the same way, they need to be replaced. I've got tires from 2003 on a trailer I was given that are hard as a rock and full of dry rot cracks. Just waiting for some money to get them replaced.

 

I looked over all four tires closely this weekend. Other than the fine little cracks visible in my first pic, I don't see any evidence of them deteriorating to the point they would be splitting like this. My old BFGs were in way worse condition when I finally took them off and there weren't any cracks like the one I have now.

 

Any one know what causes this? Tire is 2017 bought in 2018. Never off road. I bought it from Sam's club but had it installed by another shop. Sam's club won't replace it because it was installed elsewhere.

 

Update on my tire situation. The crack in my tire hasn't gotten any worse after another couple hundred miles of driving. I've ordered a new set (different brand) just waiting for it to arrive. In the meantime, I discovered a large shard of metal in my tire today, see pic. It's in the same tire that has the big crack! I'll say one thing about these Fun Countrys, they can take a beating and keep on rolling! I would for sure trust them in harsh terrain. Just wish they still made them in 37s.