And then the tread fell off!

I was rolling down 95 here in Vegas in one of my Caddy's enjoying life. Then with out warning the front p***enger tire went crazy and the tread came off. I thought this kind of thing only happened to retreads but I was wrong. What I really found amazing is the tire still held air. I drove it home on the expressway 9 miles at 45 mph. No big deal for me but I think 30 cars hit the tread before it finally made it to the side of the road. I'm sure it caused some damage to others.

 

Coker???

 

I've had it happen a few times. No particular brand. I've even driven them home, but never at 45 mph

 

i had a spot on the tread bubble once, but never come off.

 

what happens is that air bubbles get between the tire carc*** (main tire body) and the tread during the manufacturing process (occ***ionally later in its life) and as it heats up, the belts/tread separates, then it comes apart like yours did. In the late 70s/early 80s, General Tire had a terrible problem with this with their tires. Glad you came out of it safe, but you shoulda got the tread out of the road. Have seen those tear up body work and rip lines off the bottom of vehicles when hit.

 

i had 4 coker cl***ics that had belt seperation........it ain't funny !!!!

 

Steel belted?

 

The dog looks guilty........

 

In my experience tread separating from the casing is USUALLY (not always, usually..) caused by the tire having been run under inflated at some point in it's lifetime.

Sometimes it takes years for damage from under inflation to manifest itself.

 

Recaps used to do that back in the day. I have found that a bias tire on a trailer will pull better and you can run it until it completly bald. Go look in the junk tire piles you will see lots of discarded radials with good tread. Almost all of the bias will be worn slick. A radial goes bad over time just sitting the belts start slipping apart. I had a steel belt radial yokahama shed its tread on the semi trailer a few weeks ago. It came apart at 60 mph. Before the tread came completely off it flapped around and damagd the taillights and mud flap. It still had air but i stopped and had a road service bring me a new tire. Big big fine to run on a flat or damaged tire on a semi truck. Randall

 

Take a look at the DOT code for date of manufacture.

If it's more than six years old you run the risk of a tread separation.

The giveaway for possible disaster is tiny hairline cracks in the tread rubber between the tread blocks at the shoulder area of the tire. If you see those, you might have a problem.

Tire/vehicle storage has an effect on tire life. Exposure to sunlight, heat and ozone will accelerate the aging process. A garaged vehicle will extend tire life significantly.

THEN.............all the above gets worse when TP is low and/or tire is overloaded or run for long periods of time at high temperature.

LasVegas is hot (but you already knew that) and a high ozone area.

 

Had the exact same thing happen on a trailer tire 2 months ago... ****er let loose running down the interstate at 70 with a load of model A bodies on the trailer... look in the p***enger mirror and seen a puff of smoke and thought the turbo gave up it's ghost!! Scary!!! We drove on it for 10 miles to the nearest walmart and got a replacement!!

 

Tire is a General Ameri 400 SL

The only # I can find is 28282. Is that the date?

 

should say something like DOT 2708 which would be the 27th week of 2008

i sell tires, tread poppin off happens all the time. usually on older dry-rotted tires or tires with extremely bad alignment problems.

 

I wish I could of but I would have died.

I'm sure others cars were damaged. The sounds of it being slapped from one car to another made me sick.

 

A freind had two tires on the same side of his double axle trailer explode at the same time setting in his yard and bend the fender all to hell. We still haven't figured that one out?

 

28282

 

I had that happen one night making a p*** at the midnight street races on my O/T camaro in HS. Was not fun! Thankfully the car pulled to the center of the road and there was no other cars there!

 

good thing you had your lucky dog with you.

I had that happen on my motorhome but the tread did not completely leave the tire so it spun around and beat the **** out of everything in its path. took out all the wiring to the tail lights and gas tank, about 4 feet of my exhaust system, and the fill tube for the gas tank.

the reason? old cracked tires with good tread on a 150 mile drive in the middle of summer going to Paso.

 

That ****s! LOL, ****.

 

I know your pain, this happend on my Caddy this summer on a day when it was 107deg out...

 

GOOD POST
I have been selling tires for over 40 years. Funny when I tell people to replace because of age & cracking NOT tread depth...They think I am trying to **** them.

 

As much as it ****s to have a tire tread laying in the road, you should NEVER go retrieve anything on the freeway. All that does is add an extra hazard, YOU. We've had several people killed around here on the freeways recently, either trying to retrieve something that fell onto the freeway or attempting to help disabled vehicles still in the roadway.

Call a police non-emergency line, call whatever organization is in charge of the roads in your state (Caltrans here in CA for example), call AAA, call a radio station traffic line, heck, call 911 if you have to (***uming you don't know any other numbers). They'll be able to get someone equipped to shut down lanes out there so the hazard can be safely removed.

 

If you sure you heard/saw it damage other cars, you better keep an eye out for someone knocking your door regarding a traffic report based on your plate.

I had warned a young skwid (squirrly kid) he better not head out for a night of streetstalking on 8 year old volkswagon front runners that were completely cracked, and had two blisters.

Well, not even ten minutes into the 30 minute ride, he chucked a gator right off the mustang's right front corner, and it sailed smooth into the side of an Escalade.

His woman was following in her car (she had her friends with her so he could cruise light). He did a U turn to take the car back, and she followed him right on his *** so the Escalade driver couldn't get a good look at his plates. Couple of high speed blasts and quick turns (on a filleted tire still) and he snuck it home anonymously).

Couldn't believe that ****.

 

Check the other side of the tire for the date code. It will be recessed numbers inside of a recessed oval, close to the rim. Like this:

 

Cool thread, do you mind if I play? On the back axle of the kripple kart on the way to the Hot Rod hayride. Gentle vibration from the back, getting gradually louder until finally we hit Steve Austin "I can't hold her, she's breaking up, she's breaking up!" scenario over about a 20 mile section of the trip followed by a gentle, almost polite "pop", fortunately about 200 yards from the gas station. We pulled in and found this;

well under 1000 miles, run 34 psi and checked constantly. Go figure!
Paul

 

Very interesting post. I wonder if the www are made just for looks and not durability. I heard more and more on here talk about how short of a life these wide whites have.

 

We bought a new chevy van at work with General tires on it. IN the first 3 months all 4 tires and the spare had separated. Neither chevy or General tires would warrantee them. I know for a fact they were kept at reccomended TP because I was the mechanic there....
We went to Goodyears on this van and I won't buy General tires..

 

Had it happen years ago on a Uniroyal steel belted.....it aint fun.

 

Don't worry about financial responsibility for the lost thread.In most states the law says if the tire blows and slaps the **** outta the car next to you,you pay.If the thread blows off and is laying in the road....then it becomes a "road hazard". No liability on your part.
You did right by not playing dodgem cars on the hiway to retrieve the thread.
The other photo above of the seperated thread on the red wheel;the sidewall looks cracked,if that was like that no wonder the tire failed.