Reading Sidewalls

My old tires I just replaced were 4 ply tires according to the place I bought them from. I’ve looked at the tires several times, and I can not find any info about 4 ply or C load, E load or anything else. Do any of the photos below tell anyone what load they are?

 

Im no expert but there is an E by the load info, could be an E rated tire

 

The load rating of your old tire is a ISO/ETRTO metric 112 Standard Load. Your old tire is constructed of 5 body plies and 2 sidewall plies.

The old ply system applied to bias plies for strength; more plies>more strength>more ability to hold higher pressure>higher load rating.

Modern LT tires with radial plies, in the C(6ply), D(8ply), E(10ply) rating, do not actually contain that number of plies. They are often constructed with the same number of body and sidewall plies as your old tire; just tougher, thicker materials. Modern LT tires are often listed with the ISO/ETRTO load rating number; see chart below.

Your old tire had a max load of 2,469 lbs.
P metric and ISO/ETRTO metric tires are derated for use on trucks and SUVs by a factor of 1.1.
2,469/1.1=2,245

Compared to a similar sized LT-metric, in either a C, D or E load rating; 48 psi would obtain a 2,269 lb load rating.

Basically, your old tire is comparable to a C load/6 ply LT-metric, in the same size.

Notice, it cross references the ISO/ETRO load ratings; C(110), D(117), E(121).

 

These are not LT tires, the post above puts them at c load rating. I disagree, and so does coopers website. these are STD LOAD range, or passenger tires, STD is below C.

Says standard load right on the tire.

Shown is coopers site, with both sizes in LT, and passenger. 112 corresponds to the thinner weaker tire., specs show load designation. Plus max psi 44lbs, lol
http://us.coopertire.com/tires/discoverer-a-t3-suv.aspx
Also these tires are quite old at 4 years. manufactured in March of 14. Tire lose grip as the chemicals that make it pliable evaporate over time. They dry out. Not worth much, let them go.

 

Says "standard load " right on them. /thread. Plus the 44psi max should tell you something

 

These are a P metric tire or standard load passenger tire. An LT tire will be duly marked with an LT and then directly aft the sizing it shows the load range. These tires have none of that. Post #3 is incorrect in judgement that it is a LT tire it is no.

You can find even more information at the first site.
https://www.tireindustry.org/reading-tire-sidewall

https://www.pepboys.com/tires/treadsmart/understanding_tire_markings/

 

I did not say, 'they are an LT' or 'lesser than', 'greater than' or 'equivelant' to a C load rating.
I said they are "comparable to"...

I think you have a misunderstanding of the entirety of my post and what I was trying to convey.

Here's a 265/70/17 graphed in P-metric SL, P-metric XL, C, D, E.
Can we agree it's an accurate representation of the relationship between them all?

 

The load rating of a high load index or the XL P rating can be equal to that of an LT C load range you are correct in saying this. Where the LT comes into play is the rubber compounds, belts, inner carcass, the apex of the sidewall and how the tire beads are made. Also usually with LT tires you have more than 10/32 of tread which is the box standard for P metric. So yes they do have some equivalency to a C load range but only in their load carrying capacity.

For the OP where you find the load index is that # 112T whith all the inflation specs and weight carrying specs of the tire.

 

Your tires are a standard load tire (4 ply equivalent. This means that the tire is capable of supporting the same amount of weight as a traditional 4 ply nylon-only bias-ply tire)
The 112 means that they are rated for a maximum of 2469lbs (as stated immediately afterward) at a maximum pressure of 44psi.
The T after it means that they are rated for a maximum safe speed of 118mph.
The E11 means that they are registered for use in Europe.
The DOT code breaks down as follows: UT is the identifier for which plant they were made in. C2 is the manufacturer's tire sizing code. 1A6 is the manufacturer's brand identifier. The 1114 means that they were built in the 11th week of 2014.

Edit-
265 means that when mounted on a wheel and inflated the tire will measure 265mm from sidewall to sidewall (the section width)
70 means that the sidewall height when mounted and inflated will be 70% of that 265mm (or roughly 185mm in your case)
16 is the rim diameter, in inches.

But you probably already knew that part.

 

What he said^^^

 

Thank you everyone. Even after reading this thread and looking at all the links, it remains confusing to me as to how to read sidewalls. However, my suspicions that these tires were not what I originally wanted are confirmed. It’s probably a wonder that I got 20k miles, mostly logging roads, out of these tires. 4 ply tires, or “P” tires just don’t belong out there and I knew that when I bought these. I ordered 10 ply tires and they sold me 4 ply tires. I got sick of fixing flats. By the way, I just replaced them with some Cooper ST Maxx’s with a load rating of E.

Now, I grew up with 4 ply, 6 ply and so on. These C, D, E ratings are new to me.

 

This on the same lines as reading side walls, but concerning the born on date. How old of a tire would you guys be willing to run?

 

Depends on how it's been stored. If it's been in a central hub warehouse then it's been in a climate-controlled environment and out of the sun; they can go 10 years without any degradation. But if some parts store has kept them in an uninsulated trailer out back, 5 or 6 years is about as old as I'd go.
But, keep in mind that Manufacturer's warranties start from the moment they're installed on your vehicle, NOT when they're produced. So as long as you keep your install paperwork it doesn't matter how old they are, they're still covered under warranty. Most tire companies go 5-6 years for manufacturer's defect warranties, which is longer than a set is likely to last on the average daily driver.

 

Most manuf pull tires out of circulation if they are just sitting in their warehouse for 2yrs. This is spot on advice!

 

Yes and no. We've gotten deliveries from Goodyear before that had tires that were already 3+ years old. But, generally they try to catch those before they go out to a distributor, you're correct.
However, individual distributors are a different story entirely; once they get inventory in they can't really send it back to the manufacturer for being 'too old' so for odd sizes/models it's not uncommon to run across 4 or 5 year old DOT's that were delivered to the retail store yesterday, lol. But, distributors keep their tires in the controlled environments I mentioned above, so they're still essentially the same as the day they came out of the mold.