Don’t over clean
Dirt alone is not harmful to tires. Excessive washing or cleaning, especially using any aggressive cleaning agents or many “protective” chemical mixtures, can interfere with the normal migration of protective chemicals stored within the tire compounds and should be avoided. The use of sidewall appearance enhancing products commonly used on many passenger car applications are generally not recommended for truck tires.
Minimize ozone exposure
Ozone over an extended time, or in heavy concentrations, can cause premature cracking in tire compounds. Although ozone occurs naturally in the atmosphere, tire and vehicle storage areas should be selected to avoid heavy ozone concentrations such as found near electric motors, welders, electric power lines and switches.
Enforce a first-in first-out (fifo) inventory system
Tires are largely chemical composites, made from numerous rubber compounds and components. As such, tire age often correlates with useful tire life. Many fleets target eight years, with a maximum of 10 years, for keeping a tire (including retreaded casings) in service. Make sure that any stored tires are included in a plan to retire older tires through sale, trade packages or, possibly, local delivery truck service. The guidelines above are general in nature and more details, including inflation recommendations, proper care for tires on stored vehicles, etc. are readily available from tire manufacturer field
engineers.
