During the 1000 mile trip from DFW to Phoenix I noticed more and more of a shimmy, In Gallup NM I texted my wife and stated my BUttMeter says I need to get my tires balanced when I arrive.

I arrived in Carefree AZ last night at 12, This AM I am first at Discount........the tire guys shows me this on the inside of my tires:

By scotiapilot at 2012-04-05

These tires were new in 2003, I had planned on replacing them after the trip.......I had them all replaced today

 

Wow, I'm not sure how old my tires are but I'm going to take a good look at them tomorrow. This is a good heads up to all of us, thanks.

Mark

 

Degradation is independent of tread wear and tyre age needs to be considered on low use vehicles.

I had a set of wheels with new tyres stored whilst the vehicle underwent a five year restoration. When they came out of storage, all the tyres had similar cracking to your photo. Suppliers explained it as a normal result of UV exposure and recommended a maximum life of 10 years with regular checks from 5 years. As you've found out, it's not just marketing, it's safety.

I now remove all wheels twice a year to check the inside walls.

Graham

 

That makes me cringe. I'm due for new paw-pads, but I've been holding off in case I get a hot deal on an XKR and want to sell what I have (figuring the new owner might want to choose his own tires). I'm definitely not taking mine out of town until I check them again.

 

Glad to hear that your tire guy caught the issue before catastrophic failure occurred....

These large-diameter low-profile high-performance tires seem to be much more susceptible to falling apart, even with low annual mileage and careful attention to tire pressure and wear patterns. My 265/75/16 pickup truck tires may stay on the vehicle for 8 or 10 years a set, doing less than 5,000 miles a year, taking much more of a pounding than any of our Jaguar tires due to carrying lumber, bricks, tile, topsoil, heavy equipment, you name it. Yet other than the expected treadwear, they always look great with no separation, hairline cracks, or dry-rotting anywhere. And they cost about one-third of what a set of our XK8 tires does....

 

There is your explination. High performance tires are much softer than the tires you have on your truck. It (softness=increased grip) is one of the factors that make them high performance.

 

Yet another reason to keep all-season tires on our XK8. Not being as soft as summer tires, they should be less susceptible to cracking, separating, or dry-rotting....