my trucks tires are quite dry and cracked, but have a lot of good tread on them and hold air. my dad was telling me that you could put vaseline on them or something and it will help seal the cracks a little better and attempt to recondiont the tire. is that true, can you rub something on your tires to make them stop drying out, and help fill in the cracks alittle so they dont get any worse?

 

Never heard that one before... when I bought my suburban back in '08, it had dry rotted tires on it, but I hadn't left myself enough money to get the replaced (35" Mickey Thompsons aren't cheap). What I ended up doing is putting a couple cans of Fix-A-Flat into each tire once they got low, then aired them the rest of the way up. Sealed them up pretty well, I ended up running on them for another year, to include some mud bogging and a 900 mile trip. Ended up having to replace them due to tread wear, not the dry rot.

 

It's a truck ... man up! Run them til they blow!

My old beater has had the same four $20 USED tires on it now 3 years - they look like hell - who knows how old they were before I bought them as used! I keep a spare ... those tires will stay until they blow!

Dry-rotting tends to happen from being parked more than anything else. Keeping them juiced with tire wetter helps long term, but once they are cracked there's nothing to do but drive til they fall off.

 

uknown ghost basically smmed up my situation i bought the truck in the winter, and the cracks werent visiable. its an 88 stepside k1500 with armstrong norseman 33x12.5x15. A) that company went out of business years ago and B) they definitely arent cheap. my tires dont get low though, so id have to manually take air out. they are sealed extremely well and dont leak at all, but they have a lot of tread left on them.

 

If they don't leak I honestly wouldn't worry about it

 

ill taken some pics tomorrow. im not worried about it, they sound fine, keep air, arent wearing addly, but the cracks are so gosh darn big that it worries me just a tad. i dont wanna be driving and have one blow out on me. and the tires i love because they are semi quiet..to bad they arent made anymore

 

Not trying to sound like a stick in the mud,but large truck tires blowing,ripping apart at 60 miles per hour is not only dangerous for you but think of the people around you. If your worrying that much about a tire, that means change it.

 

yea once dry rot apears it means there is damage and if there is alot they need to go for now just spray them down with tire wet (they may look all better but it does not repair just prevents further damage i would just change em)

I agree to there previous thread when a tire blows its not nice. just think a thirdgen pulls up next to you in pristine condition then bam the tire explodes and blows a huge hole in the side of the car (you him )

 

a thirdgen in michigan in great condition. that would be a rarity. im not going over 50-55 anyways, but still i dont like it and i dont have the cash right now. those tires are expensive

 

I've had a similar situation with my old El camino...had a set of BFG's on it with less than 2000 miles on the tires, but they had been sitting and not being used for several years. All four tires had thin cracks in the sidewalls and in between the tread blocks. They had tons of tread (even still had the little nubbies) and held air just fine. My second trip out on the freeway after getting the truck running again, heard a loud BANG in the back sounded like something hit the fender. I pulled off of the road and saw that one of the sidewall cracks had popped open and lost ALL the air in about a second. Fortunately, it didn't cause any major problem because it was on the back, but i can imagine what might have happened if it was a front tire.

My suggestion is this...buy another set of tires and don't drive on the bad ones. Remember that you are not the only person on the road...even a blowout at 50 can cause you to loose control, and if you continue to drive on those tires, you could be endangering someone elses life, not just your own. In any case, once a tire goes dry-rot, you cannot repair or recondition them. They have lost their structural integrity and nothing can fix that.

 

ok i want to replace them for safeties sake. but i dont have a ton of cash to work with so i think putting some new 33's are out of the question. does anyone know of anywhere that sells tires for cheapin michigan?, and what size they recommend? the rims at least 10'' wide. i dont want low profiles, some meat would be nice. heres a pic of the tires on it right now

if you look closely you can see the cracks, they are like that everywhere on all fours, the sidewalls are barely visible and just hairline cracks.

 

Frankly, I'd keep using them. But that's me. Check Craigslist for used tires, you might get lucky and find something decent for cheap.

 

i looked and not much thats a whole set. im gonna check out goodyear tomorrow for a set of used ones. i got a great price there that had 5 miles on them, radial t/a's nonetheless for 40 mounted and balanced, that i put on the camaro. so im hoping i can get hooked up there too. the big tires make the truck look meaner but kills mileage and put alot of strain on stuff, so a not so big tire would be fine with me

 

dry rot tires are dangerous . used tires i treat the same way , they can be dangerous . i for one would not use them except maybe on a trailer or something that would not be used at hi-way speed . many countrys ban the sale/use of new tires after a certain age . the use of used/dryrot tires are like use of a used condom . would you trust the use of a used/dry roted one ? i would not . save your money and buy good tires , your life may depend on it . just my thoughts , if your superman go ahead . good luck .

 

it all depends with the used tires thing. how many miles are on them and how old. mine were 15's so they were cheaper to begin with and they had only 5 miles on practically new tires. so i felt good buying them. and the whole condom analogy is bad. because i dont think its the trust thing, its the hygiene factor that plays into that more so