Tires sidewalls splitting?

[Daves1940Buick56S]

After storing my Lester bias ply tires for a year, I finally went to mount them on my newly repainted wheels. But...there are some splits showing in the whitewalls. I haven't looked on the blackwall side but my tire guy says they are there too. These tires probably only have a few thousand miles but are 5 years old. I was advised that the clock is ticking on an eventual catastrophic failure. I tend to trust him as the tire guy knows if I get new tires it won't be from him since he just does commercial tire purchases. Is he correct? Any opinions?

 

Cheers, Dave

[edinmass]

That’s all cosmetic. I’m a Lester fan. Many are not. The tire was five years old when you bought it. Usually you don’t see Lester’s doing that till they approach 15 years old. I have had new Lester’s fail, and 35 year old Lester tires run fine. It’s a mixed bag. Just keep proper air pressure in them, and use them up. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by edinmass (see edit history)

[Bimus]

I would replace them   

[Bloo]

Me too. That would bother me a lot less if it were only in the whitewall.

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Rock10]

My brother replaced all of the tires on ours. They looked brand new but were at least 20 years old, maybe much older.

[Brian_Heil]

Look up the DOT date code on the tire to get the real age. 
 

Coker tried to sell me tires as ‘new’ but the date code showed they were already 7 years old. Only after I made a public fuss about it online did Coker finally change their position and replaced the tires with current year product. 

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Thanks for the replies! Apparently the splits are on the blackwall side as well. I called the vendor and it turns out that the manufacturer's warranty is still in force and they are going to honor it. So I will have to pay some for 4 replacement tires but not full freight. So now I am going to get the tires demounted again and take them to the vendor for the swapout. I can drive there and back in a day so I can save on the shipping. Then pay (again!) for remounting and balancing. Should be wrapped up and back on the car next week. It never ends, does it? But that's the price we pay to keep these great old cars going! It will look really good with the wide whites and Dante red wheels (properly striped!).

 

Cheers, Dave