In a message dated 5/4/02 11:38:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time, hugtrees@xxxxxxxx writes:
. At 80 MPH, or so, the dinner sized plate
located behind the headlights and above the passenger front wheel slipped
down and neatly shredded the tire. It peeled off the tread with ease and
complete effectiveness. The noise was awful, as was the shuddering
Hugh,
It sounds like you had a great day with this one exception, the multi-town cruise concept sounds really great.
My reason for replying, however, is that it sounds to me that you had an old tire seperate rather than a piece of car come loose and peel the skin off the tire. If this is the case, you need to be concerned about a similar fate for the other three tires. The conditions you describe are perfect for an old tire to fail -- warm temp and high speed. I had a rear fail on me some years back and have become very sensitive about driving on old tires as I am very lucky to be here to tell the tale. I too was going about 75-80 mph southbound on I-75 when a right rear tire seperated, started beating the quarter panel to death and sent me sailing out of control into the median.
I ended up southbound in the northbound lane before I could regain control and get back into the median when I managed to get the car stopped so I could check my britches. I too did not loose the air out of the tire, just approx 2/3 of the skin had peeled away. The tires on the car were old, but did not show significant signs of age and had plenty of tread left. When all was said and done, I had done approx $1200 damage to an near perfect original paint '65 Mercury Colony Park wagon because I had not thought of replacing the old tires.
I just thought you might relook at the damage to see if it is possible that the tire did the damage to the car, rather than the car damaging the tire. If this is a possibility, it is probably time to think about a visit to the tire store.
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