Date Of Manufacture?

SportFury70

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Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone would know the date of manufacturer on a pair of tires I got that I'm trying to sell. I got these from a friend to change out my old bald tires on my daily driver for, and although they got real good tread and no dry rot on them they don't beed on my rim so I'm selling them. The brand on them is Cornell Scambler A/S if anyone remembers those. I ask this question because I got a potential buyer for them and he is asking the question I'm stumped on. I ask because it's mostly letters after DOT. It says...... DOT JT66 B6P166 S9L. However in little tiny numbers across from the DOT letters and numbers it says R-7589. Could they possibly be from 1989? I wish I could post a picture but I can't right now because all our stuff from our living room is in front of the computer because we are gonna be getting new carpet soon.

Thank you for your time and to all who respond, it is appreciated.
 
Usually the last number of the DOT code is the last number of the year, but they used to only give you one number. Newer tires show the year as the last two digits.
 
Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone would know the date of manufacturer on a pair of tires I got that I'm trying to sell. I got these from a friend to change out my old bald tires on my daily driver for, and although they got real good tread and no dry rot on them they don't beed on my rim so I'm selling them. The brand on them is Cornell Scambler A/S if anyone remembers those. I ask this question because I got a potential buyer for them and he is asking the question I'm stumped on. I ask because it's mostly letters after DOT. It says...... DOT JT66 B6P166 S9L. However in little tiny numbers across from the DOT letters and numbers it says R-7589. Could they possibly be from 1989? I wish I could post a picture but I can't right now because all our stuff from our living room is in front of the computer because we are gonna be getting new carpet soon.

Thank you for your time and to all who respond, it is appreciated.
Something isn't quite right here. A pre-2000 tire would only have 3 digits for the date code with the last digit being the year. Post-2000 will have 4 digits. None of those numbers look like it.

Flip the tires over and look on the other side for the codes. Sometimes they are only on one side.

The guy that might help here is @cbarge . He's been in the tire business.
 
Tires can look fine, hold air, and have a good amount of tread on them AND be dry-rotted internally. When I bought my '67 Newport in 1981, it had some Montgomery Ward bias-ply whtiewall tires on it. Which, considering the age demographics of the earlier owner, kind of fit.

So they looked good and held air and did not vibrate on the road. UNTIL I had to make a mild swerve to miss a dog which suddenly ran across the highway at night. No big deal, but about 10 miles later, the lh frt corner of the car was lower than the rh frt corner. Dead tire, so I put on the OEM spare, which held up until I could get the car home and parked. Then used my '70 Monaco until I could get some fabric-belt Kelly-Springfield radials (WHEN we could still get P225/75R-14 whitewalls in the 1982 timeframe). In a time BEFORE we knew anything about "tire age" . . . as long as it held air, it was good, back then, we thought.

The tire production date should be visible on the outside of the tire sidewall, but might be in the "burned-in" small section on the inside sidewall, near the bead. I bought a car a few years ago. One reason I bought it was that it had some good-treaded Sears-Michelins on it. Again, given the demographics of the prior owners and their living location, fit. So I bought it online, looking at the provided pictures on the dealership website. After a month, I pulled it out of the building to see what I had bought. I checked the date code on the tires and discovered they were righth at 10yrs old, to the day when I looked. So I called our local Michelin dealer and ordered up some new Defenders for it.

As mentioned, tire sidewall informaiton decoders are very available online.

Just my experiences,
CBODY67
 
When I bought mine in 2014 it had Michelins with what looked like near new tread. They drove fine but once I looked at the inside sidewalls they were cracks all over. At the tire place getting new ones I asked if they could tell me how old they were but there wasn't a date code, according to the manager he said they had to be pre 1988.
 
I found this:
The DOT required a TIN (Tire Identification Number) on all tires beginning in 1968, but at that time, the manufacturers were permitted to use their own proprietary coding formats. The regulation was modified in late 1970, and DOT mandated a standard format for the coding beginning in May, 1971, with the last three digits signifying the week of the year and the year. The format was revised again in 1999 so the last four digits signified the date, with the last two being the year.
 
since the same mold was used over and over the date code was usually on a tag that screwed into the mold...so it usually appears as a sunken oval shaped spot that sometimes has imprints of screw heads on either side of the numbers...usually only on the inside of the tire so a curb shot wouldn't wear it off and fairly close to the bead
 
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Those tires are OLD
Sold through Pep Boys and were manufactured by Cooper on their behalf.
Nowadays Cooper is owned by Goodyear.
Sell them AS IS..ful disclosure no warranty.
Good chance buyer will decline once they see tha they are old.
 
Bald tires on your daily driver, got ancient tires from a friend that won't bead on your wheels, so sell them to someone else???

picard-facepalm-face-palm.jpg

5aa22d7456db5.image.jpg
 
since the same mold was used over and over the date code was usually on a tag that screwed into the mold...so it usually appears as a sunken oval shaped spot that sometimes has imprints of screw heads on either side of the numbers...usually only on the inside of the tire so a curb shot wouldn't wear it off and fairly close to the bead
Although I will check again and confirm it on here this sounds like what I got, and it said S9L when I looked at it
 
Bald tires on your daily driver, got ancient tires from a friend that won't bead on your wheels, so sell them to someone else???

View attachment 587591
View attachment 587592

I know it's not the smartest idea, my stepdad even said to get rid of them too. I just figured since to me they're in pretty good shape I would at least try to sell em so someone else can maybe use em for whatever the case maybe, and to get some more extra money in my pocket. The tires I got now on my daily driver are 31X10.50R15 and the tires I'm trying to sell and find the date of manufacturer of are 30X9.50R15. My bald tires will get broke down and thrown away.
 
Old tires and bald tires can cause a serious accident. Don’t endanger your life or someone else’s life. If you can’t afford new tires shop around for some good used ones that are not old. Maybe Pandolfe’s or Terryville Auto parts will have some. I don’t recommend using different tire brands to make a full set of 4 tires. Check Facebook marketplace.
 
I know it's not the smartest idea, my stepdad even said to get rid of them too. I just figured since to me they're in pretty good shape I would at least try to sell em so someone else can maybe use em for whatever the case maybe, and to get some more extra money in my pocket. The tires I got now on my daily driver are 31X10.50R15 and the tires I'm trying to sell and find the date of manufacturer of are 30X9.50R15. My bald tires will get broke down and thrown away.

pxl_20201125_165416454-dot-jpg.jpg

When I was in tech school, the rule for radials was replace after a max time of 10 years.
For cars made 2000 and later, look for the 4-digit DOT code, Month/Year. 4020 means 40th week of 2020 is date of production.
For tires made prior to 2000, DOT code is 3 digits, 2 digits for week, 1 digit for last digit of year, so 202 may be 20th week 1992. 3 digit tires are double max allowable age.
I agree with Big John. Flip over the tires and find the correct code. Usually date code is only on one side.
 
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