Are sidewall cracks the cause of tire failure?

Read an RV forum post about sidewall cracks. From the picture, it appeared the tire had what I would call Ozone or UV cosmetic cracking. The owner was concerned about the tire durability as he had suffered a couple "Blowouts" previously.  I responded....

"Not being able to inspect the "Blowout" tires or even see some pictures, I have no idea for the reason for the tire failures as "blowout" is not specific enough to suggest a possible cause. They might have been run for a few miles while losing air. They might have suffered impact damage 10 or 100 or 1,000 miles prior to the ultimate failure. They might have been run overloaded or underinflated or over speed recommended by tire manufacturer or tire industry engineering guidelines for thousands of miles.

Yes, tire failures can be expensive if the failure is only discovered by operating the tires at speed and not during the regular detailed close inspection by a "qualified specialist" as outlined in the Michelin Tech bulletin on RV/Motorhome tire inspection.

It is also true that sidewall cracks, in my professional experience, are not in themselves the root cause of tire failure. Just as a person developing a temperature of 101F or 102F is not the cause of an illness but is just an external symptom. Tire sidewall cracks are an indication of extensive tire age with the cracks developing due to time, temperature, flexing and exposure to Ozone and UV. All of which are detrimental to tire life.

"Zipper" sidewall failures of steel body ply are the result of fatigue from operating for miles when significantly underinflated or overloaded or a combination of those. Sidewall crack inspection guidelines published on pg 8 of THIS guide, suggest a maximum depth of about 2/32" on large radial tires (22.5" sizes) which usually have rubber thickness closer or thicker than 0.10".

Tires "Fail" for two basic and different reasons:
1. Sidewall Flex failure from low inflation/High load
2. Belt separation from long term rubber degradation due to excess heat and age

I covered these in two separate posts in 2012  and again with a slightly different focus in 2014.

While I can conceive of someone running tires for many miles with sidewall cracks that get deeper than 2/32", those cracks would need to penetrate deeper and get completely through the sidewall rubber to the depth of the steel and then water would need to be introduced and enough time pass to allow a significant portion and number of steel cords rust and be weakened before a "Zipper" like failure could occur.

The above would, in most cases, take many months of operation and would require that no or improper or incomplete inspection take place before a tire would suffer a catastrophic failure.

So the bottom line is two-fold.

1. Ensure you are not overloading your tires and that they are ALWAYS inflated to what is needed  for your application by running a TPMS

2. Starting at 5 years (3 years in trailer application) from the DOT manufacture date molded on the tire sidewall and annually or every 2,000 miles whichever comes first, have them inspected.  I have covered the topic of inspection previously.

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Tire Dry Rot is a misnomer

I see the term "Dry Rot" used by many in the RV community when describing old tires that have visible external cracks.

Some have attributed this to the dry air in the Southwest part of the US. Some with specific references to Arizona.

Sidewall cracking occurs for a number of different reasons but these reasons all end up at the same place. The elastic properties of the rubber have been degraded over time and when the rubber is flexed it cracks rather than stretches.

Some reasons for the loss of flexibility or "stretchyness" can include exposure to UV or Ozone or simply old age. Each of these items is different but they each attack the bonds that exist between the various  materials such as rubber, sulfur, carbon black, oils waxes and numerous trace materials used in the process of manufacturing rubber. When the chemical bonds break or "crack" the loads in the rubber get transferred to the nearby material which then has to resist the forces trying to stretch it.

These cracks may start out at the molecular level but they do not repair themselves so they can only  continue to grow. Eventually they are large enough to be seen on the outside of the tire and if the tire is exposed to the damaging elements long enough the cracks can grow large enough to allow air to escape or for tire components separate.

I have previously discussed the way increased heat can actually accelerate the aging process of rubber in posts about direct exposure to sunlight and that the use of white tire covers can reduce the accelerated aging process.

For those interested HERE is a report issued by NHTSA on tire aging. You will note that on page 3 of the report titled "Background" they identify that "degradation is accelerated with higher temperatures",  You may also note that there is no mention of UV as a significant contributor to the aging process.

IMO Sidewall cracking is in itself seldom more than a cosmetic issue. However it can be an indicator of possible "old age" and degradation of the internal structure of a tire. Maybe a good analogy is when you run a temperature.

I do not recall ever hearing of someone having a temperature for no reason. Your elevated temperature is almost always an indication or symptom of some other medical problem that needs attention.

Since the consumer has no good, low cost way to learn the condition of the tire structure you are confined to looking at various symptoms.  Spotty tread wear is one symptom. Tread and/or sidewall snaking is another and of course sidewall cracking can be another.

Bottom Line
Tires do not actually suffer from "rot" as one might see in a piece of wood or some old food. They can have signs of surface cracking but as long as the cracks are shallow and a tire dealer has completed a full inspection of a tire and said it was okay to run I would go with the dealer finding.

You might want to review my post on How do I inspect my tires and note that signs other than just cracking can be much more telling than just sidewall cracking.

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