Interesting point about Firestone ot recommending using any
tire for towing or heavy truck use if it is over 5 years
old. Does that include "store storage time"?
Is the Firestone recommendation in writing anywhere?
Anyone know of any other similar recommendation
from other manufactureres?
Is there a similar age limit recommendation for performance
tires...street and/or track types??
Cheers,
Bill K2UNK
----- Original Message -----
From: <Group44TR7@aol.com>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 7:56 AM
Subject: Followup on Tow Vehicle Tire Failure
> 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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