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Tire age on a gas class A: date codes, the 7 year rule, and my 2019 Michelins that look new

Started by winter_in_yuma · Sep 10, 2025 · in Chassis, drivetrain and tires · 6 posts
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winter_in_yumaOP
SnowbirdYuma, AZ14 posts · joined Aug 2025
#1

2015 Winnebago Adventurer 35P, six Michelin XRV 235/80R22.5, date codes 3819 so late september 2019. about 21,000 miles on them, tread barely worn, no cracking i can see, and they have lived under covers here in Yuma. everybody online says 7 years no matter what. that puts me at a 4,000 dollar set of tires in a year for rubber that looks new. is the 7 year thing a real rule or a tire store rule. also, where exactly is the date code on the inside duals, i can only find it on the outside sidewall on four of the six.

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f53_chassis_ron
WagonmasterOcala, FL34 posts · joined Aug 2025
#2

it is real, not a store rule, but it is not a hard number either. Michelin says 10 years maximum and inspect every year after 5. most coach builders and the tire dealers say 7 because a motorhome tire spends its whole life sitting loaded, which is the worst thing you can do to rubber. heat is the enemy and Yuma is heat, the covers help a lot. i would not panic at 7 in your case. i would have them inspected at 7 by a truck tire shop, inside sidewalls too, and plan on 8 or 9. but a front blowout on a 22,000 pound coach at 65 is not a flat tire, it is a crash, so if you split the job the fronts are where the money goes first.

date code. the full DOT string with the 4 digit date is only required on one sidewall. on a dual pair the shop mounted it with the date in or out at random. you need a mirror and a flashlight through the wheel, or pull the outside dual. the recall lookup and the tire aging write up are at nhtsa.gov, run your VIN there once a year anyway.

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gasser_not_pusher
RoadtripperMason City, IA16 posts · joined Aug 2025
#3

i replaced the front two on my Vista at 7 years and ran the rears to 9. rears still looked fine when i finally pulled them, but the shop showed me the inside dual had sidewall checking you could not see with the tire mounted. i would never have known. fronts are about a third of the price of a set and all of the disaster if one lets go.

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denise_on_the_road
Full-TimerBillings, MT19 posts · joined Aug 2025
#4

full timers, we put 15,000 miles a year on so we wear them out before they age out, which is the nicer problem. one thing i would add is a tire pressure monitor. we run a TST 507 with the flow through sensors and it has caught two slow leaks in inside duals that we would never have found until the tire cooked itself. if you are going to keep 7 year old tires, that is the 400 dollars i would spend before new rubber.

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pat_fixes_slides
Full-TimerKerrville, TX26 posts · joined Aug 2025
#5

from the guy who gets called after. of the coach tire failures i have been out to in the last three years, every one was a tire past 7, and most were 9 or 10 with tread that looked good. weathering starts inside the carcass where you cannot see it. run your inside duals to 8 with a monitor if you like the odds, but do not go to 10 because the tread looks fine. the tread is the last thing to go.

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winter_in_yumaOP
SnowbirdYuma, AZ14 posts · joined Aug 2025
#6

compromise. found the date codes on the inside duals with a phone camera through the wheel spokes, all six are 3819 and 3919 so one batch. the shop here inspected them and the two fronts have very fine checking between the tread blocks that i could not see standing over them. fronts ordered, two XRVs, 1,340 mounted and balanced. rears i will run to next fall with the TST monitor denise mentioned, ordered that too. not what i wanted to hear. thanks all.

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