Sep 29
Blown Tire
Got out of class last really early. We had a ‘lecture’ over 4 chapters, an exam, and then a lab and I was done by 830 (class is scheduled until 1030). Was in a pretty good mood – getting home early, actually getting to spend the evening with Emily and Megabyte, etc. I was approaching the 275/75 south split when I was radar gunned doing around 70 in a 55 (although it used to be a 65 zone…KY keeps chaning the speed on this stretch of highway). I had a Mitsu Montero on my butt. I had actually just started to slow down because the rear end started to feel a little loose on the Rango. Then it hit.
The rear tire completely blew out on me and the ride started to get pretty bad. I immediately changed over 3 lanes of traffic to the shoulder and hit the brakes. I’d never changed the tire on an SUV before and left the owner’s manual on my nightstand from a previous nights bed time storey. Oops. I assumed the jack point on the truck would be the same as it was on my previous 3 cars. Apparently this wasn’t so as the scissor jack didn’t get the truck up high enough to mount the full sized spare. Nuts. Anyway, I got the blown tire/wheel back on and found out the jack point is actually on the rear axle, as close to the wheel as possible. Got it changed, got home (an hour later) and snapped a couple pics:
September 29th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
The lawsuit was against Ford and Firestone. Partially because the rubber in the tires was not bonding properly and partially because they claim ford put the rear exhaust to close to the rear tire causing the tire to overheat and fail. It was for the Firestone Wilderness A/T 15″ tire only. This is all from memory-I know it was the 15″ tire only which I thought was crap because my 16″ on the EXPO did the exact thing the 15″ were doing. Oh wait come to think of it they did recall the 16″ a few months after I replaced all of mine and got a little verbal with the Firestone dealer for being a crook. Almost forgot….glad you are safe those blowouts on SUV’s can get hairy. (BTW if I had to guess it looks like a road hazard to me not separation, but I dig ditches not work on tires)(oh and it was in late 1999 not 2001)
September 29th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
The case settled in 2001. I did a report on it in a management class at SIUE. I think the tire was gradually losing air, and driving 75-80mpg on that probably didn’t help. I know I didn’t hit any curbs or pot holes, but I guess the previous owner could have.
October 13th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
So, did you end up with a ticket after getting clocked?