Would you use a never used 12 year old tire?

[old mechanic]

My older car has a spare tire that has never been used since 1993. I have always hit it to see if it has air but have never added air in 12 years and I just checked the air pressure and its 27 lbs. It has been in the trunk with a rug cover on it since new. I am pretty tire savy and would never use any older tire on the freeway but the car only gets used about 30-50 miles a week if that on 25-45MPH roads.
Question is would you put this tire on if it was your car? A lot of guys ( at the coffee shop) LOL are saying YES!

 

[james t]

If it had no signs of cracking then yes....... but im not telling you to use it.... *end of disclaimer

The biggest destructive force on a tire is sunlight, followed by heat. Or, it could be heat followed by sunlight depending on the situation. Either way, your spare has been subjected to neither so i think it will be fine.

 

[ShinySideDown]

id probably put it on the back, not the front.
easier to control in a blowout situation.......

 

[IAmTodd]

id probably put it on the back, not the front.
easier to control in a blowout situation.......

Yes, thats something you always do. Unless of course its a newer tire.

 

[old mechanic]

Hummm! I always thought that you could control a front blow out but you cannot control a rear blowout!

 

[Texan01]

I'd use it, like James said, the biggest enemy to tires is UV damage from sun exposure. I had an 86 Pontiac and the original spare had never been used and I actually needed it, the tire was 14 years old

I'm helping afriend restore a 1971 Chevelle convertible and it had 20 year old bias ply tires, the car sat in a garage since 1983 and the tires were in good shape but hard as a rock and out of round, though they never did show any signs of potiential disaster they were squirelly as all get out and had no traction (really cool burnouts that didn't wear the tread much!)

 

[Billy177]

speaking of chevelles when my friend got his to restore it had the original front tires from 1968 they were flat but we pumped em up and they have held air for over a month

 

[ShinySideDown]

Hummm! I always thought that you could control a front blow out but you cannot control a rear blowout!

dont want to lose steering, or have it pull hard in whichever direction.

losing traction merely involves letting off the gas...
ive had rear blowouts at 80 in a work truck, and it was actually easy to control to get pulled over.

 

[SVO]

I'd change that air!

 

[Crankcase]

I put on two FIRESTONE ATX spares on my x that had been the spares on two different X's...they were brand new after 8-9 years- still had the colors on the tread.....They never failed.