Running tires 6 years after manufacture date

Due to financial reasons, I’m having to look for used tires this time around. While doing research on how to to pick out decent used tires, I started to notice a lot of posts talking usage past 5 years. Is it safe to do so if they aren’t terribly dried out and still have plenty of tread?

 

Only if you're one of those people who think it unsafe to buy five year old vehicle.

 

Keep in mind most tires have a week/year date code. When checking sidewalls, look for the date made.....

 

"But how much for just four tires?...
... Will it be safe?...
Why is there a five year old baby in the back seat?"

 

I thought tires were good for 8 years, confident that is what Ive heard from DT. I had a spare on the 4Runner a couple years ago that kept loosing air, needed to be remounted. DT check it, was over 8 years old so they would not remount it. Ended up giving me one they had in the correct size from a customer takeoff that was not expired.

 

TLDR: I'm looking at used vs new through $/Year remaining or $/remain miles.

How cheap are the used tires? I'm asking main because sorting OEM sized tires on TireRack shows the cheapest tires there are ~$200 per corner. They'll last you at least 5 years and ~40K to 50K Miles. Used tires are a gamble and probably wont last half as long but probably don't cost less than half.

 

https://www.wetrytires.com/tire-dry-rot/

Decent write up on the subject

 

Check with your local DT, mine always has some good used tires where people went to a different type, or returns like when folks dont realize AT/MT wont handle or be as quiet as what they had. Worth a check.

 

I don't doubt this is a good suggestion and compromise. Sounds good if he can score four tires under his price point. It pulls him out of looking at 5+ year tires if they are take offs. Safer for him and everyone on the road.

When I looked at tire longevity for the purpose of answering the OP's question I got the sense "it depends" with 5 years being the soonest to replace to 10 years absolute max.

Someone posted a company site (within the last 12 months) about a us tire company that sold "refurbished tires". From what I recall they weren't much lower than the cheapest tires on TireRack. If memory served me correctly I think this company's offering were around $150 to $175 each.

 

If they are kept unloaded and in a garage, they'll last a very long time. The problem is, a lot of shops won't mount and balance them past a certain age (sales ploy).

 

In 98 I bought a used 93 Camry. KELLY Tires were close to new I never questioned it. Within a year they started to develop 'wobbles' where the tread separates from the under layers and blister like bulges appear. The shop that replaced them told me the tires were older than the car and somebody must have been storing them or had them stashed for a long time unmounted. I'm not a tire expert but I've been leary about used tires since then.

 

some helpful info
https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tire-aging
https://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenance/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your-tires.html

 

Unfortunately, if we were all to adopt that stance non of us would buy a brand spanking new vehicle ever again once we'd got wind of the first service bulletin recall.
Buying used tires runs the same kind of risks we go through when we buy a secondhand truck. Some owners will sell you an older, immaculately kept, vehicle for under book price and some Nascar wannabe could sell you an old beater that looks fine but it's value does not reflect its real world usage and abusage.

Not that I'm knocking your stance, it is for each of us to assess the risk involved and for us alone to decide whether we want to take that risk. I would have to be fairly keen to consider buying used tires in this country, not so much because of their condition but because decent secondhand tires seem to sell for a price that is often not worth the saving when compared to new.
The one exception I would make is for 'forecourt changed' tires, when a new owner asks their stealership to upgrade the OEM supplied tires before they take delivery. You can get an almost new set of tires that aren't likely to either be old or well used but they have gotten harder to find recently.

 

Sam's club price for brand new, have you checked them out? It's about 1 yrs old though.

 

I appreciate what you've said. I don't totally get the new car purchase comparison but perhaps i was unclear. I was only expressing my experience when a much younger and niave version of myself trusted what appeared to be an almost new set of tires. The first tire of that set that 'wobbled' did it at 80mph on the turnpike causing catastrophic failure. Tread was thrown. Inner fender was damaged. Had it been a front tire or had I been in heavy traffic it would have ended very differently. I didn't know then that tires are coded with production dates or that simple age can impact the integrity of a tire.
I'm currently looking for a spare replacement to better match my current tire size. I'm looking at used tires. I don't see the need to drop that kind of coin on a new tire so I'm not judging here. Just stating that there are many factors to consider on a used tire. If that tire was 6 years old as the op stated... I'd keep looking for one that didn't have that many years on it.

 

I’m not in the market for tires but perhaps OP is. Price looks good though. As cheap as those are I’m not convinced used is the way to go. Not knocking just doesn't fit into my risk calculus.

 

Gonna depend on how the tire was used. My ‘16 Challenger’s factory tires were rotting by a little under 5 years, maybe 4 and a half, because the car was barely driven which allowed the rubber to dry out. My Crewmax’s General Grabbers still looked good at 6 years because the truck was driven frequently which kept the oils moving through the rubbber. Wear wasn’t bad so I’d have felt comfortable keeping them on the truck for another couple years if money was an issue. But the truck got traded and probably purchased by someone else with them on it because the tread was still fairly deep.

 

Him, buying used tires would be concerning. You never know if Jill ran into some heavy duty pots and damaged the internal structure.

 

I won't run trailer tires that are over 5 years old. Trailer tires that don't get used daily often have a fair amount of tread but that can be deceiving. They do a lot of sitting in one place which is hard on the tire. I am only putting 8000 mile per year on my Tundra. I plan to run the current tires 7 to 8 years and don't anticipate any issues.

 

I would look for a budget tire that you can run a couple of years and maybe get in a better financial situation. Tires are the only thing holding your rear to the road.

 

"The tires are the things on your car that make contact with the road"
PHISH- 1989

Maybe those stoners knew what they were talking about.