Older tires on wheels left in basement for years?

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So, I have the chance to use a full spare tire now. I'm borrowing a wheel from a set my BIL has left in storage for 7 years now in a fully enclosed basement. Took off nearly full tread w/ OE wheel setup for his custom setup.

He hasn't inspected them in a while afaik, so he didn't know if the tires are dry rotting or not. I plan to replace it with a new/almost full tread tire I have from my current set of tires when I replace the CS5 Ultras with Yokohama Avid Ascend. Out of sheer curiousity before I get some pictures, any clue as to if that kind of loose storage in a basement would still lead to dry rot after 7 years?
 
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If it's near the furnace and its ozone, maybe quite a bit. If just dark, fairly little.

I'm running the original 22 year old spare from my F150... it's not cracked at all and was hiding under the bed away from sunlight most of its life.
 
Five months ago I have mounted two identical spare tyres from two vans we have. Michelin Energy, made in 13, like vans. I was thinking they would be ruined in a couple of years anyway and I had a pair, so decided to use them this summer. They perform as new and keep in mind they were located under the cargo bed in the open but,not exposed to the sun.
 
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Ah, so sunlight affects dry rot mostly? What about how they are stored out of sunlight? Does moisture make a difference? I forgot before but I think these tires were in a basement that flooded once and were actually moved to another home. For all I know, they could actually be in a garage now instead of previous basement.
 
My experience is that it isn't the sun that causes the most problem - it's the heat. We are using the cracking on the outside of the tire as an indicator for what is going on with the internal structure, especially the steel belt edges. That part can't be seen unless you cut the tire open - and then the tire is destroyed. And that part of the tire isn't affected by sunlight - except to say that sunlight generates heat.

So to answer the OP's question: Depending on how old the tires were BEFORE they went in the basement, the tires could be OK to use for a short while - OR - they could be too old. The deterioration of the internal rubber is - in my experience - driving mostly by heat. Basements tend to be cooler than the rest of the house - and since you have a basement, it probably means you live in a northern climate, which would also be helpful. The basement in my house in South Carolina - and unusual situation - tended to get into the lower 80's when the outside temp was in the high 90's. On the other hand, the basement never dropped below 65, even when it was below freezing in the winter.
 
I had some little used (5-10% wear) reproduction F70x14 Firestone Red Line tires sitting in the basement for 15 years. When I went to sell them 3 yrs ago, they looked exactly like they did when I first stored them. The new owner was only going to use them for car shows and local (low mph) trips.
 
Sunlight (UV), ozone are the killers. Heat in house structure (basement or garage) is nothing compared to desert and hot asphalt. Water is a sort of non-issue unless they sat with water in them for some time. Tires are pretty much rainproof
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I have a set of uplevel Michelin tires from the early 00's. They are mounted on a set of steel wheels and hold air perfectly for months at a time. When driving in the wet they perform perfectly.
 
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