I hope this is not a sign of things to come!!!

Got my doors and seats on and in my Ranchero today and got it loaded on the trailer.
Which was a job by myself with no axles under it, thank god for the hand winch I mounted on the front of the trailer. Anyway I came in the house to take a break from the heat and humidity. My wife said she heard a loud bang so I went outside to have a look around. The first thing I notice is my tire cover in the back of my truck is ripped well more like shreaded so I pull it off the tire. Can you guys believe the the spare tire that has never been used, blew on the tire mount in the back of my truck.
It blew the steel belt off the top half of the tire.
Thats a new one for me, wonder what the tires are gonna do on the way to
Nevada, on the hot road. I hope it rains.
Kurt

That happened to me on my 58 Chevy Sedan years ago. I was driving down the street and heard/felt a boom, I had no idea what it was. I looked in the trunk a couple of days later and the spare had blown up (it had been in the trunk for about 10 years at the time and never on the ground).

It shocked me, I had never seen that before.
I do have a good used tire I just took off the truck.
I kept the best one when I went down last week
and put all new tires and valve stems on my truck.
Kurt

I heard about a month or so ago that the new tires were only good for about 3-4 years now even if they had never been used. I figured it was because of the Firestone blowouts on the Explorers but it could very well have to do with this.

Wow that is a new one for me. Kurt years ago we used to run van trips thru the southwest with teenage kids. We had two 15 passenger Dodge Ram vans, and two custom made trailers that we towed behind them. Every year at least one or two trailer tires would go on the trip(7500 miles over 7 1/2 weeks). My last years working for the company we put all new tires on both trailers, and had them aligned. not a 1000 miles into the trip we were already replacing one. I have no idea why trailer tires wear out so fast compared to car tires. Every morning we would start out slow to warm the tires up, because they would get flat spots when we parked being warm from driving long distances. The slow starts keeping it under 45 for 10 minutes or so seemed to realy help. Never had one explode on the spare rack!

Bi-as ply tires you would have to drive slow if they were sitting a long time as they would get flatspots never heard of radials doing that

Charlie, funny you mentioned that. At one point on our last trip a tire blew, and they didn't have a bias ply for it, he did have a used radial for cheap. That tire made it 6k miles no problem, and with little signs of wear!

Kurt. That is what they call tread separation on a radial. And yes, this is what was happening to the Firestone tire for several reasons. Bottom line, the belt package didn't adhere to the carcass of the tire when it was assembled and cured.

I had 2 tires blow up in the back of my Suburban :eek: :eek: :whacked:
Thank god we weren't in the truck when they decided to let go....joe

Well back in Florida for my next load out to Nevada.
I tow'ed my corvette with my old pick up truck.
Just about the middle of Texas I found a rest area to lay my head down for a few minutes.
About the time I put my head down I heard a boom then the truck dropped to one side.
I am thinking how did this happen? I just put all new tires on before I left.
So I got out and walked around the back to find the truck was on fire.
So I grabbed the 5 gallon water jug I had put in the back of the truck
and started splasing it in to the wheel well and got it out.
Spent the next week in a little town just west of the rest area trying to get a new axle.
Everything on the rear that had rubber on it had to be replaced along with
the axle and one drum, bearings and brake pads, springs lost there tension as well from heat.
And missed the car show in Vegas
Fun fun moving!!! Kurt

Jeez Kurt, I think the car Gods are trying to tell you to stay in Florida ! :eek: This trip sure has had a few issues, hasn't it? How many trips are you going to make altogether?

Hope the rest go smoothly. :)

Don

Kurt glad your O.K. and the vette! Like Don said, somebody is telling you something!

Well I look at it like this, only three to go!!! HE! HE! HE!
The good thing is, since it was a fire the insurance is paying for the repairs and my lay over.

Glad you're okay, everything else is repairable.

You're going to have some stories to tell though.

I'll tell you Bob I didn't think I was gonna be able to get it out, it was going pretty good.
Them tire fires can get pretty bad, then after I got it out, it was smoking like it was gonna re - ignite.
So I thru my bottle jack under the frame and started jacking it up to get the wheel off.
Got the lugs all broke loose then tried to turn them by hand.
That was not happening they felt like they were in the middle of the fire.
Back to my star wrench that I could only turn 1/2 turns at a time.
The whole time I am thinking this this is gonna start burning again.
When I finally do get it off, I look on the ground and know I ain't going anywhere.
There was brake fluid and gear oil puddles.

Be thankful you were stoped. That could have been real bad out on the road. Not sure about car gods but I'd be real thankful to the Lord in heaven

Yep You got that right cffisher.
I had just topped the biggest mountain when I seen the rest area sign.
So I probably would have been doing 70 or so down the other side of it.
If I had not stopped for a break and a snooz, who knows what might of happened.
It would not have been good, it could have been lots worse then it was.

Kurt. I live in southern Oklahoma. I don't know the route you are taking, but if I can help you with any further auto issues while you are traveling through central Texas let me know. The Dallas area is only two hours from my home. PM me if you would like a phone number.