Dating a tire

[Living in the Past]

Removing some old tires off of some stock rims and came across one I'm sure if it was original. FJ40 welded wheel stamped 5 1/2JJX1540 74/1 which I'm guessing is January 1974. Tire is a Dunlop Weathermaster 7.6X15 4ply both tread and sidewall. Nylon tube tyre. What I think is a date code is BDW451. Tube in the tire is a Dunlop tube. Only has three patches in the tube but still holds air.

How do you read the date on tires? Was it the same code back then as it is now. I did a tire date search and came up with pages. Tire date code would be a nice sticky.

 

[Fast Eddy]

> Dating a tire.

Times are tough, eh?

 

[skidplate]

Probably more personality than alot of brain dead, self centered chicks with their nose burried in an electronic social device. As for the tyre and tube, I'd be interested in knowing when they were made.

 

[MatS]

There are numbers on the sidewall of the tire that say the week/year the tire was made. Typically there are DOT ##A# #AA# (ww/yy).... the numbers after the DOT stamp are irrelevant but the 3rd set of 4 numbers are the ones you want, 4589 would be a tire made in 45th week of 1989 and something like 1206 would be a tire made in the 12th week of 2006.

 

[Living in the Past]

Thanks for that but I think the date coding may have changed over the years. I have some old tires on jeep rims from the MBT 1/4 trailer I have. The one I checked also has DOT then four characters then in the oval area there are three letters followed by three numbers. I have another tire that the size is listed 10R15LT M\S This is a BFGoodrich tire. After the DOT it has BEAN WK 1261. I find it hard to believe this tire is from March 1960. There just doesn't seem to be anything standard on the date codes.

 

[Gumby]

Standardized Date coding didn't start on all tires until 2000.

 

[Living in the Past]

Standardized Date coding didn't start on all tires until 2000.

Thank you that makes sense. It's been forty years since I bought my 68 and to be honest I can't remember for sure if it had tube tires. It may have, tires were not original. Tires didn't last as long as they do today. I remember they still had the rubber band that protected the tube from the rivets.
My 74 wheel did not have the rubber band or signs it ever had one but it is also welded with no rivets to wear on a tube. My 73 Owner's Manual only references tire size at 7.10-15 4 ply or 7.6-15 4 ply for soft/hard top models and 7.6-15 4ply for the wagon. No mention of tube or tubeless.