So what do you guys think?
My current tires, which likely have runflat inserts in them, appear to be the original tires, with date codes from the summer of 2007. They have only traveled 3,443 miles, but are now coming up on 13 years old. I am not an expert in using old tires, but from what I'm reading, they have three strikes against them already- their age, the fact that they have been kept inflated for that long, and their exposure to the elements.
We are planning to convert our MTVR into a motorhome, to do full-time RV living for about the next five years, and we'd like to do it in relative safety.
The MTVR weighs roughly 30,000 pounds, and it's 62,200 pound GVWR gives it a payload capacity of 30,000 pounds. I do not expect us to use more than about 10,000 pounds of that (about 40,000 pounds total vehicle weight, loaded). We're not planning any Nitro Circus action in our home, but we would like to air down and drive off-road in the manner that these vehicles were designed for, without having a crystalized prehistoric tire shatter from the deflection of driving over a rock while aired down. We'd also like to be able to drive on the highway without any tire weirdness.
We can afford to build this truck properly, but any way you slice it, replacing six tires on one of these is not a little financial matter, and this weighs on us.
My apprehensions on the remolds, is based upon my previous experiences with recaps- overweight, wobbly, ill-handling, out of balance, out of round, etc.. And I'll have no way of knowing the age/condition of the casings they are built on. I could spend nearly $4,000 to buy tires that are even older than the ones on our truck now.
My concerns about the unused 2014 or newer Goodyear AT-3A tires, is that I'd be spending almost $3,500 dollars, to buy tires that may be aged-out, even before I put them on the truck- if they're 6 years old now, they'll be 11 years old in five years.
But then again, almost anything would be better than what we've got right now.
What say ye?
