Just a heads up..... This set has less than 4,000 miles on it..... 880 Rear.









All around the tire, these are not cuts but splits in the rubber.
If you pull at them they pull free from the carcass.
Tires are 2 years old. Air pressure constant at 46 lbs.
I do a lot of riding 2 up, I have seen the usual cupping before on my Metz. tires but I have NOT seen this.
I think a set of Bridgestones is in my near future.

Anybody experienced this?

I'd contact Metzler..if nothing else than to bring it to there attention...I have had slight cracks but never like this.
I am going to try 888's after i wear the latest new 880's out.

Wow that's scary! Just curious, in what country were they manufactured?

Please share the date code of that tire.

Yes, I too would like to see a pic of the date code on that tire. I've been riding on 880's for about 200,000 miles and not one has looked like that.

It appears dried out to me, like it was stored in the sun somewhere before you bought it.
I'd be interested in where you bought the tire also.

Thanks

Just went out and checked..... Brazil

Found my shop invoice.
October 7,2013

I'm not sure of the manufacture date...... A couple strings of sidewall numbers are...
75R-002609
J554 3811

If you have another suggested location to look please let me know.

The front 880 looks good, I purchased that one about a year after the rear. It has "made in germany" stamped on the side.


A shop local to me.....
I've been getting tires and installation thereof of various types of tires from him for decades.
As far as who he purchases from I have no idea.

There are about 8 splits like the ones pictured above, strangely enough, they are all on the left half of the tire.

According to the MIC Tire Guide, "Every street-legal tire sold in the U.S. will have a Department of Transportation (DOT) serial number on the sidewall. The serial num- ber begins with the letters “DOT” and ends with a four-digit date code
(if there are only three numerals, the tire was made before 2000 and should be discarded). The four digits represent the week and year of production. For example, a date code of “4510” in the first photo means the tire was produced in the 45th week of 2010. "

That said, "75R-002609" would indicate that your splitting tire was manufactured during the 26th week of 2009. :bmw

Yep, l never got to wear out any of my rear ME880's either,..... they both split like that, 1 from Brazil, the other from Germany. Both were under 2 years old. No problems with the front 880's so I now run Metz on the front and BS 020 on the rear like many here do.

Well........ crap..... So it does happen...... Looks like I'm dumping the 880's.

I did contact Metezler and linked them to this thread..........

Response below....

Please let us give you the run around and claim it was your fault even though others have had this issue.


Yeah, It's a conspiracy.... All part of my plan to rule to world:
1: Alter photo
2: get a free tire
3: ????
4: Rule the world
I called my friends at Pixar to digitally alter the photos.....

Anyway, I'm off to order a Bridgestone.
I'm missing riding time and won't be down for a month jacking with them.

Ahhaa, the old photo shop the split carcase trick, as Maxwell Smart would say. Yep, we're all just dishonest pricks but the tyre manufacturers are happy to take our money. Close to $300 for a rear here in Oz. Don't waste your time trying to get a claim out of them, they'll tell you it's been over-inflated and/or overloaded and if you run it at 40 psi and ride 2-up it will get all cupped and torn up, then they'll tell you it was under inflated and overloaded. Just switch brands and put it down to experience. Out of interest, compare the weight of a BS 020 against the Metz, I think the BS is at least a couple of kilos lighter. I've posted on this previously, I think I may have put some pics on the forum as well.

Methinks thou doth protest too much. It is standard practice for every tire company I have purchased from to require returns to go through a dealer. And they did not accuse you of altering the pictures, they just stated what is technically possible these days.

I ran four Metzeler rears and two, soon to be three, front 880s to the wear bars and beyond with no issues. I did see what looked like a small crack on the sidewalk of my 5th rear Metz when it was about half worn out (at what appeared to be a fusion line in the rubber). I sent it back to the dealer as instructed and Metzeler issued a credit of 50% of the purchase price as I recall. The entire process took a little over a week including shipping.

I decided to try a BT020 while waiting on Metzeler in order to minimize downtime. So far, so good after a little more than 6,000 miles. I really see no significant difference. Both brands handle about the same, although the Bridgestone feels more squirrelly at peg dragging angles, and rate of wear seems similar also. I expect I will get about 8K from the BT020 which is what I got from the 880s.

Well, I have my BS squelch knob set pretty high typically.

Looks like it might be a 38 week of 2011 tire manufacture date. It shouldn't split like that being 4 years old. I'd take it back and ask for an adjustment on a 2014 manufactured tire.
They sell you the old ones first.

Just my .02's.

The date code should follow "DOT", so it could be either a 2009 or 2011 tire, depending on which set of numbers provided by "printcraft" appear immediately after "DOT". Based on the looks of the tire, I would think it is more apt to be older than 4 years. I suspect that his tire guy didn't readily have a reinforced tire available suited for an LT (if he even knew that it requires a reinforced version), called around, and some other vendor that had one stashed away that jumped at the opportunity to get rid of it.

I had a set of new appearing Winston radials mounted on my '56 T-Bird, took it out on the freeway several years ago, and the tread separated, folding the front fender under the wheel well and popped out the headlight nacelle. It's not a good idea to ride/drive on old tires....

Hey, you got friends at Animal Logic too....


I've never had an issue with the Metz rears, apart from wearing them out too quickly while towing. Currently got an original wheel & ME880 off a triked 2007 LT running on my bike, tyre is fine as far as I can tell although I did have to plug it after getting a screw in it. Both ME880 rears I have are German made.. and most posts I've seen about bad ones are Brazilian made. When I do wear these out though I'll be trying a BT but that's a long way off.

The one bad one I had was Brazil made also...

Seems like a good possible lesson learned for every tire purchase - have the dealer state in writing the year and country manufactured. A new tire should be fresh stock, and shame on Metzeler or any other manufacturer that lets their distributor pawn off old stock past a reasonably short shelf life. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) - we should make informed decisions based on the best available information.

This is a sample of a date code from a Brazilian ME 880. 45th week of 2011. Tire was half worn out but no signs of cracking in the tread. Changed it out due to a puncture that was not properly plugged. This is when I switched to Bridgestones on the rear.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Here is a picture of the date code.... 38/11


My last one didn't have this issue but I don't have any idea of the manuf. date or the country of origin, It wasn't worn out just had a screw in a unrepairable place.
Yes, they probably didn't rotate the stock out, just put the newest stuff in front and eventually got to this one. Still, 4 years old tires shouldn't be failing like that.

Also: Just to see if I could do it I edited the above photo, Changed the aspect ratio, hue and contrast adjustment, added some shading and ran it through a 3D filter. I was shocked at the result.