Determining Tire Age - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

steelsoldiers · 01-22-2007, 11:45

I have read quite a few posts lately dealing with tires falling apart etc... while drving down the road. This can sometimes create a dangerous situation for the driver or for anyone following behind the truck. Here's an exerpt from a Military Tire Manual on how to determine the age of your tires. Enjoy!

How to Determine the Date of Manufacture of Off – Road and Highway Tires
The following is a guide to reading the date of manufacture of off-road and highway tires
sold by our major suppliers: Denman, Bridgestone/Firestone, Goodyear, Cooper, General
and Michelin. Each manufacturer, with the exception of Michelin, has molded a serial
number into the sidewall of each tire. However, there are some differences among them,
which are noted below:

DENMAN: Denman uses a serial number, the last 3 digits of which constitute the date of
manufacture. These last 3 digits are to be read just as a DOT Code, i.e., 1st 2 digits =
week of manufacture and the last digit = the year of manufacture. For example, serial
number 1234527 = a date of manufacture of the 52nd week of 1997.

BRIDGESTONE/FIRESTONE: Bridgestone/Firestone serial numbers are normally 9
characters in length and usually begin with a letter (usually the letter Y). The second
position of the serial number indicates the year of manufacture. For example, a tire with
serial number Y61234567 was manufactured in 1996.

GOODYEAR: Each Goodyear off – road tire has a serial number beginning with the
letters MJ or MC. The last 3 numbers of the serial number indicate the week and year of
manufacture. For example, a tire with serial number MJ1234567236 was manufactured
during the 23rd week of 1996.

COOPER: Cooper brand off – road tires, have a ten-digit serial number. The last 3 digits
of the serial number indicate the week and year of manufacture. For example, a Cooper
tire with serial number 1234567205, was manufactured during the 20th week of 1995.

GENERAL: General uses a 9 position alphanumeric code, with the last three characters
representing the month and year of manufacture. General is different from the other
manufacturers in that the seventh character, representing the month of manufacture, is a letter, rather than a number. Using this code, the first letter of the Alphabet represents the first month of the year and the second letter of the Alphabet represents the second month, etc.. The last two characters are numbers representing the year of manufacture. For example, a General tire with the code 01479BK96, was manufactured in the 11th month, since the letter K is the 11th letter of the Alphabet and the year of manufacture is 1996, since the last 2 numbers are 96.

MICHELIN: Michelin has no serial numbers on it’s off – road tires that would indicate
the date of manufacture. SUGGESTION: Look for a DOT Code. 14

TITAN: Titan uses the DOT Code system for all of its tires. Therefore, prior to 1 January
2000, the last three digits of their code for both off and on road tires indicate the week
and year of manufacture. For example, a tire with the DOT Code DOT CH EV HU4 501
was manufactured during the 50th week of 1991. All Titan tires produced since 1
January 2000 reflect the new DOT coding system. Therefore, the last 4 digits for those
tires reflect the week, year and decade of manufacture. For example, a tire with DOT
Code DOT V5 2J EFT 4600 was manufactured during the 46th week of the year 2000.

DOT CODES: All highway type tires sold in the United States must have a DOT (Dept.
of Transportation) Code molded into their sidewalls. The DOT code is alphanumeric, is
composed of 13 characters and always begins with the letters DOT. The last 3 positions
of this code indicate the week and year of manufacture. For example, a tire with the DOT
Code DOT CH EV HU4 501 was manufactured during the 50th week of 1991.

DOT CODE UPDATE:
Starting with year 2000 production tires, an additional number was added to DOT Codes.
As a result DOT Codes are now 14 characters in length instead of 13.This change has
enabled tire manufacturers to show the decade of manufacture. For example, a tire with
DOT Code DOT V5 2J EFT 4600 was manufactured during the 46th week of the year
2000.

maddawg308 · 01-22-2007, 13:09

Thanks, Chris - very informative. I think this may be a "must have" to print out and bring when tire shopping at MV shows and MV graveyards, hopefully will prevent a few of those nasty tire blowouts like you see here every so often.

ARMYMAN30YearsPlus · 01-22-2007, 14:27

With trucks the age of our fleets how do we know that they were made in the 90's versus 80's 70's or 60's ? I just think the one digit date is hard to tell I think dry rot is the best way to tell and should be a sign to start saving for new tires and not to overload the ones with the cracks. I have cracks on a lot of my trailer tires and they still work fine even under load. I know I am taking a risk but I have seen tires over 30 years old still working on a dump truck.

steelsoldiers · 01-22-2007, 14:50

Here's the source: https://www.themotorpool.org/TireCat...%20Updated.pdf if anyone is interested.

acetomatoco · 01-22-2007, 16:05

You can check for presence of tread wear indicators...makes em relatively recent.... and the plethora of warnings molded in... more warnings ...less age... aka newer... RAM

ARMYMAN30YearsPlus · 01-22-2007, 16:20

Chris:
Thanks I called them and they are sending me the tire TM I will try to post it to the site they say replace tires at first sign of cracking something I have not done

CGarbee · 01-22-2007, 16:49

One thing that I have on my site are several pages concerning tires, mostly info for folks running 900x16 or 1100x16 (or radials of that size) for M37/M715/Power Wagons, but some of it crosses over to other M series stuff as well... I have a link to a site that lists all the DOT codes and which plant they are assigned to, Tire and Rim Association pages showing dimension data for Rims, OSHA and DOD manual information on inspecting and changing tires, etc.
It could be better organized, but the main link to it all is located at:
http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/tires.htm

The shortcut link to the DOT codes is:
http://www.harriger.com/tires.htm

TM 9-2610-200-14, Pneumatic Tires and Inner Tubes (September 2000) and TM 9-2610-200-20, Pneumatic Tires, Inner Tubes, and Radial Tires (February 1977) may be found on the Olive-Drab website in PDF form. Page with the links to these two manuals is:
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mvg_tec...reference.php3

steelsoldiers · 01-22-2007, 17:16

Good deal David. I appreciate you taking care of that. Good links Cabell. Thanks.

steelsoldiers · 01-22-2007, 17:21

Sticky!! Edited original post for easier reading.

FrankUSMC · 01-22-2007, 20:46

All the tires on my WWII Ford jeep are dated 1965, they are 600:16s.
The tires were made for the Marine Mighty Mite. I found them at a Vol. Fire Dept. They were an update kit for the Mighty Mite jeep. The kit was a spare tire holder. It also had a spare tire. I purchased all 5 kits, just for the tires. The kits were sealed in wooden crates so, the tires had never seen sunlight.
They are still on my jeep.
One of the few, Frank