Goodyear wide tread GT

[jl8z28]

Can someone tell me what the date of this tire

[AnthonyS]

Hi, I always understood 7 digit codes to be 1967-1969, possibly into early 1970.

Anghel used to have a comprehensive write up posted online years ago, but it seems to have been removed now - anyone save a PDF of it? Sorry I couldn't help more.

[Steve Shauger]

Feb of 68

[jl8z28]

Thanks Steve

[Lee Stewart]

With the older pre Dot tire codes, it's the last 2/3 digits that determine month and year of manufacture. All the other stuff it where it was manfactured, what shift , what batch.

And as Steve correctly pointed out: 28 = February 1968. If it was 118 it would have been November 1968.

[AnthonyS]

^ And that would've been an 8 digit code then, too? Thanks.

[jeffschevelle]

It is actually the TU at the beginning that dates it to Feb. 68. On goodyears of that vintage, T = 68, U = Feb.

[Zman1969]

It is actually the TU at the beginning that dates it to Feb. 68. On goodyears of that vintage, T = 68, U = Feb.
I believe the B could be February and last digit was year 2 was probably week of Feb ? I may be wrong but I started in tire business on mid to late 70s when the 3 last digits were all numbers that was week and year

[jeffschevelle]

The goodyear date coding system from back then is well known and published all over the internet:

First digit (Year)
M or Z = 66
K or Y = 67
L or T = 68
J or U = 69
E or W = 70
H or X = 71
G or S = 72

Second digit (Month)
T = Jan
U = Feb
F = Mar
S = Apr
Y = May
N = Jun
P = Jul
A = Aug
C = Sep
K = Oct
E = Nov
R = Dec

Before the standardized DOT date coding systems started, each tire mfr. had their own system and all of them were designed to make it impossible for the consumer to decode without having insider info from the mfr. That way stock rotation at the tire store didn't matter!

Tufsyn was the name of a type of Goodyear rubber (see this ad: https://www.ebay.com/itm/353993733166?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28 ). And Packer has something to do with one of their very early rubber chassis products (I researched it several years ago but don't remember the details now, seems like it was some sort of bushing).

So for the month they were using letters that meant something to them in house, but would mean nothing to the consumer!

Now, don't ask me where in the world they got the system for the year. Makes no sense to me!

[Mr70]

I too have wondered why they decided to denote years that way.

[mhm1966]

Anyone have a chart like Jeff's has above for Firestone tires?

[jeffschevelle]

I have searched for years, and wrote and called Firestone probably 10 years ago trying to get that. After several calls and getting passed around to a bunch of folks who had no idea (except to refer me to the current DOT dating system), I finally spoke to someone that was referred to (by the person who transferred me) as their "historian", who said they had no records relating to anything that old. And she did not have any interest in doing any digging to see if there might actually be something there that she was unaware of that would answer the question. So a dead end ...

[Kurt S]

Here's some 69 Firestone codes I ran across the other day...