So about six months ago, maybe seven, I purchased a set of new Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3 tires for my 2006 LR3. This was not my first choice, I wanted Toyo ATIII. But at the time, this was all I could get in the size I wanted. They are 275/65/18 in an e-rated 10-ply I believe. The DOT date code is 1821. So when installed they were only about 6 months old. Fast forward to this week when I noticed some cracking on all four. Uniform across them all. The appearance is more like dry-rot than anything. The dealer is Tires Plus in the U.S. which is basically the retail arm of Bridgestone. So for all intents, I purchased these tires new from Bridgestone. There was no third party involved that could have compromised the tires in some way. I run these at about 50 to 55 psi. Stock pressure spec is 33 front, 42 rear. So I am not running crazy high. I have been on forestry roads but not even had time to do anything serious with these tires. I never use tire-shine products, etc.

Attached is some pics. I am wondering if anyone else has had this happen to their tires? Tires Plus says they are going to warranty them out as defective. I hope that means no proration because I dont feel I should have to spend any money on a replacement set. I will also say that I did tell them if they think its normal I would live with it, but I wanted this documented now incase they got worse. And that I was willing to run these tires a few more months, through winter, to see how they held up.

I do plan to take my DSLR and get even more detailed pics before the swap. I also noticed the cracks are not limited to the obvious areas. While not significant, it seems there is even some light "dry-rot" around the numbers molded into the tire. With the DSLR I will take better pics. And for comparison, I looked at my Cooper Zeon LTZ tires, which were AMAZING. They are now 5+ years old or about and just sitting in my garage a couple years. They were abused and pretty worn. They dont even show this sorta distress. Will update when I have new tires one.

 

New tires are installed from Tires Plus. They ordered the wrong ones, so had to reorder the correct ones. But I left only to return less than an hour because they came in quickly. (warehouse is close, but usually it takes a while to get em in). So once that was straightened out, on they went and of course they look great and new. The tread depth is better. The previous set, with just 6,000 miles, was down too 13/32nd. So 3/32 had already worn which is a litte faster than they should have been. I can only theorize this is maybe form an overall defect in the rubber. I really hope this next set holds up without issue.

 

Eight months in and I thought the second set was good to go. Nope, starting to get the exact same issues again. Keep in mind I am now running exactly the factory recommend air pressure AND I have had an alignment (or two?) since the second set was installed. So there should be no reason for this at all. Will talk to guys at Tires Plus again....

 

Just another update to this post. I was annoyed with the second set cracking and just procrastinated in taking them in. But I had an alignment due and went in for that. I mentioned they should look at the tires again cause of the cracking/dry rot appearance again. Sure enough, they said they were not good. They were also significantly worn for being just a year old. So now I am on my third set of tires as I enter year three. But this time, because I waited, it cost me $450 out of pocket for this third set. Also on their advice I switched to Firestone Destination X/T. Reviews are much better, especially regarding tread life and snow handling. The Duelers were pretty bad in snow. Looking forward to trying these out on the trail soon and if we ever get snow I wonder how they will do. They are not noisy and seem to grip dry surfaces better.