29th Sep 2006
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:
Looks like the trear seperated from the sidewall to me. Wasn’t there a lawsuit about this back in 2001? 
Stinks too, because there was a lot of tread left on the tire. Luckily the spare was brand new and in great shape.
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:
Stinks too, because there was a lot of tread left on the tire. Luckily the spare was brand new and in great shape.Posted in Cars, Grrr | 3 Comments »