The Goodyear G33 Tire

The Goodyear G33 Tread Pattern

When was the last time you looked something up, and didn't find what you were looking for?  Yeah, me too.  So, to fix that problem I decided to write a short blog entry on the Goodyear G33 tire.  Why?  Because nobody else has, and it's so old that Goodyear doesn't even remember what it was (Yes, I asked them)

To the best of my knowledge the Goodyear G33 was produced in the late 1990's in the UK, potentially for global distribution, but at least for European use.  I've found listings for them being sold in Canada and Venezuela.

I believe these tires may have been used by the Canadian Forces on the Bombardier Iltis for winter driving.

The G33 is a radial tire that supports small studs for winter driving over ice and snow.

I do not know what sizes they came in.

In case you were unaware, the tire industry does not recommend, nor does anyone else, that you use tires older than 10 years of age.  Some even suggest less than 8 years.  Legislation is in place in Germany (and perhaps the rest of the EU) that makes it is illegal to ride on rubber older than 10 years old - true!

But how do you tell how old your rubber is?  There are codes on the sidewall, one of them is the "DOT" code, of which the last few numbers indicate the week and year of manufacture.  

4203 would be the 42nd week of 2003.  

OR tires that are older still would only have 3 numbers, 423; which could stand for 42nd week of 1993 OR 2003, see the problem?

More on tire sizes and codes can be found on Wikipedia