Tire demolition

Going down the road today, the road side tire just disintegrated all at once.  I guess it de-laminated.  Tore the fender completely off.  3+ year old Discount Tire tires.  Just out of warranty.  Showing a bit of wear.  I didn't examine them carefully before we departed but I did check the air.  Maybe 20K miles on them.

Of course the spare was way low on air but I carry air, so that was no problem.  The fender doesn't look too hard to replace.  I'll spend some time tomorrow or next week buying new tires.  We made it to our destination, so I'll have pleny of time for tires.  I'll have to drive home sans one fender though....

TT

Yeah, I have the fender but it looks like a big piece of crumpled aluminum foil.  I hope FR can sell me a replacement.

TT

I think the wiring is sort of okay.  It will take a bit of work but it looks like there is something usable there.

It happened really fast!  Bang, and some fishtailing in an instant!  I think I caught a glimpse of rubber and fender in the air as I took a quick peak in the rearview, but my focus was keeping us straight and getting off the road as quickly as I could.  It was exciting for a few seconds -- then it was over.

Some little car caught the fender under their car.  They stopped in front of me and I was sure we were going to have to exchange insurance information, but we walked to meet each other and assured each other that we were both okay.  He handed me my fender.  It was unrecognizable, but there was only one thing it could be.  And then he drove off.

Really glad to have had my mini-floor hydraulic jack and a DeWalt 1/2" impact driver.  (Man, that thing is the best!  Not something most people usually carry, but for changing tires it is fantastic.)  And, mostly for airing back up after 4-wheeling on sand, I carry a regulated tank of liquid CO2, so I had plenty of "air" to top up the spare.  Getting back on the road was relatively quick and easy.

The spare still had the new-tire sticker on it, from about 8 years ago.  It's been covered, and it looks pretty good.  This was my first flat ever, in over 30,000 miles on the Pod, so I wasn't too worried about having another flat yesterday and not having a spare, but I sure didn't like not having it.  Of course it was Thanksgiving, and now I really need 2 new tires, maybe 3, but there was almost no way that was going to happen. 

I knew about this, but one thing that was emphasized by this experience is that the spare wheel is different than the road wheels.  The spare wheel will fit on the spare tire carrier, but the road wheels will not.  So I had to throw the bad tire in the Pod.  I guess I could have strapped it to the roof rack on the FJ, but it would have been so much simpler, and more logical, to hang it on the Pod's spare tire carrier.  I guess my Pod was probably $3 cheaper than it might have been due to the savings on the spare carrier.

TT

Mmmmm.  As Furpod said, I really don't know what happened, except from what I can see of what's left of the tire.  There was no indication of anything ahead of time.  Of course I wasn't doing constant ongoing evaluations beyond the normal, but there was no pull like from a low tire and no extra road hum that I noticed.  I doubt a TPMS would have helped in this case, but it wouldn't have hurt.  Something to consider...  

TT