Is it time for a new set of tyres??

[cmcmill01]

Just back from my last camping weekend of the year and noticed the below on one of the tyres as I was unpacking, thoughts?
The tyres are AT BFG’s, and around 8 years old, the side wall scratches was down about 3 years ago on a 2 week off-road trip.
First time I have noticed a big crack onto the main part of the tyre.
I have an untouched spare tyre which I could use to replace this one.

 

[hairyguy4]

Holy cow they’re old! Haven’t made that tread pattern in years, be interested to know the manufacture date

 

[Tractionman]

They almost look like 'remoulds with the tread part starting to peel.

 

[Juddian]

Fair point TM, if you look carefully at the top pic, where the tread is coming off in chuncks you can see several lines in the rubber underneath, when a tyre tread is ground off for a new recap/remould tread to be vulcanised on the ground surfaces looks exactly like that.

 

[Tractionman]

That's the one that gave me the hint Jud.Seen a fair few of them remoulded/recut for lorries at a firm I used to work for, and a fair few cases that don't make the grade for that process and binned

 

[cmcmill01]

I don’t think they are remoulds!! Well I hope not!
The line on the side are from a trip to Iceland, low inflation and my airhelper/bags line burst, so the tyres where scraping against the sides for a while bottoming out until I got the airhelper line fixed.

 

[Tractionman]

That 'seperation' line on the bit we can see looks quite uniform in relation to tread peel.
These days remoulds have to have that stamped/branded on the sidewall, but not sure when that became mandatory.