O/T tire cracking

[Anonymous-0]

My old Chevy truck I haul my tractor with has 750x20 tires. The fronts are new so no problen there. The rears are a different story. Two of them have some cracking. the other two aren't that bad. How is it determoned when the cracks are bad enough to be unsafe, or is any cracking bad? Stan

 

[JT]

Stan,
Tires flex as you drive, with more cracks, you get all the cracks flexing, causing heat, heat will cause them to come apart. Maybe I am being too cautious, but anything other than fine hairline cracks are danerous.
Jim

 

[Iowa_tire_guy]

The cracks are caused by the sun. That is why campers have covers over the tires. Probably the inside tires are okay and the outside are the ones with cracks. When to change them? No one can really say since you can't see inside the sidewalls to determine the damage. Bias tires aren't as much a problem as radials because they don't flex as much and there is no metal to rust out. Should you change them? Depends on the budget, your courage and whether you can find a shop that will do it. Might be a good time to check out getting different wheels and going tubeless.

 

[2x4]

Stan is right. I was hauling logs with my old chevy (8.25x20) on a 3 lane highway. These tires were cracked & suddenly at 50 mph both driver side duals blew(If one goes the other does to). The effect worked like tractor brakes when you stomp one side. I instantly twisted into empty lane beside me, then continued left into the third (turning) lane at a stop light. What if a tractor trailer had been right beside me? Lucky.

 

[Dairy Farmer in WI]

i have what sounds like the same problem on one of my pickups, it has a crack all the way around the side wall about an ince from the rim. i'm gonna get them looked at/ replaced when i get new front tires. but for now i think the are fine as long as i don't drive it much.
DF in WI

 

[Anonymous-0]

I changed lots of truck tires when I was young. Most every time a set of duals blew , one of them was flat already. You could see the damage inside the flat one was much worse than the other , from running flat for so long.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I had some older Michleins on an F350 with good tread but it had side wall cracks. Although rarely used the truck, I replaced them all when the left front blew out and nearly caused an accident.

 

[Don L C]

If you have cracking, even hair line cracking your tires are over age......from here on out is when tires begin to fail....keep your newer tires on the front.....tire life is 7 years, after that they begin to weaken....they can blow m when loaded.....some will go on pretty good, keep the weight down....replace the fronts......you can't tell tire life by looking at the tread hope this helps...........Don

 

[Jim H SW-PA]

There used to be a product out to paint on tires to preserve them. {I don,t mean Silicone based tire wet}.It was real rubber thined with benzine.Benzine has since been outlawed because it caused cancer in rats.I don't know about humans.because I never drank any.[chuckle] --.I know like it's mentioned below sun does have a lot to do drying out the oils and rubber causing them to crack,also under inflation will make them run hot,thus doing the same.I would suggest going to a recaping shop to see if they may have something similar.