How to properly store high-performance tires

Reading this made me realize that I have a set of tires that have probably aged out to the point that they should be rehomed. (And that new home might well be the tire disposal pile at the landfill.)

Are you looking for volunteers to use up tires?  If I only lived closer.  

It is possible to get completely anal about race tires.   Such as:  Not let the installer us liquid to mount them.  Then use a vacuum pump to remove most the air.  Then fill with nitrogen.  repeat.  Inflate to projected "hot" pressure. Measure circumference.  Record.  Set to "cold" pressure. Scuff on Friday practice.  Record "hot" pressure each time car comes off track on pit lane. Remeasure. Store in shade at the track.  Sometimes flip on the rim and move to opposite side of car if reusing.  Deflate and store in black plastic bags when back at air-conditioned shop. ( I probably forgot to type a few steps.)  Rinse and repeat.

Don't ask how I know.  But I did learn the process from a 7 time national champion.

Looking out at my street-parked daily, I feel kind of bad for those tires.

Granted, they aren't high-performance tires, but I still feel bad. Someday, I'll have a garage.

I've always taken off my autocross tires and stored them in the garage between events. I would air them down to about 17 pounds and bag them in heavy plastic bags. 

I've backed off on the routine, swapping them off the cars between events, but not airing them down or bagging them. 
 

I need to address the biggest issue, my garage gets over 100 degrees F in the summer. I need to get an air conditioner. I have been running a dehumidifier for years, so the power consumption probably won't change much. 

Interesting read! You have separately discovered many modern 200tw tires, when given a good initial heat cycle, do not generally suffer much degradation all the way down to the cords. You even captured it here. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/how-to-get-more-performance-out-of-200tw-tires/

Mostly for time and space, I daily drive on my x12, 305/30R20 CRS-V2 track setup. One of the things that made me initially feel good about that was knowing their performance shouldn't degrade much over time (and should actually get better as the tread wears), based on your previous posts and captured in the above link. 

Can you help me understand where more of the nuance lies?

Thanks! 

Lindenwood said:

Interesting read! You have separately discovered many modern 200tw tires, when given a good initial heat cycle, do not generally suffer much degradation all the way down to the cords. You even captured it here. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/how-to-get-more-performance-out-of-200tw-tires/

Mostly for time and space, I daily drive on my x12, 305/30R20 CRS-V2 track setup. One of the things that made me initially feel good about that was knowing their performance shouldn't degrade much over time (and should actually get better as the tread wears), based on your previous posts and captured in the above link. 

Can you help me understand where more of the nuance lies?

Thanks! 

The difference lies is the "between times".

By pulling the tires off the car and storing them inside the shop between uses, we limit the "slow burn" of the heat cycle monster.  So the reduction of tread depth due to track use ends up being the predominant effect on the long-term performance of the tire.

As mentioned in the storage story above, what you are doing instead is putting a lot of additional low-amplitude heat cycles on the tire through daily use.  So you've accelerated the slow burn a bit and at some point, it will make more of an impact on performance than the reduction in tread life.

We typically burn through a set of tires in under six months -- and that's rotating through a bunch of sets.  So the slow burn has little overall impact.

I store my tires in the basement when they're off the car, hadn't considered the ozone factor of the furnace. It's still my best option considering how cold it gets around here, the garage has a much wider temperature swing.

te72 said:

I store my tires in the basement when they're off the car, hadn't considered the ozone factor of the furnace. It's still my best option considering how cold it gets around here, the garage has a much wider temperature swing.

Bag them air tight