Morris Minor Owners Club

I am trying to work out the age of the tyres on my 1952 MM. The treads are fine but I have not been able to work out how old they are to see if I should replace them. They are crossplies made by Pneumant in the GDR but the tyre codes do not seem to be the 3 or 4 digits shown on all the guides to dating. I attach photos showing the details of the offside front tyre (1 photo) and the offside rear tyre (2 photos). I don't think they are made in 1966 or 1934!!

If anyone can decipher them I would be grateful!

https://www.goodyear.com/en_US/learn/ti ... -code.html

If your tires were made before the year 2000, the date code will be only 3 digits – the first two digits again listing the week of the year, and the last digit being the last digit of the year of the tire’s manufacture. This means a date code of “529” could mean the tire was manufactured in December 1999, or December 1989 – or even December 1979.

So I guess, 034 is the third week of: 1994, 1984 or 1974.

I'm basing this on the fact that Pneumant didn't exist before 1959 and also I discovered that DOT codes weren't a thing in the UK until the 26th January 1971.
(https://btmauk.com/2021/01/26/dot-code- ... niversary/)

Many thanks. It seems these tyres are at least 30 years old! I think I need to change them!

It makes me wonder if your car is in a very original factory condition for it to still have what could well be 1960's tires still on it.

Yes, it is unmolested and only been in 2 families from new. My godfather bought it in 1983 and passed it over to me last year as he is 85 and it needed a new driver to take it out for exercise. I am slowly working my way around it to see what is what!

No need to apply the current five year age limit to cross plys. Radial tyres are the norm these days and have much thinner side walls that have little tolerance for cracks with little to no re-enforcement. However, most tyres will get harder with age.

They will be YEARS old! I remember being on a tight budget in the 1970s and buying a similar set of Pneumant crossply tyres for my Minor as they were the cheapest new tyres I could find. They were utterly terrible even when new ......
I would suggest therefore that you dispose of them as quickly as possible and buy a new set of tyres. Some owners still prefer crossply tyres - particularly on an earlier car like yours - and a good quality crossply tyre will be fine. They also look more period correct on older cars and the larger diameter rear wheelarch looks better with the larger diameter of a crossply. Most of us have long ago swapped over to radials.
Maybe talk to somebody like Vintage Tyres, Longstone Tyres, Blockley Tyres before you make a decision? I've had a set of Blockley tyres fitted recently and am very pleased with them .
P.S. What a lovely car

Thanks. After many years of sitting in a garage with little use and gathering dust, she is slowly regaining her sparkle (with a lot of elbow grease and grazed knuckles!). I have looked at a range of tyres and will keep with crossplies as she is so original. The Waymaster ones look the most likely candidates.