Long term storage of tires on pallets

Looking for suggestions to store tires on pallets...

[Have to be on pallets]


Putting up pallet racks to get stuff organized and wondering if the tires have to be stored on edge or if it's OK to stack them.

These are new tires mostly, for the SUVs, stored for SHTF

Tires only have a four year lifespan.

That said, in the store room they where standing on edge but we'd also have columns of tires stacked up on display in the show room -- but they wouldn't stay there more than a couple of months.

Sorry this doesn't answer your storage question, but keep aware of dry rot -- tires have a very finite life, regardless of tread depth.

Not relevant, but plenty of tires when fuel runs out.
See if you can run steel rims, they hold up so much better than the pretty aluminum ones. You can bang them out, weld, etc. I've seen too many people chunk up an aluminum rim trying to run on a flat.

Lots of things destroy the tires, like ozone in the air.


They only keep so long.


 

ETA: But for storing them on pallets, I would wrap each one in cling-wrap, stack them nicely, tied them down to keep them on the pallet and store out of sunlight.

A spare set of tires per vehicle might be a good idea, but as it's been mentioned here dry rot is not your friend.

I don't know if there is a legitimate tire dressing that actually works or if they are all snake oil like fuel additives.

I would stock inner tubes rather than tires along with patch kits.

I have tires that are 10 years old and seem fine?
I have sets of tires on rims for my main vehicles but figure  will run out of fuel before or they will break down before tires are an issue.

10 years and they aren't all cracked up? Regional? Tires get to 5-6 years old around here and they are cracked all over.

 

I dont think they crack down here but I bought a used f350 from boston 7 years ago and the BFGs where all cracked but tire shop said not to worry adout it and I am still running them.
I have a jeep with 14 year old BFGs and they seem ok.
I have too many vehicles it would take real effort to wear out tires.

EXPY I would just stack them.

I've have them stacked now...

It seems I read here they should be stored on their 'edge'


I have a early '90's Bronco and it's still got 2 of the original tires...

I agree I should change them, but we rarely drive it because it's very nice and if someone hit it the insurance vs value would be a disaster...

Wrap the tires in black plastic and they will store longer.  4 years is put out by the guys who sell tires . We used to recap truck tire casings for 6 years . They got x-ray inspected at 5.  In 6 years they have been recapped 4-5 times not to mention wearing out the original tread

Same here. I have tires that are 10 years old on my vehicles.

I have two sets per vehicle and they get rotated according to the season, Winter tires and summer tires (we get light snow and freezing roads so some tires are studded)

I have maybe 20 tires in storage, outside out of the sun. except for the tread wearing, they look as good as new, and hold air as they should. some are mounted to rims, others are lose and get remounted each season and balanced. I lay all my tires on their side and they are covered in large bags from the tire shop. On pallets.

EXPY, just get a set and keep them out of the sun.

Similar experience, although on a 12' box trailer rather than a motor vehicle. Last fall was the first time I replaced the tires on that trailer, bought new in early 2003; so those tires were 12+ years old. They were very worn, but not cracked or dry-rotted. That said, we don't have the worst environment here either. If you get salted roads in the winter, high amounts of caustic pollution, mojave-like heat, etc, you're not likely to get that much life out of them.

I understand that rules change during SHTF and you do what you have to.  FUD from tire manufacturers aside, over time rubber will lose its resiliency and tackiness; tires will become more prone to impact damage and belt separation and more likely to lose traction.

It is one thing if you keep some take-offs laying around, but I would not purchase tires with the intent of storing for long term.

YMMV.

Apparently that is indeed the case with the respondents in this thread.

Ain't it great when an idiom can be taken literally?

:-D

Tires ship on their side from what I have seen.



Every tire shop I have been in had the racks on the walls that put the tires on their tread, upright, for their storage at the shop.



At the same time, tire stores are like anything else and want to turn over their tires pretty fast so I don't see them having stuff sit there forever unless they buy a ton at a great price and are basically buying a big supply compared to their normal use amount.



I would read up a lot on how the rv people and trailer people cover tires and coat em and what not.  Even in a shed or something I would probably put them in thick plastic drum liners or something to keep animals out somewhat.



I use a lot of things to judge how I treat a tire.  Who made it and condition rank up there about as much as age within a certain period.  My known use also affects some things, like if I have a dually truck and get a flat and wind up loaded and limping at low speed using one tire on one side of the rear axle due to not having a spare or something, I might keep an eye on that tire just because it interests me.  Have I mentioned I now check to make sure my spare did not get stolen from under a vehicle if that is where the spare lives on the vehicle?

Anyway to rotate them? During the manufacturing process tires have conditioners built in to the rubber. The cracking and drying is less a function of time and more of not rotating under load to release the conditioners to the top layer.

It's too late--- I already bought them for the 2009 SUV, abt 4 years ago....  


[Just like all the solar panels for a hedge against 'food'  that everybuddy told me not to do... Abt 46 left after installing a bunch last fall...  Don't know why I bought so many, prolly scared by all the doomsday talk here back then... They're on pallets and fit good under the pallet racks...



It's going to be a long time before I use the 6 SHTF stock tires

[bought 2 sets then because Michellin had a discount, put 2 tires on the rear, worn from towing the Stealth trailer, have 6 left, just looked at the vehicle, the front and rear are better than 70% as far as I can tell.  So according to some posts here they may fall apart before I get a chance to use them  ---if I'm still alive]


Guess I'll lay them on their sides on a pallet with an ATV strap or 2 to secure them and put them up on the pallet racks we're setting up now in the warehouse [not going to live in this warehouse

Environment and sun not an issue


I thought there might be some reason not to store them long term on their sides and store them on their treads...

I can see why the dealers store them on the racks on the treads, to make it easy to grab one from stock

Hate to say it but I installed a set of tires on my farm pickup in 96, I remember because I was just fresh out of college.  They are still on and functioning and still plenty of tread, only put about 400 miles on a year and sits in a garage when not in use.

Tires will slowly outgas and become hard over time, although you will likely run out of fuel and oil before you need tires..

Chemical bonds created during manufacture begin to degrade on day one and accelerate around 5 years.

All tires are not created equal but modern passenger car tires are highly engineered and relatively fragile.

Store them any way you want to, it will make no difference.

it does answer the question of the feasibility of long term storage of tires.  Yeah, they fall apart after some years.  There are some things that just won't do well in storage, no matter how badly we might need them later.

As mentioned once already the tires lubricate themselves when rotating under load on a vehicle so they will eventually dry out on the surface over a long period in storage. I would not stack them flat for long periods, they will acquire a set flattened-out and will be a real bitch to seat the beads and inflate when the time comes to use them - that's one of the reasons shops stand them up in a rack as well as for space/access reasons. When purchasing tires you should look at the production date (they all have the date on them), a 4 digit code. The first 2 numbers indicate which week of the year, the second 2 are the year. Ideally tires need to cure some before you run them or you may find they wear a lot quicker. I prefer tires that are at least 6 months old to a year, especially on my tractor, for some reason the curing makes a big difference on my tractor tires.

like others have stated. tires do not store well. i've seen all types of issues from new old stock tires. some that look dry rotted, but the biggest issues have been bead seating when stored flat (a cheetah blaster helps here) and even worse is if stored on a rack, they get two flat spots that even shift the belts resulting in a tire that will feel like it isn't balanced(high road force) the only way i'd store tires for long term storage is on rims with ~20psi inflation with "real" nitrogen, then shrinkwrapped on their sides on the pallet in a cool dark place. when buying the tires check the DOT numbers like stated above the last block of numbers will be the week and year of production. try to get the newest dot as possible. I've received tires as old as 4 years old when working at the stealership. DOT reccomends replacing tires every 5 years.

You could store them flat using a round spacer between the beads to keep the beads spread apart then a spacer on the outside of the beads between each tire so that the weight of the tire rests on the spacer and one under the bottom tire.

I might coat theminside and out with a preservative like this.http://chempro.net/. Also keep them in the dark and dry.

Looked at their MSDS... Ingredient is labeled 'Trade Secret"

However they disclose petroleum hydrocarbons, Petroleum Distillate, and the flash point...

Also, that there's no 'harmful' ingredient, so I'd guess the product is Mineral Spirits or similar...  [What Snake Oil isn't these days]


IIRC, they make a coating for de-ice boots we've used many times...


I've stored them 3 high in two groups on a 'long' pallet and put them up high.

Used an ATV strap to secure them gently.

This way it appears the beads won't get distorted

Stacked on pallet