Tire date code (BFG, where is it??)

[dyeager535]

Have BFG T/A KO's (not KO2). One of them decided to start going flat, and I don't see an obvious puncture. I knew they were getting up there in age, and they are starting to weather check between the tread a bit, but still have a lot of tread left. Figure if I could get another year or so out of them, I'd be happy.

Purchased at Discount Tire, all four new, all at same time. Have not had a catastrophic failure, don't recall a single puncture even.

Anyway, took the wheel/tire into Discount to have them check it. They pulled my records and said "You bought them in 2009, we can't touch them." Something about 10 years old. Didn't argue, although it may or may not be 10 years depending on the month.

I know that on tires this new, the date code should be the last two digits of the DOT number. Mine ends in 11. I figured they were good to go. But I confirmed on the paperwork at home, sure enough, I bought in 2009.

Here's where I'm a bit lost. The DOT code seems to be incomplete. Obviously academic, they can't be any newer than '09, but it's odd they don't seem to conform to the "rules". The pic below is what is there, and in ALL the pics I can find of any tire with the "modern" DOT code, there should be four numbers at the end. Mine is just what is shown in the pic. After that, a decent distance away (further than other pics show of sidewalls), there is an odd jagged symbol right before "006". From all I can find, even on BFG's site, the four numbers are the last of the DOT code. My tire does not have them. Any ideas? If it displays upside-down, sorry, it was not taken nor uploaded that way.

 

[fastazz81]

The 4 digits is probably on the other side of the tire , for whatever reason 1 side doesn’t have the complete dot code .

 

[Fastereddie]

It’s only on one side. Should look like this. Inside a little oval stamp.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

Yep

 

[Wes Harden]

That is not the date code. will be in an oval depression on the inward facing side of tire. 0717 would be 7 week of 2017

 

[dyeager535]

Well that's odd, but correct. White letter side is where the date code is. Doesn't matter in my case since they are ~11 years old, but these tires were made in '08, sold to me in '09. That can make a difference at least with Discount, since they won't touch them over 10 years..I was hoping these were just under 10 years so I could force the issue and have this tire repaired.

FWIW, I think these have held up better than my previous KO's. While these are fairly weather checked between the tread blocks, my previous set was at 8 years, these are nearly 11, and I've run this set at lower pressures for longer periods of time. The last set was leaking through the weather checking, at this point this tire is the only one that loses pressure (at least visually noticeable) in a short period of time.

Closeout edit: I had the previous set of KO's still on wheels, checked those, '02 manufacture, and date code is on BOTH sides of the tire. My '08 and '18 dated KO's both have the date only on the white letter side.