Re: [DML] Re: Tires

[kKoncelik@xxxx]

This tire thread comes up all the time and in most regards everyone is right 
in their own perspective.

Bottom line is tires age

I run NCT's on my car and how a tire ages depends on its care.

Most tires are stored on cars outside and that will tear them up quickly 
along with heat generated with the tires in use. High mileage NCTs (15K and up) 
are not as easy to find as low mileage ones because they have gotten hard and 
have been replaced.

I have 6 pairs of NCT's (all under 7,500K) and all vary in hardness. The set 
I use on my concours car and one set that was on Patricks car are the two 
best sets I have. They were kept in the dark ( out of sunlight basically) and 
kept oiled and they are a bit hard but not brittle. The car I showed in Houson 
with 170 miles has a great outer apearance but since I don't drive it I don't 
know how they are. Keeping tires oiled so to speak helps keep the tires 
softer longer but age will eventually catch up to all NCT tires. 

The set I bought in Houston with the rims, I ran in Evansville this weekend 
and it was like riding over a road with 1" diameter bars across the road about 
every three feet and they never smoothed out. 
One set on the parts car was actually bought in 94 according to the paperwork 
and not NCT's and they were coming apart. Those were definately in the worse 
shape but 12 years younger than the NCT tires. (trashed them)

Age is relative to care and the "average" life of a tire based on this survey 
is 7-10 average years. Some will give less life, some more.

If you drive the car a lot change the tires.
If you do the Dragon run in Pigeon Forge do it on good tires period.

This is a cue to change your tires before the show if you plan to do the run 
and you have low tread or hard tires.

If you use it for show or prefer to keep it stock, find a well taken car of 
set of NCTs and continue to take car of them. Look for warning signs and drive 
sensibly.
I have never had a problem and will continue to use them as long as I have a 
good set. 

The outgassing, UV damage and ozone damage can be somewhat controlled and 
there are still NCT tires that are usable as mentioned above, others are trash, 
but the new tires are much smoother. There are a number of you out there 
including me that use NCT's and we do inspect them a lot but most of the failures 
are typical of age where the tire seperates from the inter belts and it is 
obvious.

With the NCT tires I have I am keeping 4 sets and trashing 2 sets because of 
hardness (dryrot/Aging) The NCT tires were never the top of the line tire 
anyway in my opinion.

Also the few reports of NCT tire failures all have indicated there were 
warning signs before the tire went. If this were cronic there would be a lot of 
reports like this on the DML and there are not.

Dave who is one of the best techinical people around had NCT tires on the car 
he drives until recently. The testimony that new tires run smoother should 
not be a surprise but I think he still feels that if NCT tires were still being 
manufactured he would prefere running stock tires. And I would as well. They 
are not so use what you like.

Even on my truck that is one year old. The old tires will not run as good as 
new tires.

Take care and if you need a set for show let me know. LOL

Ken



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