There was a very interesting item on a Current Affairs program tonight regarding the age of tyres.

It appears many suppliers are still selling tyres that are 6 to 8 years old, which puts them past their SAFE use by date.

Most tyre brands have a code which gives the tyre's date of manufacture shown on the tyre wall.

Now, .. I don't know about the U.S of A but here in God's country, immediately following the word "DOT" appear some numbers.

As an example, the tyres on my Prado has the number; 2704 which means that the tyre was made during week 27 in the year 2004.

If the tyre has a number with only 3 numbers, (i.e. 309), it would have a manufactured date of week 30 in 1999.

You can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be checking the date of any new tyres I buy in the future.

Rick.

Thats why it's best to buy popular tyres from large stores that enjoy high turnover... the local garage may have had their puncture replacement ready rack tyres sitting in the racks since noah unloaded them off the ark.

G'Day there kiwi,

The tyre outlet they showed on the program was NOT a local garage. It was a big place, with stacks of tyres.

The worst of the problem is the USED tyre market. Apart from the possible age of used tyres, I was taught that, (unless advances in tyre technology has improved), when rotating steel belted tyres, they should be rotated from front to rear "On The Same Side" of the vehicle.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm an old fart whose knowledge and exerience is well past it's use by date.

Rick.

:devious::devious: