What happens to old tires...

[SentraSE-R]

There's a huge difference between a front tire blowout and a rear tire blowout. Front blowouts are dangerous, causing your car to steer violently in the direction of the flat tire. Rear ones just cause your car to feel a little squirrely.

I've experienced flats/blowouts on all corners, in both cars and motorcycles. I'll bet money that those of you who say "tain't nothin'," all had rear flats.

[Frank Lee]

Nope. Last one I had was left front. Dint even swerve.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

I'd say that when a vehicle has such a high center of gravity that it's likely to roll over from a blown tire, then that's a design defect. Kinda like putting the Pinto's gas tank where it's likely to get punctured in rear-end collisions.

I wonder in how many of those "tire caused crashes" the vehicle was going 80 mph with 15 psi in the tires, with 900 lbs of crap in the back or better yet up on a rooftop carrier? And did the cell phone yappin operator even hear the flap flap flap, or was he/she aware of what that noise was, and did they gently slow down to pull over, or did they slam on the brakes and/or violently overcorrect the steering wheel?

[endurance]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I wonder in how many of those "tire caused crashes" the vehicle was going 80 mph with 15 psi in the tires, with 900 lbs of crap in the back or better yet up on a rooftop carrier? And did the cell phone yappin operator even hear the flap flap flap, or was he/she aware of what that noise was, and did they gently slow down to pull over, or did they slam on the brakes and/or violently overcorrect the steering wheel?

Still, there's a difference, an obvious difference with what happens if you're driving a Civic at 80mph and get a blow out and what happens with a vehicle with a short wheel base, high center of gravity, and is too narrow by design.

Here's the facts:
* There will be an estimated 70,000 SUV rollovers in 2002, in which it's estimated 2000 people will die.
* In the 10-year period during which Ford-Firestone related rollovers caused some 300 deaths, more than 12,000 people -- 40 times as many -- died in SUV rollover crashes unrelated to tire failure.
* A Ford Explorer is 16 times as likely as the typical family car to kill occupants of another vehicle in a crash.
* 1 out of 4 new vehicles sold in the U.S. is an SUV, making it the most popular type of vehicle in America. The Ford Explorer is the most popular SUV in the world.
* SUVs had the highest rollover involvement rate of any vehicle type in fatal crashes -- 36 percent, as compared with 24 percent for pickups, 19 percent for vans and 15 percent for traffic cars. SUVs also had the highest rollover rate for passenger vehicles in injury crashes -- 12 percent, as compared to 7 percent for pickups, 4 percent for vans and 3 percent for passenger cars.

While I do have to worry a lot more about the severity of injury due to striking wildlife than the driver of an SUV, you can't ignore the different handling dynamics of SUVs compared to passenger cars.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

I'll bet money that those of you who say "tain't nothin'," all had rear flats.

OK. You want to send it to my PayPal account? Because the two blowouts I've had in the Insight were both the left front, both caused by road debris (holes in the sidewall you could stick a couple of fingers through), both at highway speeds. Both of them were just a bit of thump-thump-thump and a bit of drag & pull. In fact, one was on a freeway interchange - I5 south to I205 south of Stockton - and I wasn't even sure at first that it was a blowout, and not just a stretch of typical California pavement :-)

And then there was the time, back in the '70s, when I had a blowout in the right front of my old GTO - at about 110 mph. No drama at all.

[Clev]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

In fact, one was on a freeway interchange - I5 south to I205 south of Stockton - and I wasn't even sure at first that it was a blowout, and not just a stretch of typical California pavement :-)

Ugh, I don't miss that commute. Manteca to Oakland back when 205 was two lanes. Chicken ****s who stayed in the left lane on the Altamont because they were skeered of the dropoff past the right shoulder. 238 parking lot. Sinkhole and pavement collapse across all eastbound lanes because of 100+ degree heat. (Not that I have it a lot better right now...)

/End threadjack

[SentraSE-R]

I guess I lost my own bet. My front flat was on a car without power steering, and I weighed under 130 lbs at the time. All my other car flats were rear tire incidents.

My front motorcycle flat happened on a curve, and I couldn't keep the bike on my side of the road. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic when it occurred.

[winkosmosis]

Why would you run 65psi? Why would you even run sidewall max of 55psi? Now you see why it's foolish--- tires aren't cheap. Either you wear them unevenly with the high pressure or you damage them, and it ends up costing way more than you saved in gas.

[usergone]

The tire pressure didn't have much to do with the failure. It was the age. When I got my tires replaced, we noticed that they were made in 2002 and that they had some dry rot more serious than I thought.

I went with a matching pair of p215/75 with a surprising amount of tread on them for $30 each (I'm not going to ask the shop where they came from). Made in 2008. Much better. I put them on the front and left the big ones on the back. 2 fold benefits: maintain the taller final drive ratio, and lower the front about an inch. Yeah, I have a hot rod jeep!

Furthermore, with the old tires on the back, if one should decide to blow out, I will have a rear tire blowout, not front.

[comptiger5000]

Thecheese - be aware, you CANNOT use 4wd at all, on any surface with those mismatched tires.

Regarding rollovers, some SUVs are definitely less stable than others, although a lot of it comes down to drivers that think they're going to handle like sports cars. If people knew how to drive them, there would be far less accidents and rollovers involving them. Same reason why so many get stuck off the road in the snow. Drivers think they're invincible and drive way too fast.