I'm sending this from the app, so please bear with me. This is a pic of the tread from my Toyo Open Country MTs. They don’t get many miles on them (6000 +/- a year) and I do not know how old they are. I've had the Jeep about 16 months and they were worn fairly well when I got it. The Jeep sits outside in all the elements. The sidewalls look great, but this between the tread bothers me. Am I being paranoid or does this look like dry rot to you?

 

My toyos started doing that within 6 months of buying them. Drove 65000 miles and still had tread. Took them off cause I had about 20 staples in them (I do construction). Been sitting outside for 4 years in all weather and still full of pressure

 

It's dry rot but it won't kill you. When you start noticing some air loss, the cracks get large, or you notice cracks around the bead/ sidewall area then you should be concerned.

You can look at the DOT code on the sidewall of the tire and see when the tires were made.

 

Thanks, that makes me feel better. The cracks are tiny, but I don't want some catastrophic failure with my family in the Jeep. I had an Expedition that started vibrating badly on trip and I pulled off the interstate to a tire shop. Long story short, the tires were dry rotted and I had to replace them due to a baseball sized bulge in one of the fronts. That incident has made me paranoid about tire condition.

 

I agree. If you start to notice the cracking on the sidewall, definitely replace them. I wouldn't be real concerned with the small cracks in the tread unless you start losing air.