Preventing Tire dry rot

I was recently gifted a pair of michelin LTX MS tires with only about 10k on them, but they sat for a while on the old vehicle and started to get some small cracks close to the wheel. These only seem to be on the street side of all four tires. I'm wanting to keep these until it's time to replace the factory rugged trails and then I can just swap these on, so I can get some more drive time before it's time to buy another set of tires.

My question is, what can I do to prevent this dry rot from getting worse? They are stored out of the sun, and I was planning on cleaning them and maybe putting something on that would help to prevent any more cracking.

Any ideas?

 

^^^Buy new tires. If they haven't been used on a regular basis and they are older than three years old, buying new ones is your best bet. You can check their age by looking on the whitewall side of the tire. Look for the DOT. There is a four digit number next to it. The first two digits represent the week of the year and the last two digits represent the year. ex: A tire made in the the twenty third week of 2014 would read DOT 2314. A tire made the first week of 2009 would read DOT 0109. The LTX MS is the last generation of that tire line, so I'm guessing they are at least three years old.

 

Pass

 

Tire glaze shiners like armor all make dry rotting worse, just FYI.

 

I agree with George buy new tires. These already are dry rotting and you plan to keep them even longer. They probably already are two or three years old and they'll only be older once your current tires are ready for replacement.

There are ways to slow dry rot however once its begun its a moot point especially when you plan to keep them before even placing them on the truck. If anything once they have been exposed to the elements and used then removed the damage has been done. Tires sitting mounted on a vechile which sits is one of the worst things you can do that just invites dry rot.

Tires actually have a shelf life even if they never get used or mounted they will begin to dry rot. Generally you don't want to use a tire even unused that has been manufactured more than two years prior to the date they are mounted. An old tire will likely dry rot much more rapidly than a truly new tire.

http://car-storage.com/article/tire-dry-rot/

 

Well that's unfortunate, I guess I'll scratch that plan. Thanks for the help guys!

 

Sell them and put the money aside for some new tires