Tire age question

There is a pair of 20.8 x 38" Firestone All Traction Radial 23  with 80% tread coming up at an auction. They are on T rail duals, have not been used for 8 years and always stored inside.  I need a pair the only problem is the date code says they are 20 years old.

Tires do have a life on them but they normally show it with cracks and visual age. I have tires on my 8000 series that are 20 yrs old and kept out of sun and weather when not in field use and they still look almost new.

I've had the same tires on my C for 32 years. They have minor weather checking but I'm not worried at all. Tires that are kept inside last a long time as long as there not allowed to sit flat. We had one tractor sit over winter on one year old tires one was flat in the spring it had to be changed sitting flat with the tractor wieght on it ruined the cords and it developed a lump shortly after airing it back up.

Sometime in the 70"s my Dad bought a set of good matching 18.4-34 for $10 or something at an auction sale as it seemed no one wanted them. Who knows how old they were then ?I remember rolling them into the back of the barn, didn't see the light of day for 15 years at least. He bought a 200 he wanted to dual up, I rolled those tires out and they were mounted and put on the 200. I suspect they were goodyears but I don't know for sure. The tractor was sold several years later with those tires on them, no problems.  I believe the key is keeping them out of the sun... I think you'll be fine Calvin, jmho, Trev.

some tire shops are getting so they refuse to work on tires over 10 years old 

Dad put new Chinese tires on his C 5 or 6 years ago. They look like crap now. The face between the lugs is crumbly looking.

A tire shop that won't work on tires more than 10 years old?????!!!!!!.THERE IS A SHOP THAT SHOULD AND WILL BE OUT OF BUSINESS! !!

As a kid, I remember Dad dragging the late 40's Dodge pickup to a ravine as we were cleaning up stuff from the previous farm owner. D15 pulled it to the pasture and the trusty old CA picked it up enough to remove all wheels as we wanted to put the US Steel tires on the two hay wagon running gears for new wooden wagons being built. This would have been 65/66 and those wagons were still in use when the farm sold in 1980, never a flat on those old tires that were installed on the front of each wagon and they did not wear period. Remember they were blue in color and had "full white walls". Tried to find a reference to them years later only to find they were very expensive when new but company got out of the tire business as you only bought em' once cuz they never wore out.

have heard lots of guys say if you buy new tractor tires try to do it a year in advance so you can let them sit in a barn and "cure". otherwise any little rose bush thorn will go right through them

All tire shops out here wont touch a tire over 10 years old, if you go in they won't remount, so your stuck buying another tire. Claiming liability issues...