What is the oldest age in years that is advisable to buy used?

My new XJ has old tires. There is tread, but they are dry rotted. They could be old as hell. I am going to replace them. Looking on CL just in case I find a deal. I asked a guy selling wheels/tires combo what year the tires were. He said 2003. 10 years old seems very old, so I passed, even if there was good tread left.

 

Make sure they aren't discolored and check the side walls for cracks. And ask him about the storing conditions. And of course, check the tread.

 

Age doesn't matter as much as the condition does, I've run 35yr old Ground Hawgs before without an issue just cause they were stored properly and not just left out in the back yard in the weather 24/7. In all actuality also even brand new never mounted tires can be several years old sometimes before they're even bought for the first time. I put a set of tires on a car one time and two of them were 7yrs old and the other two were 3 and 4yrs old, they were all 4 brand new never mounted tires lol.

 

I've used tires older than a decade before with out issues. Just make sure they are not weathered or dry rotted.
I had a tire shop refuse to mount mine btw cause of the date code..
Went home pissed.. Mounted them myself.. Saved money. LOL

 

Ok, so dry rot is a bigger deal than age.

 

Where I work it's a policy to not use tires over six years old, even if they have never been used. It's a little extreme in my opinion, but I don't write the rules.

 

As people above have stated, it's less a matter of age and more a matter of their condition. I had a set of 10 year old tires that were on my XJ that were *very* dry-rotted. I replaced them with a used set that was in pretty nice shape off some guy on Craigslist. After checking the date-code I found they are 23 years old. Regardless, it is a fact that rubber degrades over time, reducing overall traction.

 

A lot of tire shops won't mount them if they are over 10 years old. To get them mounted, you need to go to a shady tire shop, most often the ones whose sign is written in spanish and they use HF floor jacks to swap wheels in their parking lot. Also they tend to have a ****load of old *** mostly bald tires out front.

 

Depending on the type of tire and the way it was stored they can also become misshaped. I bought some 33's off cl that had great tread, no dry rot looked almost new. Had them mounted only discover they were more oval than round once they had air.

 

The DOT tag on my super swampers say 98. Never looked just thought they looked different than some newer ones I'd seen. Went to a tire shop to get a valve stem replaced, they said after that they would not work on them anymore and tried to sell me a set of "mud claws" that are "close enough" to a TSL. Even tried to convince me a little scrape in the 3/4" thick sidewall was the real source of the leak.
They have decent tread, hold air better than my old radials that were from 09, so i don't care that they are 14 years old.
Kinda sucks that shops won't work on them though i kinda miss balanced tires.

 

Aren't ALL tire shops shady?
I can't mount these, they are to old. But I can sell ya a new set!

 

Fwiw, I have been a automotive tech for 12yrs now and I have never heard of a tire shop not mounting a tire due to its age till now lol. I have heard of and also have myself refused to mount a tire that had Grand Canyon sized dry rot cracks in the sidewall though. 99.9999999% of people actually mounting the tires at tire shops have no clue whatsoever how to find the date on the tire anyway.

 

A date code is just when it was made tho,Who's to say that tire didn't sit on a shelf for weeks to years before you bought it.Age of a tire don't bother me as long as it looks and handles normal keep using it.As far as buying tires off craigslist you gotta watch you can get burned,If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

 

They were claiming safety issues and that they could possibly explode when they set the bead and were dangerous. They didn't try to sell me new tires.