[Mgs] [Healeys] Tyre life expectancy

Tom McCay - Classic-Car-World Ltd enquiries at classic-car-world.co.uk
Mon May 31 04:17:51 MDT 2010


Hi Kees, interestingly the guy who asked the question on the tyres has a 
Lotus Elan. Last year on our way to a show, I was following behind in the 
Healey, it was raining not too heavy and the road was damp. After coming off 
a round about and accelerating up hill slightly he lost control and ended up 
in the hedge, please see the following links:

http://www.ccw-tools.com/uploads/images/DSCF1095.jpg
http://www.ccw-tools.com/uploads/images/DSCF1096.jpg

I never thought about it at the time but this was a sudden loss of grip at 
slow speed around 20 - 25MPH. I guess it could have been as a result of the 
tyres being old and hard?

Kindest Regards

Tom
Classic-Car-World Ltd
www.ccw-tools.com

AH 3000 MkIII (BJ8)
MGA 1600
Mini Park Lane


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Oudesluys" <coudesluijs at chello.nl>
To: "Tom McCay - Classic-Car-World Ltd" <enquiries at classic-car-world.co.uk>
Cc: <healeys at autox.team.net>; "MG List" <mgs at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Tyre life expectancy


> Tom,
> This has been discussed regularly on all classic car fora.
> For safety sake tires should be changed after 7-10 years of age (as 
> indicated by the marks on the tire, not the bill of sale), depending on 
> storage conditions and opinion of people in the know. They may be 
> perfectly OK after this time but you cannot be sure. The compound hardens 
> ( leading to bad road behaviour and wet road performance) and can change 
> without any external signs like cracks or crazing, also invisible internal 
> delamination can be at hand (sudden blow out, desintegration of tire).
> Tire tests show again and again that NOS tires do not comply anymore with 
> the original High Speed requirements and many serious accidents caused by 
> a blow out have been attributed to old tires that were sold and fitted as 
> new tires.
> My own experience has been with the tires on my Jensen Healey I bought 2 
> years ago. It had new tires in 1999 (date of manufacture 1997) , had 
> driven about 2000mls from that time and the tires looked absolutely brand 
> new. Wet road behaviour was terrible and it handled like a dog, OK they 
> were Hankooks but even new Hankooks should not handle that bad. Obviously 
> the compound had hardened considerably.
> I changed them recently to Nokian V tires and this changed the road 
> behaviour of the car very dramatically.
> Kees Oudesluijs
> NL
>
>
> Tom McCay - Classic-Car-World Ltd wrote:
>> Hi all, we had an interesting discussion last night at our monthly local 
>> car
>> club meeting when someone asked the question of "what life expectancy 
>> should
>> we expect from the tyres fitted to our classic cars"? Some of these cars 
>> do
>> less than 1000 miles a year and almost all are laid up during the winter
>> months in dry storage. Some cars have been in the same ownership for over 
>> 10
>> years and have the same tyres fitted when they acquired the vehicle.
>>
>> The tyre condition is good with no apparent cracking on the tyre walls 
>> that
>> you see on some very old tyres and tyre wear is not the issue either, but 
>> at
>> what point should you consider changing these anyway due to age?
>>
>> Kindest Regards
>>
>> Tom
>> Classic-Car-World Ltd
>> www.ccw-tools.com
>>
>> AH 3000 MkIII (BJ8)
>> MGA 1600
>> Mini Park Lane
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