Cracking sidewalls

[IdahoXJ7]

I've got a set of 235/15 Les Schwab SXT mud tires on my 2001 XJ. They have a lot of tread left. They are a little over 3 years old and have started to crack on the sidewalls. My question is, how dangerous is this? I have just started to put more highway miles on my XJ and don't want to have any serious problems. In the summer I do a lot of off-highway driving as well. How concerned should I be? I'm considering tossing them and getting some 30" BFG AT's (I'm also gonna put a 2" budget lift on it), but would like to hold on to these a bit longer since the tread is still pretty good. Any opinions?

 

[bcmaxx]

I've got a set of 235/15 Les Schwab SXT mud tires on my 2001 XJ. They have a lot of tread left. They are a little over 3 years old and have started to crack on the sidewalls. My question is, how dangerous is this? I have just started to put more highway miles on my XJ and don't want to have any serious problems. In the summer I do a lot of off-highway driving as well. How concerned should I be? I'm considering tossing them and getting some 30" BFG AT's (I'm also gonna put a 2" budget lift on it), but would like to hold on to these a bit longer since the tread is still pretty good. Any opinions?

Drive em till they pop, I'd call Tires Les shwab and ask them, they should have warranty on defects?

 

[back2gix]

the cracking is called dry rotting, usually from heat (rubber and heat dont get along). its normal on tires, especially at 3 years of age. most manufacturers wont warranty that kind of stuff but it never hurts to ask. I live in vegas where we have 100+ degrees of heat most of the year and my tires too have dry rotting but i do travel 30 miles to and from work at 70 mph and im not too worried about it. try and post a pic of it.

 

[RichP]

I bought 4 Pirelli scorpions in LT235 for my 98 after the stock Good Years wore out. I kept them clean and the scorpion yellow with welesslys tire cleaner and lots of armour all. They started to crack in a bit over a year around 60K miles. I figure it was me but I did 180mi a day round trip commute. I since then mount all my stuff fancy side in so I'm not tempted to clean and make em look shiny, works much better they can be dangerous, they will fail them at inspection.

 

[IdahoXJ7]

I've contacted Les Schwab and it's not covered under warranty. He said it wasn't really a problem but wanted a second opinion from you guys. Guess I'll drive 'em as long as I can.

 

[PhotographerMike]

You might want to look up the manufacturing date just in case they sat on a shelf for a few years.

 

[IdahoXJ7]

How do you do that?

 

[Glenn B]

My Scorpions on my old ZJ did the same thing. IIRC (it has been a while), it turned out to be a common thing on those tires. It was only on an outter layer of rubber that did not have any impact on the safety or life of the tire. They had multiple layers of different compounds. The thin outter layer (cosmetic) did not deal with the expansion/contraction well.

Dry rotted tires... would not trust them for other than local trips.

I bought 4 Pirelli scorpions in LT235 for my 98 after the stock Good Years wore out. I kept them clean and the scorpion yellow with welesslys tire cleaner and lots of armour all. They started to crack in a bit over a year around 60K miles. I figure it was me but I did 180mi a day round trip commute. I since then mount all my stuff fancy side in so I'm not tempted to clean and make em look shiny, works much better they can be dangerous, they will fail them at inspection.

 

[OverlandZJ]

welesslys tire cleaner

I know what you meant, but that's funny right there. :laugh3:


OP, theres an oval on the sidewall with a four digit number. First two are week, last two are year.

0110 for example would be first week of 2010.