| Author |
Message |
John Rigby (24.174.232.131)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 7:10 pm: | |
On our way home from San Antonio yesterday. I was in the left lane of 1-10 overtaking at 70 mph, when the front passenger tire blew,( the bridgestones were 18 months old and have 7,500 miles on them with no noticable wear).
I was able to stay staight in the lane until I could get over, to the inside lane and finally to a safe stop on the sholder.I really thank the Man up stairs, and I would also say that SAFTY-PLUS played its part well. I did not touch the brakes, it seamed to take for ever to slow down. On inspection the front steps were only 4" from the pavement.
I used my FMCA, RV service, they came out, told me they could,nt get a jack under it and we needed a wrecker.( probably the old story to add more to the bill )I said I had a jack that could walk it block it and get it up. anyway they used a block rolled it up and put the Spare on.
I am considering changing to Cordovan tires ( I have had them on the rear axil ) has anyone had any experience with these tires for the drive axle??
John |
Luke Bonagura (Lukeatuscoach) (209.247.222.107)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 9:25 pm: | |
Hi John:
Thankfully, the Good Lord was watching over you and yours, when your front tire "Let Go".
Now, why did the tire fail???
Do you have the wasted tire to inspect to determine whether it was a tire failure, or did the tire pick up some road debris which caused it to fail???
I can remember back to 1965, when I was stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala. and a bunch of us jumped into my car on a weekend pass on a trip down to Panama City, Fla. While on the way, I blew a tire. The car had less than 10,000 miles on it with the factory equipped tires, and "NO" I don't rememmber who the tire manufacturer was, but it really does not matter!!!
At the first service station I came upon (remember that folks???), I stopped to have the tire checked and hopefully repaired as I was traveling in a very rural area, and I wanted my spare tire.
The mechanic disassembled the tire and the wheel, while I was standing there watching, and he said to me, "Well I have seen a bunch", but I have never seen this!!! What he found is what he thought was the leg bone of a rabbit!!, which had punctured the tire "KNUCKLE end first".
So therefore John, I ask, did a Bridgestone tire have a premature failure, because it was a "Defective" Bridgestone, or did you pick up something off of the road????
I don't manufacture or sell Bridgestone tires, but if I did, I would not be happy with your post, in that all of the facts are not presented, namely, what caused the tire to fail??? And John, I consider you a friend, as we have spoken many times on the phone, along with numerous E-Mails!!! JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT!!!!
Happy & SAFE!! Bussin' ALL!!!
LUKE at US COACH |
Jimmci9 (209.240.205.68)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 10:25 pm: | |
sorry that you had problems, but glad you're ok... lemme know eariler in the week, the next time you're headed this way, and i'll make sure herb has a spot for you.... |
leroy ashe 4104 (4.152.207.162)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 12, 2004 - 10:41 pm: | |
john sorry to hear of your trouble. glad that the good LORD was looking after you.get them fixed . hope to see you in ga |
pete (64.12.112.138)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 1:41 pm: | |
all i know is i had a back inner tire let loose cause it was 5 lbs low...overheated and blew out..hit the floor so hard it broke off a percock for the air reserve tank ( buckeled the floor)..dropped the bus in 45 seconds..im not sure whats worse..a front letting loose or the whole rig locking up ay 65..lol glad you made it through the experience |
RayC (142.165.92.160)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 2:37 pm: | |
From John's report my first thought would be underinflation and changing to another brand will not help his problem. I think he should have an analysis done on the Bridgestone before making a change. |
mel 4104 (208.181.100.1)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 10:08 am: | |
John i had a blow out on my 4104 front left at 55 mph going through Stockton Cal. it was a Bridgestone and when it was replaced i went right back to Bridgestone, i only drive with them on the front and will use other brands on the rear. when you do replace it it is a good time to replace the rims when you get the new tires, replace both so you can get the matched set and the will have the same tread patern, the painted warriors up here just love catching you with a niss matched pair unless you are headed to the tire shop. and the answer to why the new rims is.....the bus Co. here always put a new rim on the new front tire and when that tire goes for recap for the back they reuse the same rim for the life of the tire. this way you always have a new rim on the front. the fronts require the best rims, hope this helps. |
Neil (148.78.243.24)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 10:12 am: | |
Isn't bridgestone part of firestone? We all know the kind of product they have,after all the problems with ford. |
Mark R. Obtinario (Cowlitzcoach) (206.163.13.12)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 10:37 am: | |
Neil, your comment was a low blow to Firestone/Bridgestone!
As it has been proved, the problems the Ford Explorers were having with Firestone/Bridgestone tires had more to do with underinflation and overheating than anything else. F/B was just unlucky to have been the OEM tire for Ford. The same thing would have happened to any other tire from any other manufacturer. Identical tires on identical vehicles have gone more than 50K miles without any problems. The significant difference being the tires were inflated to 35-40 PSI instead of 15-20 PSI.
70 MPH can cause quite a bit of heat in a properly inflated tire. Add a warm ambient temperature and low tire pressure and you have the perfect recipe for a tire disaster.
Mark O. |
John Rigby (65.112.227.94)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 11:11 am: | |
On looking into replacing b oth front tires.Off brands identical specs $250.00ea Goodyear/Bridgestone/etc $350 to $400ea Can anyone tell me the diffrence??
I have the off brand on the rear,inflated per the witten info on the tire wall, No BLOW OUT Bridgestone on the front inflated per the written info on the tire wall BLOW OUT?? All the tire have 7,500 miles approx. I dont understand the 40%diffrence in the price??
John |
DonTX/KS (66.82.9.22)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 3:01 pm: | |
Hey John, did you miss the proper inflation discussion a week or so back? Proper inflation is NEVER written on the sidewall, only on the inflation charts each manufacturer prints. Might double check that, since you were probably not running with proper inflation, that MIGHT be the cause of your failure! (pretty hard to load a front tire to maximum load on the front of a 4104)
A big part of price difference, is how long the tread is supposed to last. On a bus where it is likely that the tire will be unuseable because of age or weathering LONG before you do the mileage, usually the added bucks are just wasted. |
Tom Dupre (192.135.122.2)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 3:08 pm: | |
The info on the tire sidewall is a "Maximum" inflation rating, not the proper inflation rating. You need to weigh each axle on your coach, and devide x the number of tires on that axle to come up with the proper inflation number. These figures will be available from your tire manf.
Good luck, Tom |
BrianMCI96A3 (65.160.215.64)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 9:01 pm: | |
I agree with Mark, A recent survey done on tire inflation indicates that 25 percent of all vehicles on the roadways have underinflated tires.
And while I'm sure that Bridgestone probabaly wishes it didn't need to merge with Firestone,
the biggest culprit is certainly the high center of gravity of SUV's... underinflation merely increases the instability of an unstable design...
Does anyone remember the Suzuki Samurai? That vehicle is truly a death trap in the wrong situation.
About 10 years ago an 18 year old cheerleader driving on highway 93/95 with a Samurai full of kids, swerved to avoid a car crossing the road, and immediately rolled across three lanes of traffic over an access road and into the desert.
I don't remember if she was the only fatality, but that was one Samurai that never drove again.
Brian |
BrianMCI96A3 (198.81.26.45)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 11:21 am: | |
I also, agree with Luke, before condemning Bridgestone, I'd like to know what caused the blowout.
Sitting in front of me is a nickle that came from a flat tire taken off one of our trucks, the nickle was found on edge imbedded in the tire, between the treads and worn down about a third of the way through.
It was the cause of the flat.
Brian |
TWO DOGS (65.177.145.136)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 12:55 pm: | |
yep...just had a friend....BRAND NEW TIRE...ran over a 3/8x7/16 combination wrench...was INSIDE the tire after he took it off |
John Rigby (24.174.238.253)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 7:06 pm: | |
The tire didnt just go flat it blew apart with a loud bang,The sister tire was new at the same time the tread depth was checked yesterday. 17.5/19ths.After checking the ties out the verdict is, Bridgestone/Firestone are warrenting both tires.So I can change them both.
John |
Johnny (4.174.112.186)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 9:36 pm: | |
The cheerleader who flipped the Samurai was killed due to her own lack of driving ability. My wife put almost 80,000 miles on a 1990 Sammy, & it never rolled, despite plenty of abrupt deer-avoidance swerves on 2-lane roads. It cer5tainly doesn't handle very well (and they are PAINFULLY underpowered), but it takes some seriously stupid maneuvering or some seriously low tires (or both) to roll one. |
mel 4104 (208.181.100.32)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 11:03 am: | |
John it great to see Bridgestone stand behind their tires for you as they did for me, it took a little while as the rep had to look at the tire and not the dealer as to the cheaper tires on the market i still think that the extra price is worth it not only for drivabality, ride,and knowing you have a great tire on the front. |
04 bud (152.163.252.163)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 6:46 pm: | |
On my bus i run goodyears but on my 16500 lb gooseneck race car hauler i use only brigestones, 5 years 60 ish thousand miles never a problem. Ill never put anything but them on the trailer
04 bud |
FAST FRED (65.154.176.203)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 6:06 am: | |
"I used my FMCA, RV service, they came out, told me they could,nt get a jack under it and we needed a wrecker.( probably the old story to add more to the bill )I said I had a jack that could walk it block it and get it up. anyway they used a block rolled it up and put the Spare on."
Da Book shows how to create a "run up block" just for this problem a hunk of 4X10 about 1.5 ft long with a taper at the end ,
works really well , and is EZ to store.
This is NOT for working under the coach , only changing a dead front or rear rire for more jack room.
Usefull for the folks WITH spair tires ,Coach spair tires not fork created spairs!
FAST FRED |