WWGRMD - four year old new snow tires

I have a problem getting rear snow tires for the 911. They're a bit of an awkward size (265-35/18) and TR doesn't currently list any availability of the officially approved Pirellis.

They have a choice of two other tires - Dunlop 3Ds manufacturer in 2009 (no matching front though, by the looks of it) and Blizzak LM-60s manufactured in 2010. Again, no matching front LM-60 unless I want a run flat, but they do seem to have LM-32s in the correct size.

WWGRMD, other than postponing the sale of the Evo until next spring so I have a car with snow tires?

We've got several year old, half tread Blizzaks on our AWD Matrix and it's still phenomenal in snow. Depth of snow is no trouble until it starts coming over the hood causing a whiteout condition. The rubber is designed to be so soft that I'm guessing that even though it hardens with age, it's no big deal. You're not shooting for tenths of a second around a racetrack on them.

I am wheeling around on 10-year old Winterforce tires, so personally, buy em!

Are you sure that those are the right size? I have a set of snows off a slightly newer 911 and the rears are 265-40-18.

/me wanders off into the parking lot

That's both what the sidewall of the summer tires and the sticker under the hood says. IIRC TR says it as well on their website.

Fair enough.

I'd rather have 4 year old "new" tires than one year old used ones, when it comes to winter tires.

They were most likely stored indoors in a climate controlled environment. And, thinking further to the point of overthinking, the storage warehouse's atmosphere was probably fully saturated with rubber outgas, which probably slows down tire degradation even further.

I'll send an email tomorrow and see what I can get you from Pirelli with a newer DOT production date

In reply to captdownshift:

Thanks, appreciate the offer. However we had to move pretty quickly (there's major storm supposed to hit us Wednesday night) so after a discussion with my favourite tire shop we decided to order the Blizzak LM-32/LM-60 combo. The newer tyres are going to be on the front anyway and if I can get one winter out of a set of severely discounted LM60 rears I'm not going to complain.

Let's hope I'm not sending a review of the tire combo in from a ditch later in the week .

I was running Wintersport 3Ds with a 2006 date on them as of last winter. They still did just fine.

I'm currently driving on snow tires that are at least 4 years old and have been used for that long. Probably 5 or 6 years old.

I say go for it.

wintersport 3D are my all-time favorite snow tire. sorry i didn't get into the conversation sooner.

I don't think you are going to have a problem. While not as 'soft' as new tires, they should be plenty grippy.

My wife's car is currently riding on nearly six-year-old winter tires. Which have 5 winters on them. This will be the last one, but still.

You'll be fine.

My Blizzaks will soon be 7 yrs. old. They still have lots of tread and they durometer like new. They are stored in my climate controlled dark cellar.

Thats a 25.3" tire... can you just choose a different 25"ish snow tire?

i think my snows are 5 seasons old now, they are still nice and soft and have been on 4 different vehicles through the years.

ProDarwin wrote: Thats a 25.3" tire... can you just choose a different 25"ish snow tire?

I would prefer not to find out if that's a good way to break the AWD system or not...

BoxheadTim wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: Thats a 25.3" tire... can you just choose a different 25"ish snow tire?

I would prefer not to find out if that's a good way to break the AWD system or not...

Ah, did not know it was AWD. Fancy!

I forgot about that part too. Good thing he didn't.

AngryCorvair wrote: wintersport 3D are my all-time favorite snow tire. sorry i didn't get into the conversation sooner.

I just got the 4D for this year. So hopefully they'll be even better than my 3Ds and the LM-22's before them :)

So far it's a thumbs up, but I've only driven it for about 30 miles on dry roads. Big improvement over the very worn summer tires.

The big test will be Thursday night and Friday.