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So while draining the radiator to the intake swap I got up close and personal with my tires. They look fine from the side and from a couple feet away but laying down with my face in them I noticed the cracking between the treads, not small either. I don't know how old these tires are but I'm pretty sure over 4 years.
So I guess now new tires and wheels have leap frogged the suspension and brakes in the stuff to upgrade list. What good are those upgrades if your tires are ready to blow out on you?
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Drill until you hit those damn kangaroos.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you.
Vehicle: 1969 Mustang Grande (modified) Winter Blue Metallic
Location: Santa Monica, Calif.
Posts: 899
I no tire expert, and I haven't seen your tires, but I've seen a lot of cracked tires in the desert; cracks in the tread as well as cracks in the sidewall which look even more dangerous. Those cracks are superficial. The tires I've seen drive thousands of miles without "blowing out".
No one is going to tell you that a cracked tire is OK, but after seeing them on many, many cars, I personally wouldn't rush to change them if the tread is deep just because they're cracking. Rubber can crack. If you want peace of mind, get new rubber.
What tires you thinking about getting? New tires are always a nice change, they just feel better going down the road.
I find almost all my tires weather checking on me now too. Used to be a set of tires lasted about 6 months to a year. Now since I am not drag racing and driving every day, tires last me years. The GoodYears on my DD are from 04, they have a few checks in them but they are still good tires. I cant afford a new set of $1000 Eagle F1s anyway, and the car is going to be parked in a month or so due to snow. If you arent driving it enough, and it sits in the sun, they will crack on you.
Some are worse than others, if you do mainly low speed driving, it probably can wait a bit before you get new tires. We have tortured old cracked tires with smokey burnouts, demo derbys, and other silliness, and unless they overheat due to low inflation or get cut somehow they last a surprising amount of time.
Old tires dont hook very well though, they get harder and less pliable as time goes by
hence the cracks. For putting around they should work ok, just dont go drag racing or try out an open track session with them. The BFG DR's on my drag car are from 2001, they need replaced before I run it. With 130mph trap speeds its more than a good idea, putting around at 35-50 mph with proper inflation isnt as serious.
Thanks Carlos, I agree with you, I'm not incredibly concerned with the shape of them because I mostly drive around town, not very much highway but the cracks are pretty wide and deep but like you said I don't think they will blow out on me just yet. The issue is what Thumpin said, they are hard from sitting in the sun and all that good stuff for a few years, they are pretty rock hard, they slide easily, especially under decent braking. Went through some receipts and found that they are around 7 years old and they have been sitting for alot of it.
Haven't decided on what tires to get yet, hell I haven't even decided on what wheel. I figure to use this as an opportunity to go from the 14" wheels to 15's so I can fit that disc brake it in there too.
__________________
Drill until you hit those damn kangaroos.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you.
If you get the right kit you can have disc brakes with 14" rims.
Are you taking about the disbrakeswap kit? I called them a week or two ago and asked them about the 14" wheels and they said the brakes probably would fit but they weren't absolutely sure about the original steel wheels like I have. So I figure next time I have to get new tires I might as well get new wheels to go along with them instead of chancing it.
__________________
Drill until you hit those damn kangaroos.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you.
Are you taking about the disbrakeswap kit? I called them a week or two ago and asked them about the 14" wheels and they said the brakes probably would fit but they weren't absolutely sure about the original steel wheels like I have. So I figure next time I have to get new tires I might as well get new wheels to go along with them instead of chancing it.
Not sure what swap it is. My friend put disc brakes on his 68 and he has 14x7s.
look at the dot number and the last 4 numbers are the week and year the tires were made
Thanks for bringing that up or I wouldn't of investigated. It didn't occur to me to dig that deeply because I was just going off of an old receipt from '03 when the PO bought the new original wheels for it, I made the terrible assumption that he would replace the tires at the same time. Nope. I have two different tires on the car, Mohawk Montega's on the front and Firestone FR360's on the rear, I already knew that wasn't that great but I have only put about 1k miles on the car and I have owned it for about 2 years. Looking closer neither of these tires have DOT codes on them. From what I can tell the Mohawks stopped being produced in 1999 and I'm not sure about the Firestones. But also reading about the Mohawks they have a bad habit of separating due to heat at speeds about 45mph. So I guess it really would be time for new tires.
And BA, my wheels aren't cool enough to be 14x7's they are the wonderful 14x5's pizza cutters.
__________________
Drill until you hit those damn kangaroos.
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you.
Thanks for bringing that up or I wouldn't of investigated. It didn't occur to me to dig that deeply because I was just going off of an old receipt from '03 when the PO bought the new original wheels for it, I made the terrible assumption that he would replace the tires at the same time. Nope. I have two different tires on the car, Mohawk Montega's on the front and Firestone FR360's on the rear, I already knew that wasn't that great but I have only put about 1k miles on the car and I have owned it for about 2 years. Looking closer neither of these tires have DOT codes on them. From what I can tell the Mohawks stopped being produced in 1999 and I'm not sure about the Firestones. But also reading about the Mohawks they have a bad habit of separating due to heat at speeds about 45mph. So I guess it really would be time for new tires.
And BA, my wheels aren't cool enough to be 14x7's they are the wonderful 14x5's pizza cutters.
well if u are goin to check out some bridgestone potenza re750 its a really good tire my friend has them on his 89 and the car sticks to the road
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Turns out I'm gonna need new tires....
