Dry rot on 4.5 year old Falkens? (2 Viewers)

[eatSleepWoof]

I posted a thread in Tire and Wheel Tech yesterday, but that sub-forum seems to be borderline dead, so reposting for my 200 series brethren!

These were installed on my 2014 LX570 on May 22, 2020, at 64,000km. I'm currently at 126,000km, so that's just about exactly 62,000km, or 38,500 miles. Lots of gravel roads (frequently while towing) and lots of pavement towing, but otherwise normal, road-going use.

I've never seen such cracks on tires before, but all four of mine (haven't checked the spare) are covered in these. All cracks are located in between the protruding tread. The sidewalls seem to be fine.

I wiped down the tires a bit at the crack locations for photos, thus the colour difference there.

One of these tires started slowly leaking air the last few weeks, but others are holding fine. Am I correct in assuming these are no longer safe to drive on and I'll have to shell out for a new set next spring?'

It seems like dry rot, but given that the tires have only seen 4.5 years of use, and especially since they sat in my garage three of the four winters, that seems a bit quick for dry rot to kick in. Any thoughts?

 

[TheComedian]

Hmm you probably said it. Frequently towing. This together with gravel n stuff is just something that puts way more stress to your tire.

 

[bloc]

Not the first falken I’ve seen this on, though I haven’t owned any.

 

[TeCKis300]

Interesting. To answer your question, it's probably advisable to move on to a new tire as these are compromised.

The why is probably more difficult. I'd imagine it could be a combination of heavy towing, cold weather, combined with potentially a manufacturing rubber formulation defect. I would look into warranty as IIRC, AT3Ws have a 55k warranty?

That said, I put my AT3Ws through hard use and heavy towing and never saw this over the 35k miles I ran them. Even sold them for $200 bucks after as they had plenty of tread and still looked great.

I've seen this in other brands as well but usually earlier in their lifecycle.

 

[TLC2013]

I have seen similar wear and "cuts" on E rated Toyo AT3s that saw moderate off road and rocky terrain. For me personally, after 38,000 miles of use and offroading I'd chalk it up to being par for the course. With that said, as @TeCKis300 mentioned, it's definitely worth attempting to warranty them out. Maybe get a pro-rated credit for another set of tires.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Thanks everyone. Gave the tire shop a call and sent them some photos. They'll get back to me once the manager gets in.

Also took a measurement and see I have 6/32nds of tread left.

 

[TimCFJ40]

What's the date of manufacture on those? With the AT3Ws being released in 2016 or so, it's not impossible that your set sat around a little bit somewhere before you got them. Agree with other posters, get whatever warranty coverage they'll give you and move on. 38.5k miles and 4.5 years isn't an awful lifespan for a tire used hard on a heavy vehicle.

 

[Sandroad]

Winter storage was mentioned……both the Tire Rack and etrailer have articles about cracking developing in tires that are stored and not used for long periods. I wonder if that had something to do with the early failure more than type of use? I think others posting have been too generous about the Falkens. IMHO, a properly inflated tire that has the right specs for the vehicle should not fail like that and need warranty coverage.

https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/should-i-replace-my-trucks-spare-tire

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Winter storage was mentioned……both the Tire Rack and etrailer have articles about cracking developing in tires that are stored and not used for long periods. I wonder if that had something to do with the early failure more than type of use? I think others posting have been too generous about the Falkens. IMHO, a properly inflated tire that has the right specs for the vehicle should not fail like that and need warranty coverage.

https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/should-i-replace-my-trucks-spare-tire

I suppose that could be a factor, but who knows.

Other sites that I've read suggest that temperature changes could cause such issues, too. So on one hand you've got issues if the tire sits in the (warm) garage, on the other hand you've got issues if the tire experiences very cold temps. Lose/lose.

For what it's worth, I typically use my winter tires for about four, at most five months. So that's not quite the same "years" that were discussed in the article above.

 

[04UZJ100]

That’s not dry rot. That’s superficial surface cracking. Every KO2, Nokian, and Michelin that I have run in the last 10 years has similar surface appearance.

 

[linuxgod]

Are these factory size or oversized? What tire pressure do you run when towing? What's your front and rear axle weight when you tow? My gut says underinflation when towing has played a role

The tire might not be leaking air in the treads. If there's any corrosion on the wheels that can cause leaking along the bead. Also a bad valve stem. The tires are multiple layers of rubber vulcanized, so just because there are cracks in the top layer doesn't mean the rest of the tire isn't fine, and it's unlikely IMO to be leaking from them unless (a) you've had a nail which compromised all the layers and patched it, or (b) the tire is dry rotted on the inside and the only thing holding it together is the outer layer. B seems highly unlikely.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

That’s not dry rot. That’s superficial surface cracking. Every KO2, Nokian, and Michelin that I have run in the last 10 years has similar surface appearance.

I've ran several sets of KO2s on my previous Tacoma, but have never seen these kinds of cracks. Had a few Nokian and Michelin tires on previous SUVs, too.

Are these factory size or oversized? What tire pressure do you run when towing? What's your front and rear axle weight when you tow? My gut says underinflation when towing has played a role

The tire might not be leaking air in the treads. If there's any corrosion on the wheels that can cause leaking along the bead. Also a bad valve stem. The tires are multiple layers of rubber vulcanized, so just because there are cracks in the top layer doesn't mean the rest of the tire isn't fine, and it's unlikely IMO to be leaking from them unless (a) you've had a nail which compromised all the layers and patched it, or (b) the tire is dry rotted on the inside and the only thing holding it together is the outer layer. B seems highly unlikely.

These are 275/60/20, P-rated. So, oversized.

When towing I have my rears set to 38psi cold, and fronts to 34psi cold. In practice, both are about 4-5psi higher when hot. I haven't gone to the scales with the current trailer (bought in Jan of this year), so can't speak to axle weights. Previous trailers were lighter (in the 3000-3500lb range) and I didn't use WD hitches with them.

As far as air leaking - yup, understood. Not necessarily the "cracks".

 

[gaijin]

These are 275/60/20, P-rated. So, oversized.

You may be interested in this Recall Notice from the NHTSA:

You can find it on the web here: Falken Tire Recall

HTH

 

[eatSleepWoof]

You may be interested in this Recall Notice from the NHTSA:

View attachment 3772399

You can find it on the web here: Falken Tire Recall

HTH

Thanks, gaijin! Although that's for AT4W, and I've got the older AT3W. Unless the recall affects both? I'll check that link.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Update:

The tire shop asked me to bring the tires in for them to have a look, take photos, etc.

They did not think these cracks are dry rot, but could not tell me exactly why this is happening. They did point out (correctly) that I have more inside-tire wear than outside (on 3 of the 5 tires), so I need to get an alignment done. They stipulated that the cracks may be due to the alignment issue, and that "the factory" (which makes the final call on warranty issues) is likely to reject the claim because of that. They couldn't explain the presence of the same cracks on two tires that do not have uneven wear, and also were convinced that the four-digit tire manufacture date is month/year (vs. it actually being week/year), so potentially questionable knowledge there.

In any case, I've got zero leverage in the situation, so will wait to hear back what the factory says.

I do need an alignment, though.

These are two of the three tires that show uneven wear:

 

[Sandroad]

Update:

The tire shop asked me to bring the tires in for them to have a look, take photos, etc.

They did not think these cracks are dry rot, but could not tell me exactly why this is happening. They did point out (correctly) that I have more inside-tire wear than outside (on 3 of the 5 tires), so I need to get an alignment done. They stipulated that the cracks may be due to the alignment issue, and that "the factory" (which makes the final call on warranty issues) is likely to reject the claim because of that. They couldn't explain the presence of the same cracks on two tires that do not have uneven wear, and also were convinced that the four-digit tire manufacture date is month/year (vs. it actually being week/year), so potentially questionable knowledge there.

In any case, I've got zero leverage in the situation, so will wait to hear back what the factory says.

I do need an alignment, though.

These are two of the three tires that show uneven wear:

Hard to believe a so-called tire shop can’t date a tire. Their very long year must have 52 months in it.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Hard to believe a so-called tire shop can’t date a tire. Their very long year must have 52 months in it.

They're very nice guys, but... yeah, that was a red flag.

My tire stamp is 08/20, and I had to explain that there was no way it could be the month (08 = August), since the tires were installed in May...

 

[gasman4u]

They're very nice guys, but... yeah, that was a red flag.

My tire stamp is 08/20, and I had to explain that there was no way it could be the month (08 = August), since the tires were installed in May...

@eatSleepWoof at the tire shop. Colorized.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

It's been a week of silence, so I called the tire shop for an update...

"Unfortunately, since the tire is below 3/32" on the outer edge, it's considered worn out and there is no warranty."

Alright then, guess that's the last set of Falkens for me.

 

[Fisher23]

I think there is a serial number on the tire you can get the actual build date from.