Original spare Firestone?

The 1980 truck brochure still shows these tires.  I happen to have this one as a spare for my 84 F150.  It doesn't appear to have ever been installed and there is also no weather checking.  It's a 215/75r15 just like what's specified on my door jamb sticker.

You know DOT requires all tires to have a date code for when they were manufactured....

Year and week IIRC.

Thats pretty cool.  I still have the original bias spare tire for my 79 ranchero.  I dont use it, and i would not suggest you use yours either.  The DOT requires a date code on tires now.  tires that are more then 5 years old are considered done with.  After 3 or so years the tires will begin to dry-rot and crack, yours probably does not show it's age because it is under the truck, but trust me, it is. Tires have these small oil like beeds inbeded in the rubber and when the tire rolls the beads expand and contract with the tire keeping them somewhat lubricated, once the tire stops being used , these beeds become hard and brittle and don't do there job anymore.    We dont put much milage on our vehicles and usually have to end up changing tires with good tread because of this.  On my parts truck which had 4 almost new tires when the trans went out and i parked it under the tree.  about 8 or so years later we were sitting outside and we heard what sounded like a gun shot, it was the front driver truck tire, just blew out, the following week, back passenger side, a few days later driver side of my crown vic parts car.    I wouldn't trust it, also, if you were to have it on your truck and lets say you were in a wreck due to a tire blow out and they want to inspect it, there would be issues.  Not to mention, do you really want a 40 year old tire holding up your truck?   You can still however buy firestone tires that look like that, they are expensive, but they are available

That's cool!  But, like has been said, I'd not plan to ever use it.

My 2002 Ranger I just picked up still has the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 tires that my relatives put on it back in 2007. Needless to say, that's why the truck isn't leaving my yard until I put new tires and wheels on the truck. The tires on my F350 are even worse, they're from 2001. And somebody was driving on them two years ago.

Definitely cool to see an original tire like that!

I thought the Firestone's 721 & 500 tires had issues back in the day and why I would never run Firestones.

BTW I have a space saver spare with the inflate can, yes you had to blow it up to use it, in my 75 AMC Gremlin, think they are worth more than the car
Dave ----

I never said I would consider actually USING this tire.  Just wanted to share that I think it was cool that I found one under my truck.  For those that follow concours restorations or original preservation style shows original parts like this are quite desirable and hard to come by.  Some day our trucks may have a class for these types of venues and when they do you will be wondering why you threw out all your old parts (:

FuzzFace2 wrote

I thought the Firestone's 721 & 500 tires had issues back in the day and why I would never run Firestones.

 Firestone was having tread separation issues on some of their light truck tires used on Ford Explorers back in the mid-late 90s. They traced it down to a specific factory where the tires were made, but Firestone kept trying to blame Ford for the Explorer's tendency to roll over and cause serious injury. For that reason, I will never run Firestones on any of my vehicles.

salans7 wrote

FuzzFace2 wrote

I thought the Firestone's 721 & 500 tires had issues back in the day and why I would never run Firestones.

 Firestone was having tread separation issues on some of their light truck tires used on Ford Explorers back in the mid-late 90s. They traced it down to a specific factory where the tires were made, but Firestone kept trying to blame Ford for the Explorer's tendency to roll over and cause serious injury. For that reason, I will never run Firestones on any of my vehicles.

I am talking even before that they had the same issues think late 70's or early 80's and want to say it was the 500 tire.
Yep same reason why I will not run FS if I can help it.
Dave ----

66gtk wrote

I never said I would consider actually USING this tire.  Just wanted to share that I think it was cool that I found one under my truck.  For those that follow concours restorations or original preservation style shows original parts like this are quite desirable and hard to come by.  Some day our trucks may have a class for these types of venues and when they do you will be wondering why you threw out all your old parts (:

Didn't think you would and I did not mean it you would.
I just saw the FS 721 and made me think of the 500 and the issues they had with tires.

What you said on parts and shows is why I would never use the inflatable spare in the Gremlin.
I think it may be the same size used in MOPAR's and they go for BIG BUCKS when found not that I would sell it.

It is cool when you find something like that. I know of an 02 Dodge that has never had the spare taken down, heck I don't even know if it is still there LOL
Dave ----