Thread: I want to share a story

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This happened a couple of months ago. Our shop is about 1500 sq. ft., and it is about 50 yards from my parent's house. The shop was closed, and my dad was cutting grass up at the house. He had on earphones listening to a ballgame on the radio. He said he head a loud explosion from inside the shop. My mom was inside the house, and she heard it too. My dad went inside the shop expecting to find something destoyed or on fire. He didn't notice anything abnornal at first, until he saw that my car was leaning over. He walked around the side and noticed that the front tire had exploded. The next day I went over to survey the damage. The tire had completely separated at the very top ( the worst place), and there were chunks of rubber everywhere. It did did a fair amount of damage to my fender. The car had been sitting there relatively untouched for about 4 months. I guess it is a good thing I wasn't down there.

Have any of you ever heard of anything like this?

Andy, Never had that happen when its been sitting for that long of a time. But I have seen it happen when tires are overfilled with air pressure, and have had it happen to me while on a road trip, had been driving about 300 miles straight so pulled off for food and walked about 15' from the car when it blew.
Was there any signs of excessive wear on the tire before it blew that you noticed? I see the tire is a little worn, Can't tell if the seam split on the side is from the explosion or the cause of the explosion.
But I would have to guess that the tire was old and with it sitting for 4 months in the same spot the pressure just weakened the top so much if finally blew.

I never had a tire explode like that. I forgot and left my ignition on one time when I went in the house to eat lunch and heard an explosion in my garage. The top of the coil blew off and took out a flourescent light fixture. It also covered my truck with the black rubber or whatever it was they sealed it with. It was a 6 volt coil and I was trying to start the old flathead with a 12 volt battery.
AL

You're right, good thing you weren't next to it.

Looks like an old radial, pretty much worn down. Based on some sign near the edge of the blown area I'd say the tire had what's called a tread separation. Before the tire blew, you might have been able to look at the tread area and see a "wiggle" in the tread pattern. Or just a slight "bubble" in the tread face. Both are signs of tread separation which happens between the layers of tread, and frequently involves a broken belt. In the mid '70's it was real common on domestic, steel radials, as the manufacturers were "learning" how to make them. The Firestone F71 was notorious (they seem to have a problem with negative experience don't they, but they weren't alone).

I once had a "good" experience with tread separation. I was in the market for a car (like that's unusual!). It was '77, and I took a used '76 280z for a test drive. The front end shimmied a bit. I suspected the tires, looked at them, and sure enough, separation sign. Got back to the dentist that was selling it, and asked about the shimmy. He had that look like he wished I hadn't noticed. Given the car had "unknown problems" it became an excellent negotiating point (for me) and I drove away a happy owner. Four new tires, which I was able to buy wholesale at the time, and I had a nearly new car for a cheap price.

Yes, the tire definitely not road worthy, but it only had about 25 lbs of pressure. It was one of those situations where I was looking for the ford wheels with "no guarantee" on the tires at the junkyard.

Have any of you ford guys ever noticed how difficult it is to find plain passenger ford wheels? Down here in Mississippi, everyone gets them and puts then on bumper trailers.

I have also been on the endless search for a junkyard 9" rearend. All the local dirt track racers suck them up.

I am still new to the game, and I haven't established good relations with junkyard owners. I have found that most of then are rectal orifices.

About 2 years ago, I was driving my 58 Chevy, and there was a HELL of a bang that shook the whole car. Couldn't figure out what it was until I opend the trunk. Yup, my spare looked just like yours (fortunatly, no damage to the car). The tire had been pretty used up and the amount of tread looked to be about the same as you have, that had not bothered me too much as it was only going to be a spare. Thew tire had been in the trunk for about 12 years, and except for the ocassional checking tire pressure (32-35 lbs) had just sat there until it exploded.

Besides being an old tire, I figured that part of it was the car sitting out in the sun baking that day and the temp rising in the trunk.

looks like my friends spare tire for his trailor that he had in the back of his truck. we were going to a job site when we heard BOOMMMMMMM and then seen it jump up & almost out of the truck bed. needless to say both of us almost had to change our pants ..........joe

One more tire image.............it just sorta fits!

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