Re: Re: Tire Suggestions?
Just my two-center addition to the topic of tire life: According to
several maintenance-related postings I've seen on various RV lists that
I also subscribe to, posted by folks who face a similar
low-mileage-but-long-life tire situation as most Amphi owners, many
recommend treating the tire sidewalls to an occasional spritz of
Armorall protectant spray to help keep those destructive UV rays at
bay.
One also supposes that pumping up the tires with a less 'reactive'
medium than that gaseous cocktail that is our regular atmosphere might
also help keep one's rubber from rotting from within (i.e. reacting with
its oxygen), or at least slow down the decay somewhat. Many tire shops
nowadays, including CostCo, offer a special nitrogen inflation service
for just a couple of bucks. Apparently, nitrogen, being mostly inert in
its pure diatomic molecular state, won't chew away at those rubber
molecules like the ratty old ravenous oxygen that makes up about 20% of
the stuff we huff and puff. Also, it is said that since pure nitrogen
is the 'fat ass' of gases, it won't leak (i.e. squeeze out) of the tires
as easily. I don't know about the soundness of that claim, since our
atmosphere is already, after all, nearly 80% nitrogen anyhow, but that's
what many folks claim, albeit these folks just coincidentally seem often
to be involved somehow in the sale and marketing of nitrogen tire
inflation equipment and services. I guess the bottom line is that it
seems it really couldn't hurt, and while removing that more reactive
oxygen from one's tires may not really matter much in your daily driver,
whose rubber's gonna get changed every couple-few years anyhow, it might
help squeeze a few extra years of safe service out of those Amphi, RV,
trailer or other expensive collector car tires that are likelier to
decay first than wear away. I might even consider pumping my own Amphi
and RV's wheels up with that fat N2 next time I swing by the CostCo and
their tire department isn't crammed as full as the set of ''Logan's
Run".
For more information on the whole Nitrogen inflation thing that doesn't
appear to be directly involved in selling it, see
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/04/17/004282.html
And by the way, it seems that Helium (another gas mentioned previously
on this list a while back as a possible candidate for tire inflation),
although otherwise perfectly suited to the job because of its absolutely
inert and non-reactive properties, is just so skinny an atom that it is
simply likely to leak out right past the rubber in comparatively short
order (though perhaps not on so short a time frame so as to cause a car
load of Amphi people on a hot day to all suddenly commence speaking like
Donald Duck at the Celina McDonald's drive-through window...though
that's a fine thought too, Eh?)
Bilgey
On Thu, 5 Jul 2007 8:31 am, rlgreen_55 wrote:
> There is a lot of debate as to how long a tire will last before it
> starts deteriorating and is unsafe to use. Obviously if it is exposed
> to the sun they won't last near as long. I have a set of Sears 13"
> Allstate tires appox 20 years old with less then 500 miles on them
> that I wouldn't use on a garden trailer.
>
> Most tire manufactures recommend that tires be changed regardless of
> mileage at 8 years. As we know they are in the business to sell tires
> and have a huge liability in today's world so that figure may be
> closer to 10 or 12 years?
>
> Ron Green
>
> --- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, nelson625@... wrote:
>>
>> Additional Trivia after reading Ed Price's note. Antique cars
> which get
>> generally minimal use and RV's which likewise often get minimal
> use considering
>> the time frame that the tires are on the vehicles suffer from tire
> failure
>> from reasons other than mileage.
>>
>> I own a 1931 Ford Roadster for which I bought brand new Goodyear
> (duplicate
>> of OEM's) Tires 2 years ago, and except that the car has been off
> the road for
>> 2 years now due to more urgent projects, I would have put the new
> tires on.
>> Model A Fords had a neat feature with the wheels, incidentally -
> they had
>> what were called "Drop center Rims" so that to change a tire, you
> took the
>> wheel off the vehicle, then squeezed the 2 beads together
> and "dropped" the tire
>> into the center of the rim whereby you could then remove the tire
> on the
>> opposite side of the rim from the wheel all without using any tools
> in most
>> cases. Anyway, the story I started to tell was that though I read
> all the time
>> of the degradation of tires due to oxidation, sunlight and etc, the
> tires on
>> my Roadster were put on in 1971. Until I stopped driving it 2 years
> ago with
>> the intention of having it repainted, I regularly drove it at
> highway speeds of
>> 55 mph. I finally decided this was unwise which is why I bought
> the
>> replacements. However, in that entire 34 years, the tires required
> no repairs and
>> served very well. I first saw this car in 1969 and a close
> personal friend
>> bought it and restored it in 1970-1971 which is why I know it's
> history so
>> well. It was never rusty even in the rear floor pan. I bought it
> in 1987 - hard
>> to believe that is now 20 years ago. Anyway, it makes one wonder.
>>
>> On the other side of the coin, I have thrown rubber tread from RV
> tires
>> which were in excellent condition to look at them, and were only 5
> or 6 years
>> old. Recently, on my 1948 Ford Woodie which had 5 beautiful
> looking wide white
>> wall tires, we embarked on what ended up to be a 700 mile trip in
> company
>> with 15 other antiques. I examined the tires carefully the day
> before we left.
>> Though one could detect that they were not new, they had perfect
> tread and not
>> obvious weathering (of course it is in the garage 98% of the time.)
> 60 miles
>> into the trip, during which time I had been traveling 45-55 mph, I
> began
>> throwing rubber from one tire. One cannot simply stop and buy a
> replacement at a
>> store along the way, so I considered my options. I ended up
> driving the rest
>> of the 700 miles with the matching unused spare and not exceeding
> 45 mph
>> which kept the centrifugal force lower, I reasoned. I am now in
> the process of
>> preparing to acquire new tires- probably Diamond Back Classics
> from the
>> various information e-mails I have received from Amphi and Woodie
> friends. However,
>> it is interesting to note the particulars here. I do not know the
> age of the
>> tires as they did not use standard date codes until fairly
> recently to my
>> knowledge. These tires were on the car when I acquired it 10 years
> ago and may
>> well be 10-20 years older than that. They are also, for what it is
> worth,
>> Bias Ply tires.
>>
>> So that is my 2 cents worth of interesting or odd information.
> Vic Nelson
>> near Daytona
>>
>>
>>
>> ************************************** See what's free at
>
http://www.aol.com.
>>
>
>
