One of my biggest fears:
I’ve always had a fear of a sudden and catastrophic blow out of a front tire at full-beans, hiway speed… especially in my FJ40. Well, it happened today. Thank God nobody was around me.
Doing about 60-65 in the right lane, BAM! Instantly I’m in the left shoulder heading for a very muddy bog of a median. There was nothing I could do to keep it on the shoulder and soon it was tall dead grass welcoming me down the embankment, across the center bog, then, on the up hill side of the bog I was steering into the slide (later I could see 4 tracks-not 2). Gravity, steering and braking finally complied, whipping me back toward the center of the median (aka bog) but thankfully under control and slowing.
It came to a rest with the front right wheel in the boggiest part of the bog and all other wheels uphill of that. Let’s try reverse. 2h-nope, 4h nope… 2L nope… but wait? Nope? Ahhh, not thinking straight-“hubs dummy”. Locked them in and even with only 3 “good” tires my FJ40 was ready and hungry to go anywhere I pointed it! So compliant even with the carcass of the blown tire slapping lazily as I chose the least worst exit from the bog/median, which happened to be straight up the embankment at the end of the guard rail. So, rear tires full of mud from spinning, front left blown and front right wet, it still let me know straight up that grassy embankment was the best option. It was saying, “we got this!” I was so excited about how it launched us up the embankment, during that small break in traffic, that I was equally surprised when once perpendicular on the interstate, I found I was quickly out of gears in low range trying to sprint/limp across 70 mph traffic!
We made it out, and my sister and brother in-law were mere minutes away and came to assist me in my roadside rescue (thankfully not recovery). That’s another equally long story for another day!
Moral of the story: 1.) yes a sudden catastrophic blow out of a front tire WILL take a quick hard turn in the direction of the blowout. It does not necessarily mean that 100% you will flip. It can be recovered and yes, spare underwear may be a good addition to your toolkit. 2.) don’t drive around on ancient tires… this was 100% preventable and my fault.
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