13 year old tires, time to replace?

[shaeff]

As far as I know, the tires on my machine are from 1964 and they sure look like it! I’ll run ‘em til they won’t hold air.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have never heard of any farmer replacing tires due to age. They run them till they either wear off all or most of the tread or wont hold air/water. Age of an ag tire is irrelevant to safe operation in most cases. On another note, I put a 18 year old spare tire on my Bravada SUV in 2018 when I found it had worn out one side of the front tire. I swapped out the tires to put a newer tire (5 years old) on the front and placed the OEM tire on the rear with the notion that I would remove it when I got my new tire. Well it had no cracks etc since it had never been on the ground. I ended up running it 10K miles, gave it (the Bravada) to my daughter who is still driving it with no problems more than 2 years later. I think much of the issue with using tires past 5 years is how they are stored. That spare was never exposed to sunlight having been under the SUV all its life. We dont put that many miles per year on our vehicles and I sure am not going to replace the tires on my current 2013 CRV which only has 25K on it and tires still look new. All my vehicles stay inside enclosed garages when not in use. I see newer vehicles on the road with the Lexan headlights so cloudy that I dont know how light shines thru them. My old 2003 lights still look new with no clouding at all.

I once ran my B26 from out in the field back to the shop with no air in the front tire after I had to drag it sideways when it fell into some "quicksand" at the edge of my pond. After dragging it sideways to get it out of the pond, the front tire popped off the rim. It is 12 ply rating and other than being loose on the rim, it wasn't flattening at all because the sidewalls were so stiff. It is a 2009, tires show no aging cracks, fronts show some wear and will likely be replaces in another 10 years. My 2010 LS is same, no aging showing and It likely will outlive my ownership of it.

Surface crazing / cracking in an ag tire is certainly no reason to replace them.

 

[newbury]

Is any flat ever convenient? Are you able to decide I have an extra hour this morning,I think I will have a flat today?
And popping especially on farm tires is rarely due to cracks, but due to what was ran over/driven into the tire.

If I have a flat in my yard or close by it's no BIG problem.
One of my trailers had a flat on a 6yr old tire, hauling down from Va to Ms. Took about 4 hours out of the trip to fix and get another spare, plus limited shopping around. Same trailer a few years later had another flat while moving it around the yard. Parked it inside the garage, replaced the tire about 6 months later with one bought on sale. Most convenient.

 

[CoyPatton]

I have never heard of any farmer replacing tires due to age. They run them till they either wear off all or most of the tread or wont hold air/water. Age of an ag tire is irrelevant to safe operation in most cases. On another note, I put a 18 year old spare tire on my Bravada SUV in 2018 when I found it had worn out one side of the front tire. I swapped out the tires to put a newer tire (5 years old) on the front and placed the OEM tire on the rear with the notion that I would remove it when I got my new tire. Well it had no cracks etc since it had never been on the ground. I ended up running it 10K miles, gave it (the Bravada) to my daughter who is still driving it with no problems more than 2 years later. I think much of the issue with using tires past 5 years is how they are stored. That spare was never exposed to sunlight having been under the SUV all its life. We dont put that many miles per year on our vehicles and I sure am not going to replace the tires on my current 2013 CRV which only has 25K on it and tires still look new. All my vehicles stay inside enclosed garages when not in use. I see newer vehicles on the road with the Lexan headlights so cloudy that I dont know how light shines thru them. My old 2003 lights still look new with no clouding at all.

I once ran my B26 from out in the field back to the shop with no air in the front tire after I had to drag it sideways when it fell into some "quicksand" at the edge of my pond. After dragging it sideways to get it out of the pond, the front tire popped off the rim. It is 12 ply rating and other than being loose on the rim, it wasn't flattening at all because the sidewalls were so stiff. It is a 2009, tires show no aging cracks, fronts show some wear and will likely be replaces in another 10 years. My 2010 LS is same, no aging showing and It likely will outlive my ownership of it.

Surface crazing / cracking in an ag tire is certainly no reason to replace them.

The age of tractor tires has became a bigger issue as farming practices have changed greatly over the last decade. As the family farm as mostly gone away, farmers are spending greater times travel even greater distances from property. If the distance is great enough, some equipment may be trailered, but before you assume tractors, combines and other will be routinely h trailered, think of everything involved. Most farming counties make allowances for farming equipment using roadways, but the state rarely will relax DOT standards for hauling the equipment. The time saved (unless fairly large distances are involved) by increased speed of travel is lost by removal and installing of wheels, loading unloading as well as load securement. This does not even address the issues of licensing requirements (hazardous materials—diesel and various oils being hauled). Long route to indicate that condition of tires to farmers on equipment has taken on different perspectives than when you rarely spent much time on roads other close to your home farming operation.

 

[aczlan]

The age of tractor tires has became a bigger issue as farming practices have changed greatly over the last decade. As the family farm as mostly gone away, farmers are spending greater times travel even greater distances from property. If the distance is great enough, some equipment may be trailered, but before you assume tractors, combines and other will be routinely h trailered, think of everything involved. Most farming counties make allowances for farming equipment using roadways, but the state rarely will relax DOT standards for hauling the equipment. The time saved (unless fairly large distances are involved) by increased speed of travel is lost by removal and installing of wheels, loading unloading as well as load securement. This does not even address the issues of licensing requirements (hazardous materials—diesel and various oils being hauled). Long route to indicate that condition of tires to farmers on equipment has taken on different perspectives than when you rarely spent much time on roads other close to your home farming operation.

Farm equipment is run at relatively low speeds, so there is much less stress on the tires and a blowout is highly unlikely to cause a loss of control or cause collateral damage.
As such, farmers change their tires when they have no tread left, or they do not hold air anymore.


Aaron Z

 

[LouNY]

Farm equipment is run at relatively low speeds, so there is much less stress on the tires and a blowout is highly unlikely to cause a loss of control or cause collateral damage.
As such, farmers change their tires when they have no tread left, or they do not hold air anymore.


Aaron Z

Pretty much, although if they are quite worn when one goes we usually replace the pair on the tractors,
implement tires we try and keep several on hand and ready to go.

 

[mcfarmall]

Tires on the Farmall C are 69 years old and still hold air just fine...should I replace them?

 

[3Ts]

I've got a set of wheels for my farm wagon that are at least 37 years old. They don't hold air anymore so I just got thru putting new tubes in. When I can't patch the tubes anymore, then I'll think about getting new tires.

 

[fried1765]

Tires on the Farmall C are 69 years old and still hold air just fine...should I replace them?

I replaced my 8N tires at 65 years.
They still held air, but looked kinda dry and cracked....and I wanted to do it.

 

[crashz]

I replaced the fronts on my 1987 JD770 a couple of times as the turfs are pretty soft and would tear on sharp rocks and small stumps. About 5 years ago I replaced the rears because of the severe weather checking. And when I say severe, I mean I ran them until the tubes popped through the tread pattern and side walls! Once chunks of the tread started ripping out, I couldn't keep the tubes from loosing air and I gave in and bought new Titans. Funny enough, the tread was only half way worn.

 

[shovelmike]

Indeed, the weather cracking gets to them long before the tread is worn out.

 

[Alien]

I replaced my fronts with Titans about 3 years ago as the originals were like riding on ballooons if I had a load in the FEL. They should never have been OEM as they punctured on rocks easily and even rolled off the rim one day when I had a load in the bucket. Very happy with the Titans.

 

[man00]

I replaced my fronts with Titans about 3 years ago as the originals were like riding on ballooons if I had a load in the FEL. They should never have been OEM as they punctured on rocks easily and even rolled off the rim one day when I had a load in the bucket. Very happy with the Titans.

what was on there before the titans?

 

[Alien]

Original tyres. I can't remember the brand. I may have thrown them out but I will have a look today. Still dark here. (early morning)

Just checked. They were HUNG brand same as the mains. Mains are quite OK. (Ag tyres)

 

[CoyPatton]

Farm equipment is run at relatively low speeds, so there is much less stress on the tires and a blowout is highly unlikely to cause a loss of control or cause collateral damage.
As such, farmers change their tires when they have no tread left, or they do not hold air anymore.


Aaron Z

Well I will agree that like everyone a farmer wants to get all the wear out of the investment that he can. But as for slow speeds, large tractor Road gears have gotten much faster!
And safety concerns have became a huge factor in the decision process of those farmers that I know. Now I am not talking about CUTS or SCUTS but large commercial farming operations. These will often cover fairly large distances between field locations—20+ miles from there home operation is not unusual in my area. So tire condition as became a factor! Any rapid tire loss becomes a huge concern.

 

[CoyPatton]

Pretty much, although if they are quite worn when one goes we usually replace the pair on the tractors,
implement tires we try and keep several on hand and ready to go.

Not what it was 10 years or so ago any longer.