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You know, I’ve been doing the trailer tire thing (all designs) for quite some time.
Tire aging is a controversial subject that no tire manufacturer or the governing body will fully address. Some of the ST tire manufacturers have ventured into some sort of descriptions for tire degrading. Carlisle being a leader of that subject for a number of years. They no longer include that sort of information in their public documents. Is it because they have developed newer and better materials for their newer brands of ST tires? The leading degrading factor is heat. Have the ST manufacturers developed tire building materials to support the new increased allowable speeds the newer brands are touting on their sidewalls? Are the compounds and additives better now than just a few short years ago? Without having insider information we just don’t know any more than a tire manufacturer wants to say about their tires. The unsaid things are confidential, so it only behooves the tire builders to tell us the good things, the others will come with brand experience.
One of the places to look for a hint about a manufacturer’s answer to tire aging is the length of their warranty. I look at it as their “best guess”. They have no idea how a consumer is going to maintain their tires, or in what environment they will be operated in, on average.
You can’t look at a tire and call it a piece of crap. You can’t judge a tire by it’s weight without knowing it’s complete makeup. You can’t call a tire a piece of crap because it failed early unless you have solid evidence that supports that call.
With a reasonable amount of leftovers a tire expert can almost always tell what caused a tire failure. It’s sort of like a building that has burned all the way to the ground. The fire expert will came up with the cause.
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