Those Goodyears are probably 40 years old.

I bet you are right. I should check the dates on them. The car came out of an estate and was last registered in early 2000’s and wasn’t driven much then.


Jason

When I bought my current Chevelle, it had some ancient BFG radial T/As on the rear, dated 1982. They had a completely different tread pattern than the current ones. The fronts were newer but still old @ 2007. The first thing I did was replace the tires.

My friend still had those on his 69 Camaro until this spring. many 100mph runs with them, and I mean currently. Ive been telling him for 10 years to get rid of them.

I do believe the older tire compounds are better than any we have now, which have prevented some failures on older tires like these.

Tire got air, tire still good.

I have a set of 14 inch 69 XT wheels I run on my car sometimes. Last year I put them on for a front end alignment because they had what I thought was a good set of BF Goodrich tires on them.
The technician noticed a separation starting in one of them. Needless to say I removed them when I got home and will get a new set of tires. Can’t remember exactly but they’re about 15 years old or so and always stored in dry n dark location.
Time passes and we’re all guilty of not paying attention to the age of the tires on our vintage cars.

Not only check your tires on your vintage rides but your everyday ride.There are no laws here pertaining to how old of tires vendors can sell as new.I expect when I buy new tires that they are 1 yr old or newer-shouldn't have to check date codes but learned my lesson.Two years ago in July 2021 I started searching for deals as I needed to replace my winter tires-better deals in the summer-I bought 4 brand new Goodyear Nordic tires that a big time tire place had a 50% sale-they work great-this past April when I removed them to put the summer tires back on I happened to look at the build date on the tires I bought new in 2021-they were stamped 2015=my bad for not noticing-lesson learned-
Keep on Cruising!!!
Dave

When I bought my 1970 W30 clone, it came with a set of 12 yr old BFG T/As. still lots of treat and car runs up and down highway fine. I bought a 28ft boat and needed a trailer. Bought a trailer and the thing had standard "car" tire. When I put the 10 plys on, the guy said the tires were from the 80's. That was trailering over 10,000 that went 1hr each way to water, every weekend. Plus a couple 3+ hr highway runs. Did it ok with the the old car tire, but much more stable with the 10 plys at 70 mph.

When I had my 1961 Pontiac with a 575Hp 409 and 4 sp, I put my old McCreary dirt 60's on there. These were from the 90's. Ran it hard for 4 yrs with speed in excess of 100mph. ONLY tire the just "let go" was the new 2 yr old front, and only just driving at less the 30 mph. Only tire in 41 yrs of driving I ever had a tire just pop.

The Olds/BGF combo made 5 runs a rear from SW ont to Detroit. It's about 3.5hrs each way without an issue. I just don't see an issue really with these on "normal" drivers.

I have to thank steve for this post. I am changing a few tires this weekend and on some of my cars. had some bad experiences, all while the cars were just stationary.

thanks for the post (wake up call)! Old tires/cracked tires are risky buisness.

Quick run to the store on old BFG's. Was waiting for new ones to arrive. Lesson learned!