"Mr. Plow" <adam_is_mr_plow@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Jon,
> Sidewall cracking as you describe is fairly common and is usually
> the result of heat/sun exposure when the tire is stationary. For
> whatever reason, normal heating of the carcass of the tire when the
> vehicle is in motion is much more normal and acceptable to the
> longevity of the tire. If the cracking is just in the surface
> layers of the rubber on the sidewall, or tread for that matter, it's
> not a big deal. If those cracks are getting bigger, and noticebly
> starting to penetrate to the deeper layers of th tire, junk them.
> They may last quite a while, or they may fail and blow out on you
> while you're pulling a trailer doing 70.
> The way i gauge how deep the cracking is, if the rubber that is
> cracking feels/looks about as thick as a sheet or 2 of psper, no
> worries. If the rubber is thicker than heavy construction paper,
> i'd look at dumping those tires.
Thanks, Adam! The rear tires seem fine, maybe because there
isn't anywhere near as much weight on them, plus there are 4 of them
to distribute the load versus two up front. Since its a dually, I'm
not too concerned about a rear tire blowout as long as it didn't take
out the tire next to it. :-) The fronts though...
One of the front tires is worse than the other, but I've been
eyeing both of them with a bit of suspicion for a while now. Between
not driving the truck very much and just being swamped here, I'm sure
I won't get around to doing anything about it before the BBQ, so I'm
sure you'll get a chance to look at them and chew me out for not
chucking them a long time ago. ;-) There are a lot of small cracks
which sound like not a big deal based on your description, but there
are a couple of pretty deep ones too, one of which is following a sort
of mold/character line.
Of course, with 6 tires to change, that can get pricey, especially
since they are an 80psi highway style tire. :-( Once I get around to
doing something about it, probably what I will do is to take a good
look at the rears and if I can get away with it, maybe I will just
replace the fronts. Last year, I actually did pick up a set of HD
truck style cones for my balancer to be able to balance these wheels,
so at least I started to take *some* steps towards putting things
right. :-)
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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