Tires, How old are they?

[Lumatic]

On my 73 I have a set of Monarch Tires which came with the coach when I got it in 2001. They still have a lot of tread, no cracks in sidewalls or in the tread. I do not see a DOT number or any other date of manufacture type number anywhere. Is there another way to date them. Did I just miss the DOT # could it be on the other side of the tire?

[2airishuman]

yes the dot date code can be on the other side...

cheers
2air'

[Lumatic]

Yup, the codes were all on the inboard side of the tires. The code is
PKMV MBLT 042. Could I be so lucky the tire was manufactued in the 42nd week of 2000? This would as I understand it mean the tire is about due to be replaced but not as bad as 1990 or 1980 even.

[azflycaster]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Yup, the codes were all on the inboard side of the tires. The code is
PKMV MBLT 042. Could I be so lucky the tire was manufactued in the 42nd week of 2000? This would as I understand it mean the tire is about due to be replaced but not as bad as 1990 or 1980 even.

Since you have a 3 digit code your tires are from the 90's (or later). I would read the 042 as the forth week of 1992. Time for new tires....

Date Codes: Every tire has a date code stamped on the sidewall, which gives the date that the tire was manufactured. They look something like this: DOT PDHH MLOR 3403. The date code can be on either side of the tire, so you may have to crawl underneath the rig and look on the inward facing side. The date code always starts with the letters DOT and ends with a 3 or 4 digit number. That last number is the date code, which tells you when the tire was manufactured. The first two numbers indicate the week (out of 52) and the last one or two digits indicate the year. For instance, 3403 means the 34th week of 2003, or the last week in August 2003. Starting with the year 2000, the date codes have two digits for the year, prior to that, only one. A date code of 079 would indicate the seventh week of 1999, or the third week of February 1999.

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Yup, the codes were all on the inboard side of the tires. The code is
PKMV MBLT 042. Could I be so lucky the tire was manufactued in the 42nd week of 2000? This would as I understand it mean the tire is about due to be replaced but not as bad as 1990 or 1980 even.

That would be the last week in January, 1992. 15 year old tires! Time for replacements. If you aren't towing anywhere, you can wait until you are ready to go, then replace them. The clock starts ticking as soon as they are manufactured.