Don't drive on old tires... (long read)

Which story do you like better?

  • Randy88Fj62's: Explains situation and adds safety points.

    Votes: 6 12.5%

  • NLXTACY's: Goes over all the faults and adds fiction for comedic effect.

    Votes: 42 87.5%
  • Total voters
    48
  • Poll closed .

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Randy88FJ62

Randy88FJ62

Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Threads
367
Messages
5,754
Location
North of LA California
So... I have had my 62 for almost 1 year. In that time period I have done a lot of things including deciding to go SOA. I bought 35" tires and I am gathering all the parts.

Meanwhile, I've been driving on the P.O.'s old tires which needless to say need to be replaced but I have held off since I don't want to buy new 31" tires which will no longer be needed in 2 months.

This brings us up to date. Friday afternoon I'm out of work and on the freeway heading to pick up the gf at Burbank Airport. We were planning on going to San Luis Obispo for the weekend. A little Pismo Dunes and a little hiking. I'm doing 70mph in the fast lane in slight traffic. I hear a pop and I realize my driver's side rear tire has blown. I pull over and I check out the damage. It was not a full blow through, just some of the tread blew out. I replace it with my spare under the truck in less than 15 mins because I don't want to be late to pick up the gf. On the way to picking her up I call a local cruiser buddy that some of you may know (NLXTACY.) He is nice enough to offer to lend me spare tires for the weekend in case I blow out another. I pick up the gf and head to his place. When I get there we decide that I should use his spare tires instead of my old one as his look safer. We swap the tires and he lends me 2 more. I now have a fresh tire on the back left, a fresh one under my truck, and a third on my kaymar bumper. I head out and 20 mins later on the freeway I blow the driver's side rear tire! No way, how do I blow two in a row in the same spot. As I blew the tire I pulled into the center median of the 101 freeway because I was in the fast lane. I noticed that my engine died as I pulled over but I wasn't concerned about it as my mind was on the blown tire. It turns out the tire that NLXTACY gave me was his old spare and old too. I repace the tire, my second one of the day on the side of the freeway in 2 hours... I go to start my truck and it catches then dies. Then it won't even catch as I keep trying to start it. I go back to the rear driver's side and I notice that there are wires hanging out the bottom of the quarter panel. The second blown tire had pulled out the connector and tore one of the wires loose. I ended up having to splice the wire (thankfully I had a wiring kit.) If I had not replaced my fuel pump 4 months ago I would not have known that the wire that had torn out was for the fuel pump. I fix the wiring and the truck starts up just fine. The rest of the weekend was great, went camping and all the fun stuff. Just wanted to share my grand start to the weekend and give these few pointers:

1. Don't drive on old tires, they blow and are dangerous
2. Have a working spare that is NEW or in good condition.
3. Don't accept spares from NLXTACY as he tried to kill me with his old one.
4. The tail light / fuel pump wiring is vulnerable to a driver's side rear tire blow out and should be protected better than stock in my opinion.

Sorry for the long read.
 
damn, that sounds like a nightmare, but looks like you handled it well:beer:. Being stuck next to the median in LA traffic while splicing wires does not sound fun!!
 
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The :princess: actually came out of the other room to see what I was laughing about (sorry, #3: "Don't accept spares from NLXTACY as he tried to kill me with his old one" made me lose it - wasn't laughing at your missery)

Hope the rest of the weekend was better.

Alf
 
Wife and I had similar experiance.We will be buying 6 sets of tires this summer for our cruisers. Mike
 
slcfj62 said:
So Randy, can you tell us how old the tires were? There was a thread on here awhile ago (https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/276045-old-tires-real-world-usability.html) about this very thing.

This web site, Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tire Bible Page 1 of 2 will tell you how to interpret the tire markings to get the manufacture date.

I'm very curious to know how old the tires are.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I checked your link and page 1 is down. I read page 2 and didn't see date identifying. I walked out and checked the tires and I could not find mfg dates on them.

Joe_E,
I was driving in the fast lane going 70mph both times... The first blown tire I was able to get over to the shoulder easy. The second tire blew completely and the engine died so I didn't have time to get over.
 
Weird that page 1 was down. Anyway, it just came back up. The verbage relating to detecting the age of your tires is in the following quote from the site. The "G" mentioned below is a bunch of letters and numbers following DOT on the sidewall. The example from the web page reads:

DOT FA7CDEF 309

"As part of the DOT code (G in the tire marking above), there is a tire manufacture date stamped on the sidewall. Take a look at yours - there will be a three- or four-digit code. This code denotes when the tire was manufactured, and as a rule-of-thumb, you should never use tires more than 6 years old. The rubber in tires degrades over time, irrespective of whether the tire is being used or not. When you get a tire change, if you can, see if the tire place will allow you to inspect the new tires first. It's not uncommon for these shops to have stuff in stock which is more than 6 years old. The tire might look brand new, but it will delaminate or have some other failure within weeks of being put on a vehicle.
Reading the code. The code is pretty simple. The three-digit code was used for tires manufactured before 2000. So for example 1 7 6 means it was manufactured in the 17th week of 6th year of the decade. In this case it means 1986. For tires manufactured in the 90's, the same code holds true but there is a little triangle after the DOT code. So for this example, a tire manufactured in the 17th week of 1996 would have the code 176triangle
After 2000, the code was switched to a 4-digit code. Same rules apply, so for example 3 0 0 3 means the tire was manufactured in the 30th week of 2003. "
 
Randy88FJ62 said:
I checked your link and page 1 is down. I read page 2 and didn't see date identifying. I walked out and checked the tires and I could not find mfg dates on them.

Joe_E,
Click to expand...

Look on the blackwall side near the rim. You'll find a string of numbers and letters starting with DOT. At the end of that string will be some numbers that are not as neat and tidy as the rest, either 3 digits, 3 digits and a triangle or 4 digits. Post up those numbers for us and we'll let you know the date of manufacture.
 
The number is C414303 which means it was made in 2003? So 6 years old and that's that.
 
that sucks man but yet you came out with a good attitude. I have always been a person to replace tires long before most people do. i have had a couple of flats when i was younger and used to use change out of the ashtray to pay for gas(when you could actually do that) I would have to run on older tires. thats when i decided to keep good tires on all my trucks at all times.
 
I tend to learn lessons the hard way. I won't be running old tires in the future...
 
So, we are waiting.... :clap: (tick, tick, tick) .... What really happened ?


:popcorn:
 
I get a frantic call from Randy, "Joey, are you home or are gone for the weekend?"

Luckily I was home and working on projects. He tells me the issue, "Dude I JUST had a blow out, I'm on the 101/405 heading your way, do you have a spare stock tire?"

Of course I do, in fact I have 6 of them now because I just put on the 275/16s on my 60.

So he gets here and parks right in the driveway of my units, blocking everyone else's access. Nice parking a-hole now the geriatrics area going to whine they can't get their prune juice into the fridge in time to make it cold in time for the Hannity hour. He pulls out the blown tire and then proceeds to tell me that the girl riding in his truck (new girl, never met this one, and quite frankly was happy it was a girl and not a guy this time) is bad luck. He says every time he goes anywhere with her something breaks. Oh and she gives handys with sandpaper and spit.

I take a look at the spare he has on the left rear, it looks pretty darn rough. So we decide to pull out my used tires. Now my old tires are old and we both knew that but he wanted spares so I gave him one that he put in place of his spare and took another one as a second spare...because well...he's Randy and he needs two spares.

We get everything buttoned up and he says his thank you's and puts it in drive and starts to drive off. Only the truck doesn't drive off. He switches gears, nothing. He looks at me and says, with sad puppy dog eyes, "Dude, my transmission just blew up in your driveway". Its an automatic btw.

Ooooorr, maybe the jack was still under the truck. Freaking Randy.

So he is on his way after I direct him to the nearest Taco Bell because his new woman is demanding to share her essence with him in the tent after sharing a grilled stuff'd burrito with beef.

20 minutes later I get a call, "Joey, dude I am NEVER going to get laid now. I'm sick of jerking off, please come help me, the tire blew out again". I'm not helping you jerk off Randy. "No help with the spare".

So I hop into my truck and start driving to him at the 101 and Kanan Road. Turns out he is stuck in the middle of the freaking 101 frwy. Now we know why the 101 sucks so bad. Its people like Randy.

So 2 minutes before I get there his new grilled stuff'd girl calls and says he got the truck started and that they don't need me now. Well I went anyway because knowing Randy he'll need ANOTHER spare. So we meet up in a gas station.

I have him start and stop the truck several times to make sure its not another stupid starter issue. No problems. He showed me the spare I gave him and he managed to completely trash it. Its in pieces. So now he has two flats on the same side in under one hour. I figure his suspension sucks SO bad and he sways SO much (ok sachés) that I figure the body pinch weld was tearing up the tires. Couldn't find anything. So I take the torn up tire (I now have two of his destroyed tires and one crappy spare in my garage) and I give him my BRAND new spare that I had in my truck. Brand new, no miles. And off he went.
 
Last edited:
LOL !

Best thread ever !!
 
Spike Strip said:
LOL !

Best thread ever !!
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm trying not to burst out laughing here at work, :lol:

"....she gives handys with sandpaper and spit...." :clap:
 
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