Been following an RV forum thread on tire age and have been trying to explain why there is no strict guideline for exactly when a tire should be replaced. I summed up my position...
The general guidelines for motorhomes is to have the tire inspected
starting at about 5 years and to replace at 10 years no matter what the
inspection indicates. Due to the Interply Shear effects on belt durability, trailer tires need to be closely inspected after a couple of years and it appears that 5 years may be the max life for most applications.
I do understand that people would like a
nice clear precise answer but the problem is that with load, speed and
temperatures all having an impact on the life of a tire it is impossible
to give a precise time of when to replace a tire.
In today's
society no company can give a specific answer to the question as they
would be sued if a tire failed before the "end of life" time and they
would be sued if the tire lasted past the "end of life" time. We are
talking about probability.
You have a sticker on your RV telling
you the inflation to use based on an estimate of how much "stuff" you
will be carrying. Federal Regulations say the tire load capacity at the
specified inflation must be able to support the load rating of the axle.
This assumes an exact 50/50 side-to-side load split all the time. It
also assumes you do not put more or less load in your RV than what would
result in each axle being exactly at GAWR. Many have learned of the
importance of getting the actual load on each tire.
Maybe it would help if we thought about tread depth instead of age.
Exactly
how much tread can be worn off before a tire becomes "unsafe'. Most
states say 2/32" for passenger car tires but does that mean the tire with
3/32" tread will always perform equally to a tire with 10/32"? Of course not. As the tread wears the wet traction capability goes down. Do you
always wait till each tire gets to 2/32" before replacing it? If not,
why not?
Conversely the dry traction can go up as tread depth goes down, so there is a trade-off. I dare say that if you live is an area with lots of rain or even snow, you probably change tires before they are that worn. However, if you live in the dry Southwest you may be tempted to run less than 2/32" tread as you have seldom if ever have wet traction problems.
Subscribe to the weekly RVtravel.com newsletter or one of our other
newsletters about RVing. Great information and advice. Now in our 16th
year. Learn more or subscribe.