Old tires squealing and fishtailing

My wife’s 2005 Tacoma (V6 SR5 TRD Off-Road) has four Michelin LTX A/T2 tires, size 265/70R16, purchased by her late husband. Although they have 48K miles on them, the tread wear is pretty decent with 6-7/32” (4.5 - 5.5mm) remaining. I noticed, however, that they have been squealing when making the sharp turn onto our asphalt driveway, and last week she had severe fishtailing when making a turn onto a wet asphalt paved road. In digging through her paperwork I discovered the tires are actually nine years old.

Could the age of these tires alone cause the apparent loss of traction we are seeing, or is alignment or pressure bigger factors?

The truck was garaged for about seven years of the tires' life and parked outdoors for the last two years. I always set the tire pressures to just 2-3 pounds over the recommended pressure on the decal. I checked the rear pressures today - one was 33.5 psi, about where I last set it, and the other was 29.5 (decal is 32 psi). There is no visual cracking on the sidewalls or tread surfaces, just some shallow fine cracking on the side of the outer treads.

If tire age is the issue could you recommend good quality replacement tires? The truck does little hauling and is driven fairly gently, seeing about 70/30 of paved vs gravel roads in a hilly environment with a few snow and ice storms each year (Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia at 2,500 – 3,200’ elevation). The gravel roads can sometimes be a bit rough and steep and it is not uncommon to have to park on grass.

It only sees about 1,500 miles/year so tread life is not an issue at all. Priorities are first traction (dry, wet, and snow) with comfort/noise second and price third.

Thanks!

 

Tires are not worth getting into an accident . It sounds like they are shot , be careful and GL .

 

Usually after 10 years they go bad, but I would just replace them to make myself feel better about myself or my spouse driving. If tires sit for a long time with weight, they will crack on the bottom. Usually you can tell from a visual inspection. Oh and the 4 digit code on the side of the tire, ie 1619, means it was made in the 16th week of 2019

 

Replace them yesterday. I change tires every 5 years regardless of mileage even if they still have plenty of tread left.

 

Could be tires or alignment, I wouldn't drive a car with 9 year old tires on it, so I would start there.

 

Thank you all for your help. I will buy a new set of tires and get an alignment. Plugging my criterion into Tire Rack, the top two performers are the Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus and the Continental TerrainContact A/T. I have also read good reviews for the Falken Wildpeak AT3W tires. Anyone have experience with these tires?

 

Falken AT3W is a nice AT that is snow rated and has a nice amount of siping, since you are in the mountains.

 

Sitting outside for longer periods and that old of a tire = dried out rubber which = slicker than normal which = slides more easily.

 

yes

 

I dont like Pirelli tires . GL .

 

Careful OP...
We all know what happened to the last guy that bought your wife tires.

 

Not worth the risk.....get some new ones.

 

So I think I am settled on the Falken Wildpeak AT3W tires. My owners manual calls for size P265/70R16 T111. Is this the best for my driving conditions?

"The truck does little hauling and is driven fairly gently, never over 70 mph, seeing about 70/30 of paved vs gravel roads in a hilly environment with a few snow and ice storms each year (Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia at 2,500 – 3,200’ elevation). The gravel roads can sometimes be a bit rough and steep, sometimes crosses shallow streams, and it is not uncommon to have to park on grass. It only sees about 1,500 miles/year so tread life is not an issue at all. Priorities are first traction (dry, wet, and snow) with comfort/noise second and price third."

Thanks again for all of your help!