The call came in the middle of my meeting with my client.  Most of the time I let them go to voice mail, but I have learned to let calls from my wife take priority.  “Does the toll road have a bad surface?”  “Is there something wrong with the shocks?”  “Could the tires be out of balance?”.
 
We discussed all of these possibilities. 
 
 
 
She said the truck was suddenly handling extremely poorly.  “Slow down and get into the right lane if you are not comfortable,” I instructed her.

A couple of minutes later I stepped out the meeting room again to take her next call.  In a less than calm tone she conveyed that she just had a blow out.  I waited for the bad news (I mean the really bad news), but it never came.  She did not roll the vehicle full of kids.  And I was relieved that at that very moment a Texas State Trooper was pulling up behind her and telling her to get over to the right and off the road.

Since we had a spare in the vehicle, the Sherrif’s Courtesy Patrol was able to quickly change the “flat” and get her back on the road.  I use the term flat loosely because the tire looked more like spaghetti than a tire.

I try to pay attention to my vehicles continually.  Only 5 days ago my regular inspection found the rear tires to be in satisfactory shape - good for another couple months until I purchased new ones. 
 
 
But the tire did not agree.  This reinforces the importance of being prepared for the unexpected.
 
 
Check your tires regularly…

■ Air pressure
■ Tread depth
■ Tread ware patterns
■ Sidewalls
■ Feel of the steering wheel for tire balancing

And get them balanced and rotated routinely - some tire stores recommend every 7k to 10k miles.  Your tire professionals will also tell you whether your vehicle needs an alignment.  These considerations are paramount to the safety of you and your passengers, as well as for economic reasons.

I am planning to go to Discount Tire to replace the rear Dominators with BF Goodrich All Terrains.  The A/Ts are wonderful tires in my opinion and experience - for both onroad, and off.  Many times I go to Sam’s Club to get tires, but Discount has the A/Ts in stock, and Sam’s doesn’t.

The tire guy reviewed a few factors that can cause such a blowout as this.  Other than manufacturer defect or hitting some serious road debris, the thing that stuck out was the tire’s age along with the possibility of prolonged parking.  If the tire is set in one position for a long time (months? years?), the belts can warp or bend to some degree. 
 
 
Then they cannot handle the stress of flex and ultimately weaken and break.

The fact is that we recently purchased this 2000 Ford Excursion to replace our foundering 1999 Chevy Suburban.  As it goes with used cars purchased from a dealership, you usually don’t know anything about the previous owner or how he treated the vehicle.  That is to say that there is the possibility that the vehicle sat somewhere for a long time.

Looking at the date stamps on the tires, I saw 3107 on the front (31st week of the year 2007), and 2404 on the rear - meaning it was 4 years old and still not completely worn out.  Also, I have been advised to check out the dates on even new tires.  Seems there were recent news reports of tires being installed that had sat in warehouses for many years, and then failing on the vehicles.

Books can be written about tires - and have been - but my goal was to share with you my recent personal experience along with some tire-food-for-thought.

Happy Trails,
Michael

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