Are Black Tire covers bad? part 2

June 11 I posted on black tire covers possibly doing more harm than good. There were a number of comments on this topic and I wanted to more than post quick comment replies so here are my responses.

Gareth said "Black VS. White is a no brainer". We all know that black absorbs heat, white tends to reflect heat" and that he hoped that there had been UV resistance testing done. He also wasn't impressed with my use of a dark color trash bag.

Well Gareth I agree that a plastic trash bag isn't the same as a vinyl (plastic) tire cover but I don't have a budget to go and buy products and do testing so I just made a quick comparison. I have learned that even with Apples vs Apples data some people will still question test results.   RE: UV testing. I have never seen tire cover mfg make any claims or provide data so I would not be surprised if they never bothered to pay a lab to do any testing. If anyone knows of such data please let me know.


Bob asked if he was better off with no cover or a black cover until he buys white covers. While I have no data, my opinion would be to use no cover but spray your tires with a protectant that claims to offer UV protection. High heat can damage the tire internals while UV will only attack the surface.


Al said his "shields" are black but since they attach to the side of the RV and not the tire they prevent a temperature increase of more than 2 degrees F.  I would really like to test his product.


Pennierich suggested using Mylar covers and Bill suggested trying "space blankets".
Well the problem is I haven't found tire covers that use the mylar material. I did look at the mylar sheets which are inexpensive but would need some R&D to make into tire covers as a simple sheet of this material would not stay on tires very well.


General comment on UV
A few weeks ago I asked a manager of a lab at a major tire company about UV testing and wondered if I could purchase the special light bulbs needed. To test for UV resistance I would need UV-C bulb and a simple 40w bulb would cost me $1,000 so I will not be setting up a test lab anytime soon.

Anyone thinking they have a better product please feel free to email me at Tireman9   at   Gmail  dot   com   and lets see what can be worked out. I will be happy to conduct a controlled test and publish the results. If there is something better and less expensive than the basic white covers I would like to know about the product.