Tired Tires

[SkySteve]

Yesterday I needed to plow snow, so out to the shop I went only to find a flat tire on the front of my 1947 International Farmall tractor. Pulled the tire off and headed to town for a fix at the local Discount Tire Store. I was told they could not fix the flat because the tire was over 10 years old. They explained it was a Federal law! In fact, had the tire been on a vehicle they couldn't pull it off, nor could they rotate the tire. It's the law, they said.

Well, I stared calling around and found a local independent and one national chain tire dealer that would help me. I dare not mention the names of either one in print for fear they may get a visit from the Feds.

What's going on here? I mean really, this is a tractor tire from a 1947 tractor, max speed about 10 miles per hour. I have purchased tires from Discount Tires for years and have several vehicles where tires don't see much use and last for years. Tractor tires, flat bed tires, horse trailer tires, farm truck tires, farm implement tires, Kitfox tires, etc.

So why post this rant? To make you aware that if you need to have a flat on your airplane or airplane transport trailer you may find yourselves at odds with the Big Brother Feds. If you want to rotate tires on your toy hauler you may find yourselves at odds with Big Brother Feds. Where will all this "helpfulness" stop???

[szicree]

To the best of my knowledge there is no Federal law regarding tire age. I think the tire shop guy was misinformed/confused.

[Mnflyer]

Hi Steve, I have goggled and Binged every-way I could think and failed to find any Fed Regs pertaining to a year time age limit for tires. Likewise I'm thinking the fellow was confused about it. Now it could be a state reg(?) I did find where Calif is considering age and tire air pressure regs.

[Dave S]

Steve,

Kinda think this is how urban legends get started - whenever anyone says something goofy is "against the law" - ask them to please identify the specific USC (United states code) or CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) or State statute, or state rule or whatever they think it is......my bet is they can't....because it does not exist.

FYI - for my day job - I work with both federal and state law & rule and I cannot tell you the number of times that I have found that someone has claimed there is a law or rule (which if it were true would coincidentally enhance their income) but it is just plain untruth.

Sometimes the government gets credit for things that it hasn't even done.....

Just work with the guy who will fix you tire and forget other.

Dave S

[SkySteve]

Just to clear up this issue. I just got off the phone with the manager of Discount Tire. The issue is NOT a Federal law, it is a new company policy for Discount Tire only. They have had a few cases where an older tire exploded while breaking the bead when taking the tire off the rim, therefore this is now their own policy. Sorry about the confusion. Hopefully this will not happen to any of us.