I have NO CLUE how or why every damn vehicle I end up with gets slices in the sidewall of the tire but how deep does it need to be before I worry...I guess I'm asking how thick the sidewall is. I just decided to keep a vehicle that was left to me and today I notice a 1" +/- slice about 1/8" deep or less in the sidewall. This one is a radial. When I first got my '60 F100 the previous owner had put new bias ply tires on all 4 corners. I wanted to change them anyway but I noticed a slice in the sidewall of one of them so I did it sooner than I'd originally planned.
Any cut in the sidewall is bad. I've got the same luck as you-keep getting holes just off the edge of the tread where they are considered 'non-repairable'. You know what they say-if it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. Without seeing it, you know the chances are good that the tire will let you down, but if you keep an eye on it and continually check the air pressure, you be able to eek a few more miles out of it. Eventually though, it will fail. How good is your luck?.....
it would depend on the tire, lots will say not to run it. But if its only in the top layer i wouldnt worry about it, but i've but 12 plugs in a slice on a truck tire and run it. If you get a deformaty like a buldge, id worry. Now if you drive the **** out of it maybe you should change it
Back in my crazy four wheeling days we'd knick and slice up side walls all the time on our Jeeps and drive them as daily drivers at 65 mph and under mostly. But these were offroad tires that advertise extra thick sidewalls designed for rock crawling and stupid use. If your tires are some no-name, street use only, light load rated truck or car tires... i'd say change it. ESPECIALLY if they're old! Check and see how many years old they are... That's just me though.
It's a Goodyear Wrangler. The only thing I'm really worried about is a blowout. I have no idea how long it's even been there. I've actually been in the process of trying to figure out a different wheel to put on there because this one is so hideous (It's a later model GM truck...so ugly wheels are a mainstay). I guess I'll keep an eye on it.
Which side? Does someone else in the family drive your truck? Sweetie has bumped up against a few curbs in our SuperCrew. Usually right after I cleaned it up....
Michelin is French and they make some good tires. As far as the slices are concerned are you talking about actual cuts from some sort of road hazzard or are you talking about weather cracking or splitting of the rubber?
Maybe it's where you live . Do you have one of those neighborhoods where all the kids have knifes and have nothing better to do but walk up and down the streets cutting tires on cars as they go by ?
The criteria I used for truck tires was; if you can see the cords through the slice or weather check the tire is trash, a puncture or slice that cuts through 3 or more cords on the tread face also renders the tire unservicable.
Eh, i've never had good luck with Goodyear Wranglers... they came on an F150 I bought years ago and one of them blew out with 75% tread left @ 80mph. This truck was not four wheeled and had no damage to the tires. I've never been able to get Goodyears to last nearly as long as BFG's either... BFGoodrich for me. Always.
Here are a couple of shots...I guess to keep it traditional we can say that this can happen to any tire...you can see it isn't too big and I'm probably completely overreacting but I don't like seeing this happen when tires this size are so pricey...damn new **** all has to have big wheels now...this is the bottom of the line GMC Pickup and it comes standard with 17" wheels. I'm looking for 15 inchers and about 4" shorter tires to get a bit more torque out of it...probably end up ****ing up some computer speedo **** or something... No punk kids...we're on a dead end street about 1/8 of a mile long in a town that I can only describe as being like what you would picture heaven. No exes that give a **** about my fat ***, nobody else has driven this except for my wife a couple of weeks ago when we helped some friends move. It's probably been there for awhile. It was my father's truck. When he died in Dec. my sister drove it for a couple of months and it's been driven about 1500 miles since March. Anyway, that's how I ended up with it. There's only 40,000 miles on the truck so these are the El Cheapo garbage tires that it was purchased with. What I'm looking for is someone to say, "Holy ****, you *****, that's nothing, shut your pie hole and stop overreacting."
Nothing wrong with that tire. If you are worried about, have the tire store check it out. I have a 3 inch gash 1/8 inch deep on a load range E tire that the tire store said was cosmetic in nature.
It's only 4 years old...I guess I'll stop worrying about it. I know exactly what happens if I take that to a tire store...I'll get the "WHOA...you're lucky you made it in here..." routine. Cool. Thanks to everyone.