How often should you replace tires

[luvrbus]

New tires can go in hurry too, there is a H-45 sitting over in Needles at a storage yard story goes he blew a tire 20 miles east of Kingman and replaced both front tires with new Chinese made Double Coin tires one let loose on the front 6 miles east of Needle and he smack the guard for about 200 yards,It's going to take some big bucks to repair that H-45   

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Tires are not like wine, they do not get better with age.  For those of you who want to know more about tire aging, here is an interesting 30 page slide presentation about aging tires. Here are some of the highlights for those of you who replace your tires on a regular basis rather than playing Russian Roulette with your tires. This presentation is about automobile tires, but the same concept is true for bus tires.

Aged tire failures will continue to be part of the tire-related crash landscape...

27% policyholders from five warm weather states (TX, CA, LA, FL, AZ) accounted for 77% of all claims nationwide and 84% of those claims involved tires older than 6 years.

Dramatic increase in failures after 6 years

Concludes: remove tires older than 6 years regardless of tread depth

Check out the entire story here...

http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Documents/2014_Tire_Safety_SYM_Panel_4b_Kane.pdf

[luvrbus]

Did you guys read where Michelin and other tire manufactures spent 85 grand fighting legislation in 13 states that would require you to replace your tires at a certain age I think it was 8 years of age.That's funny I don't care you are.Then you have tire manufactures some say 6 some 8 and Michelin saying 10 years no way will I run a 10 year old Michelin tire lol about 3 years for me and the Michelin if I am lucky   

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

At a certain age?  Then in your case you would not have to replace your tires for another 80 years.  That just does not make sense Cliff!!! 

[luvrbus]

Yep 13 states were trying to pass laws requiring you to replace the tires after 6 or 8 years of use and tire manufactures fought it and won.Then they turn around and tell you to replace your tires in 4,5,6,7,8 or 10 years it's all BS I buy good tires when I see cracks caused by UV or whatever I replace the tires and don't care about the age I just replaced 2 -3 year old Michelin's on the Trek because of cracks   

[eagle19952]

They cruise along at 55 mpg that is about the same speed you see the old buses cruising at, with the trailer I am about 11,000 lbs fwiw my trailer is a 1999 model it has the original tires same size as the Humvee uses showing no signs of cracks or age   

i was thinking in military service....

[easystreet]

 As we all can surmise, many different factors come into play when attempting to answer the question of "At what age do I replace the tires on my bus?" It all comes down to a matter of what we each are individually comfortable with. Myself, I tend to be a middle of the road person in that I look at the industry recommendations and temper those with what I know from years of personal observations and experience having worked with heavy on road vehicles for 35+ years. The failsafe rule of the heavy truck / bus industry has become 10 years and junk the tire. However I temper that with what I see and know about the each tire. Factors such as brand / quality, number of plys, tread pattern, proper tire inflation, road / operating damage, being run underinflated are just a few pieces of the puzzle. I am like Cliff in that I will run a tire longer than ten years if I feel relatively certain it hasn't been abused, was a quality casing to start with, and is not giving any signs of old age ie general evenly distributed age cracking, cracking around the bead line, bulges / evidence of separations to name a few.
Michelins in my book aren't known for having the greatest sidewalls in the sizes we would use.  They would not be a tire that I would choose and certainly would not expect to keep around for 10 years.  Bridgestone, Firestone, Goodyear, Dunlop, Toyo are all brands I have had good service with. Dunlop is owned by Goodyear and the Dunlop offerings are the previous generation / tread pattern Goodyear offerings renamed and offered at lower price thus generally a cost effective buy.
Some tires are offered in 16ply in addition to the normal 14 ply. If you run high tire loading weights consider a 16ply. They usually aren't that much more money and if you do wear them out before ten years they have premium casing value.
Under inflation kills a tire fast. If you know or suspect that you ran a tire loaded for any significant distance at 20 psi + under inflated, consider replacing it. Tires run in this condition can experience a zipper failure. It is thus called as the sidewall initially fails at one point followed explosively in zipper fashion around the entire sidewall.
Daily tire pressure checks are a must for RV folks. Tire pressure monitors are better yet.
Heavy truck / bus tires are "generally" constructed with the expectation of a much longer service life than passenger car tires. Granted, age degeneration does occur. If you are not versed in being a good doctor when looking for signs and symptoms of tire problems than have your tires inspected on at least an annual basis by a reputable fleet truck tire service center.

[sixtyseven]

Thanks for the info Easystreet.  I like your perspective.   I also agree with Scott and the others, new tires on the steer axle is always a good thing.