Copper Cobras Tires life expectancy

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by BAsque1

Good morning folks:
Can someone shed some light on the Copper Cobras Tires life expectancy. The tires in question are at least 13 years old, however, show no sign of tire rot or flat sides, the car has always been garaged and every year all tires are inspected for signs of tire rot. How safe are these tires ?

Having been one to experience the sudden loss of a "seasoned" tire on ERA188 when I first retrieved it from it's dry storage in Florida, I can tell you, anything over 8-10 years old, gets immediately replaced on any car I plan to drive.

As for the "they look fine crowd", I just replaced a set of 24 year old BFG's with less than 5,500 miles on them. They looked new, even had some of the "tits" still showing. Looked great with the 8-16psi they were stored with when found. However, as an experiment, we added the suggested 32 PSI and allowed the tire to sit out in the sun for 6 hours this past week. Amazing how cracks started to show, not on the sidewall, but within the base of the tread pattern itself. Those tires are now gone, donated as wall art for a good friend. Again, as someone who almost got stranded due to sudden loss of air (think less than 30 seconds to go from fully inflated to dead flat), for me at least, it was a true learning experience. Imagine if I was at highway speeds, instead of sitting in a parking lot on the Delaware River with fellow Cobra owners......The scary part, my wife and I had just driven at those same speeds for over an hour and a half, on roads with 6-8 foot high concrete barriers on both sides, with plenty of traffic around us....
The life you save by replacing them, might not just be your own. I'll leave it at that.

Bill S.