I have my stock tires on my 2007 and they have about 38k on them. If you look close, there are spider cracks all over the sidewalls and also inside the tread. My question is the shelf life of the tires. Is three years long enough? Should these tires be doing this ? have been rotated and inflated religiously.

 

Sound rather soon to me. I just replaced the tires (Firestone's) on my RV last week, they were the original tires made FEB 2002 WITH 26K miles. Just started to show rot in the past year. They sit a lot and have not been covered so it was expected, but I wouldn't expect the rot on a daily driver and only 3 years old.

 

Sounds like the sun has taken its toll. Sounds like it is time for some new rubber. I normally do not have tires longer than three years, I rack up too many miles. My trailer tires lasted about three years before they started to crack but I got a couple extra seasons out of them before I got too nervous to run them. On my truck, I would not take the chance.

 

there is a huge difference between brands. goodyear is by far the worst of the brands i use. Michelin and toyo do not seem to ever crack. i have a few trailers with fuel tanks or welders ,etc that have set for many years and the tires show no signs of dry rot

 

It also depends on where you park it, if you park on dirt or gravel a lot it will speed up the cracking since the soil will wick the moisture out of the tires.

 

When were the tires made?

 

I had the same problem in spring on my '06.

Had 14,000 miles on them when the sidewalls were all cracked.

 

If your tires were factory originals and were Michelins, and still under warranty, take them back. I had the same issue at over 14,000 on my factory originals, and I got five new tires(counting the spare tire), only had to pay for the metal heavy duty valve stems. There was an issue about Michelins and the spider cracking, not a recall, but Michelin was replacing them for people that were concerned. I sold my free second set of tires and rims when I got what's in my sig. I might have had 5000 miles on that set of free tires, and gave that guy a great deal on all five. I told him about the issues about Michelins and cracking, but he didn't seem to care. Michelin people said it was only cosmetic cracking, but they replaced them with no problem. Cosmetic or not, any cracking on a new "E" rated tire just is not right.

 

I warrantied mine at around 5000 miles for the same reason. I actually did it at a shop in Tomball, if you want to PM me I'll tell you the shop. They charged me a little but it worked out.

 

this is common with the stock mich's 265/70-17's. This happened to me twice. once at about 19k miles (replaced) and the other at 42k miles. After the second time i took it to discount tires and upgraded to the TOYO's. only payed $140 for 4 new TOYO tires with mich's warranty

 

...happened with my stock tires too with less than 10k on them.

 

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