Tire age question

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JoeandJane

JoeandJane

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2014
Posts
188
Location
Tucson AZ
We had a tire failure two weeks ago when we hit a piece of debris on the road, blew out the tire and did some damage to the side of the motorhome.    Insurance company is asking when was the last time the tires were changed. Is that going to be something that they will use as a reason to deny a claim?  I believe the tires were eight years old.
 
JoeandJane said:
We had a tire failure two weeks ago when we hit a piece of debris on the road, blew out the tire and did some damage to the side of the motorhome.    Insurance company is asking when was the last time the tires were changed. Is that going to be something that they will use as a reason to deny a claim?  I believe the tires were eight years old.
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It may be. Here on the forum most will say 7 to 8 years old and they should be replaced. I don't know if that's written down on any of the tire web sites. Check the date code on the sidewall. Did you keep the tire?
 
Tire aging - any design - is a very controversial subject. Even tire manufacturer?s, TRA and RMA organizations have no firm answers. The only one that is nearly consistent across the board is the ?drop dead? date. Most agree that 10 years is the limit.

For tires on your RV it could be 5 - 8 years, depending on the manufacturer. Most will say they need to be inspected annually once they pass the individual warranty limit. But, yup, but. Annual mileage on your RV will play a major roll in their life expectancy. No tires do well when inactive for more than a couple of months at a time. They may look like new. Without ever dismounting them for an inspection one cannot tell if trapped internal water has damaged the interior areas. When they fail from the inside, to the outside, they just go boom.

An experienced tire person will be able to tell if your foreign object damage caused the failure of if they were road worthy or not. If not, you can probably expect a hefty increase in your vehicle insurance costs.
 
JoeandJane said:
  Is that going to be something that they will use as a reason to deny a claim?  I believe the tires were eight years old.
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You will need to read your policy or contact your agent to answer that question.
Specifically, look at the exclusions:
A typical exclusion is -  damage due and confined to wear and tear, or road damage to tires.
If your policy is missing the underlined part, you have no coverage for the resulting damage to the motorhome.
Surprisingly, coverage varies considerably between auto policies.
 
Two things apply, one for sure and another "maybe".

#1: Tires are a wear & tear item, so don't expect the insurer to pay for a brand new tire when yours has already served much of its useful life.  They will pro-rate what they pay for a replacement.  That brings us to #2.

#2: Tires have two measures of useful life. Tread wear is one, and there are tire industry standards for measuring that. However, RVs in general and motorhomes in particular often are driven relatively few miles as they age. Tire makers such as Michelin state that 10 years is the max life of their tire, regardless of mileage. Your insurer may have a similar benchmark for age. Many RV experts say that 5-7 years is a reasonable life span for an motorhome tire.

Chances are an 8 year old tire will be considered to be 100% used up, meaning you get  $0 for the tire itself. That should not affect other damages, but it's conceivable the insurer might try to claim you were negligent. Few US policies have that as a reason for denying coverage, but rear the fine print in your policy.
 
We hit a  piece of driveshaft on the highway driving at night last winter. We were in Nevada. It blew our front drivers tire. The tires were brand new just before leaving on the trip. If you hit debris on the road, I dont think the age of the tire is going to matter much to the outcome.
 
Tires are never covered under an auto policy, but the resulting damage to the MH is what's in question.
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I don't think that is true, Bob. Accident damage to a tire is no different than damage to any other component except for the wear & tear pro-rating. I've had an RV tire covered 100% after an accident (it was only 11 months old at the time) and a car tire 90% covered based on tread wear.  I'm talking actual collision damage, not potholes and RR tracks.
 
JoeandJane's accident is in a possible gray area, though, because it does involve damage from road debris. However, most insurance views that as a collision, i.e. the vehicle hit something. Sometimes they get picky, though.
 
IMO the insurer is questioning the cause of the tire damage, ie; was it because of foreign object damage or was it just worn out and blew?

They may want to see the tire that caused the damage their being asked to pay for.
 
One of the ingredients tire manufacturers use in their rubber making process is a chemical compound called AO, (anti-oxidents, and there are several different types). The purpose of AO is to make the rubber more resistant to environmental factors such as ozone, sunlight, etc. As the tire ages, so does the effectiveness of the AO, similar to chlorine in a swimming pool getting used up due to exposure of sunlight. The less exposure your tires have to harsh conditions extends the useful life of the AO. Because manufacturers can't control how end users treat their tires, they set a very conservative timeline on tire life because after all, these products are hauling people and lives are at stake. 8-10 years is the number I always heard too. I just retired from Michelin, and we made the rubber for most of the Michelin plants in the U.S. Of course I'm not a spokesmen for them in any way, and sadly I have Goodyears on my toy hauler, I just know how the rubber is made.
 
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