Tire Rot?

Good Morning!

I've recently became a proud owner of Tacoma Prerunner! Because I'm a noob when it comes to cars and Trucks, I grew up in NYC, I took the truck to a trusted mechanic in Tempe to do a buyer's inspection. The Truck is in great condition and I got a fairly good deal. The problem is the mechanic told me I had dry rot on the tire.

Well naturally I took it back to the dealership and he gave me a bunch of blah blah blah tire pressure blah blah blah. I took his word for it that rot wasn't the issue, mainly because it's a large dealership here in the area and I kinda figured they wouldn't want to jeopardize their reputation.....right?

I've done some research on tire rot and seen some really nasty pics. The tires I have on there are no where near what I've seen and people were still saying, "it's cool to drive, around town NOT highway"

I've got a trip coming up where I'm going to be heading up to Lake Powel, 5 hours away and I want to make sure the tires are in good condition to make the trip. Please have a look and let me know what you think. Thank you

FYI - The tire code puts them somewhere april 2010. Tire Brand is BFG All-Terrain T/A LT285/7-R17(121/118r) The tire shown is the back left one. I can take a photo of each one if necessary. Thanks again.

 

Is that dark vertical line a rubber fin sticking up or a gouge into the tire (hard to tell in the pic). If it's a rubber fin, the tires look fine. Is there a lot of cracking within the tread pattern itself?

 

imo doesn't look normal. I've seen dry rot on tires and it's noting like that. it's more of a cluster of cracks, nothing deep like in the picture.

 

Ya that looks like a seam. Op is that just a flap of rubber? If it is, your tires are totally fine.

 

@whippersnapper02
Thank you for taking a look.

@Pugga
The dark vertical line is just a rubber fin. There is no cracking within the tread...see pic below.

@07TacoRidah
Doesn't look normal

The attached pic is now the front right tire.

 

yes OP as others have said your ok.


your tire looks like it has very early signs of dry rot but looks normal for a tire with that much wear thats in arizona.

nothing to be worried about the tread will probably wear out before dry rot is an issue

 

You guys ROCK!!! You've really helped ease my mind. I was really stressing big time that something may happen 300 miles away from HQ. I really appreciate everyone that took the time to take a look. Thanks a million!!!

 

yea in my years of working highway ive only picked up one bfg all terrain carcass off the road and it was the old style before they changed the side lugs of the tread to the current side lugs

very rare to see a bfg at blow out on the road.

 

also dress your tires with some uv protectant

 

Look fine to me, from what I have read tires have about a 6-year shelf life. My wife doesn't drive a lot and hers rot before they wear out. The 6-year rule was spot on for her last set.

 

after looking at the picture more it was misleading. It looked as if there was a deep gash in the tire, but it was due to the angle. but yeah that's normal. it will come off with time.

 

Tires look fine to me.

 

Looks perfectly normal to me.

 

Op the same thing is happening to my tires. I did some research I guess it's normal nothing to worry about

 

some nice OR would sure as hell give it something to think about >

 

Those don't look bad at all. Tires in Az. do seem to dry rot fast but yours are not very old. My tires are almost eight years old and have 50k miles on them ... they are looking bad def. time to replace. Gotta save up some money though. Anyone know where I can get some 285/50/20 Toyo's for a really good price in Az.

 

Can you recommend any protectant? I sprayed some Armorall on there and later found out that could be the worst thing to do....

 

Try out Maguires tire cleaner. I used Black Magic tire foam and ... .. it's cool and all BUT IF your not gonna move for a while lol (you see this weird residue from the foam when the tires spin, I usually use it when I'm at car meets or just at a spot where my truck isn't going to be moving any time soon).

 

Scroll down some, and you'll see the results of this product (Googled Maguires, was a thumbs down and this was suggested)
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=274770