Tire Checking (Cracking) - How Much is Too Much?

[roegs01]

Tires are WestLake 235/80-R16 from our 2019 Solitude S Class 2930. They are the original tires with date codes of the 25th week of 2018. We are the second owners, but I'm guessing the tires have around 12k miles on them. Wear is good with plenty of tread. We just returned from a 3500 mile trip with no issues. You can see the small weather checking that is developing on the sides. Can I continue to safely run these tires, or is it time to replace?

[Cannon07]

I'm sure you will get lots of different opinion's. but 4 year's old and dry rout on the sidewalls I would replace.

[Hoopy Frood]

While I don't consider 4 years as old for good tires, I would definitely consider replacing those because of the deterioration of the sidewall. ST tires don't have very strong sidewalls to begin with and, IMO, it's best to err on the side of caution. My Sailun tires were over 6 years old, and looked, and rode very well. They had no weathering on the sides like yours.

[trailrydr]

Our 295RL is a 2019 and we had only 8k on ours with no sign of cracking and good tread. We went ahead and replaced them with the Goodyears.

Never want to find out the hard way of "woulda/coulda/shoulda" problems with tires IMHO!

[FlyStar]

I too recommend replacement especially if these tires see or have seen a lot of sunshine.


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[Ynot4me2]

Are they constantly exposed to bright sun where its parked?

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[jleonard]

I would not take a chance on them. The risk is too great. If it were me, I'd replace them.

[roegs01]

Thanks for all the answers....I kinda figured the answer would be to replace them, and I actually agree. I'd much rather replace them now while I have the ability to make choices and look for good pricing. I believe our trailer spent winters in AZ without the slides open and guessing the tires spent a good amount of time in the sun.

Now for the worst part....choosing which replacement tires to get! Like many of us I'd prefer US manufactured tires, but it appears that GoodYear G614 tires are the only choice and are kinda spendy.

[trailrydr]

Thanks for all the answers....I kinda figured the answer would be to replace them, and I actually agree. I'd much rather replace them now while I have the ability to make choices and look for good pricing. I believe our trailer spent winters in AZ without the slides open and guessing the tires spent a good amount of time in the sun.

Now for the worst part....choosing which replacement tires to get! Like many of us I'd prefer US manufactured tires, but it appears that GoodYear G614 tires are the only choice and are kinda spendy.

When we swapped out ours, we went with Discount Tire. They had the best price and will rotate and balance periodically for free even on trailer tires.

[Hoopy Frood]

If you have trailer tires balanced, make sure the tire place has the proper equipment to balance lug centric wheels, since a lot, if not most, of trailer tires are lug centric, and not hub centric.