FOTers
I finally had time to go to the Firestone dealer yesterday. A
different one than had earlier this year advised me that the tires on my truck
were
fine.
First, it turns out that I was improperly advised by the previous
dealer. One reason was that the previously dealer looked at the manufacturer's
date on one of the tires and assumed all of the rest were the same date. It
turns
out that the front tire that he inspected was newer than the rear tires on
the truck by six years. The tires look nearly identical, but the rears and
other
front were from 1996. Guess we need to check the dates on all the tires!
Secondly, the second tire dealer claims that the blown tire had to
have experienced some pressure loss prior to the blowout. However, there is no
evidence of a specific road hazard penetrating the tire thread to have caused a
pressure leak. The side wall of the tire is so badly damaged that it would be
impossible to determine if something happened there. The tires had been tested
for air pressure, as I routinely do, only ten miles previously.
For those of you who were interested because you were using
Firestones, the old tires were ten ply steel belted tires sold for heavy duty
truck use.
There was plenty of threat left on these tires, but there was some very minor
cracking which why I had originally went to the dealer to have them
inspected. The Firestone dealer claims that they do not recommend using any
tire that
is over five years old for towing or other heavy duty vehicles.
Firestone is replacing all the Truck's tires with new heavy duty tires
at a deep discount.
Cary
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