mbinohio wrote: I retired from the tire business, I had a fairly large wholesale business and retail was a secondary line, in 31 yrs in the business I never had any wholesaler ask about build dates, I did have a few retail customers ask and we just refused to go thru a pile of tires in a warehouse to find new dates, alot easier to just blow the customer off, I know nobody wants to hear that but we never had time to screw with build dates, nothing in my inventory was over a year old, and to sit in a dark warehouse pushing tires around to find a build date sure isn't worth a 4 tire sale..........
In other words....I could care less because "there's a sucker born every minute?"
2003 Holiday Rambler Traveler 28RB
2008 Honda CRV
Rent the movie "Into the Wild" Anyone who enjoys camping is sure to love it.
Hi, like mentioned above, if you put a lot of miles per year on your vehicles, A DOT date of just over one year might not be such a big deal. But since trailers don't usually travel that much per year and trailer tires will most likely fly apart before you wear them out, you want the freshest trailer tires that you can get. My vehicles don't get driven that much per year so I want the freshest tires for all of my vehicles. My Lincoln is a year 2000 model and just hit 90,000 miles. (low miles per year) My trailer is about seven years old and I have replaced four tires on it. Two were about three years old and had small sidewall bubbles. The last two were originals (7 years old) and started to have tread separation. I don't think I will ever replace a tire on my trailer because it wore out.
Bob
2005 Airstream Safari 25-B
2000 Lincoln Navigator
Equal-i-zer
Yamaha 2400
mbinohio wrote: I retired from the tire business, I had a fairly large wholesale business and retail was a secondary line, in 31 yrs in the business I never had any wholesaler ask about build dates, I did have a few retail customers ask and we just refused to go thru a pile of tires in a warehouse to find new dates, alot easier to just blow the customer off, I know nobody wants to hear that but we never had time to screw with build dates, nothing in my inventory was over a year old, and to sit in a dark warehouse pushing tires around to find a build date sure isn't worth a 4 tire sale..........
In other words....I could care less because "there's a sucker born every minute?"
No, to all of you. " . . I had a fairly large wholesale business and retail was a secondary line"
The main business was wholesale. Have any of ever seen a truckload of tires unloaded at once, especially tires for big trucks? Heavy, dirty, and need to be separated out for various other customers (retailers). The service trucks or whoever came by to pick up a few tires to have mounted was done more as a minor benefit, or to take care of fleet buyers, etc. Not a profit center.
Now, that man's business may have been different, but I sure wouldn't -- nor I believe would you -- increase an already fairly high labor cost for a "problem" most of us hadn't heard of ten years ago. Forget what life was like pre-Internet?
If my main business is wholesale, then problem retail customers can go elsewhere. In the meantime they may also lose what "my" staff has to say about longevity, resistance to puncture, out-of-round, etc on tire brands, sizes, ranges, etc.
I pay attention to date code. It's important to me that the tires be of the same build lot. But I'd be dumb to discount advice on specific truck or trailer tires, too. If it's a trade-off, then it depends on the trailer and it's usage.
A wholesaler with unsold stock due to poorly manufactured product would soon be in trouble. Sheer volume has it's place as big customers are quick to complain, and warranty costs (to "me", the business owner) never recoup the total time and money spent to rectify them. "I" need to know what it good, and why.