[Radman]

Well, I had an adventure with the White Tempest tonight. I went to Hilliard where there was supposed to be a car show. When I got there it had been postponed. I sat in the parking lot and talked to other guys who had arrived for the show. Then I decided to stop at the Quaker Stake and Lube at Polaris. A short time after I got on I270 I heard a bang from the back of the car. I thought what was that, everything felt normal. Then I heard the rumble starting from the rear tire. I was doing 65 when that happened. By the time I got over to the edge of the road, that tire was junk. I put the spare on, and called the closest tire store. I was not going to drive very far with different size tires on the posi-traction rear end. At the store we found a hole in the tread that was easily ¼ inch in diameter with a side cut from the hole that was another ½ inch. What ever got that tire, it was big. My question at the store was “What do you have in 15 inch tires?” I got the best tires they had that were close to the original size on the back of the car. The good news is that the car is still stable at 65 with a blown tire.

[cuz68]

I guess you were lucky it was on the rear, Im glad you and the car are ok.

[The Boss]

Buy a lottery ticket, see if your luck is still running gold!

[RAJ7395]

Driving through Detroit, a full sized Mercedes flew past me in the fast lane (I was doing 80). She got about 10 car lengths in front of me and her drivers rear tire blew. That thing hooked left into the concrete divider and scattered parts everywhere.


I was following a ford F150 towing a Farmall on a trailer. The trailer was the kind where the deck was high up as the full sized wheels were up under the deck. Just as I went to pass him in the fast lane, the front drivers side tire on the trailer exploded. That trailer jumped into my lane immediately and took the truck with it. Not sure how the guy saved it with his truck pointed 45 degrees to the lane at 70 mph but he did. Other than the tire, the only other casualty was my shorts

The only other scarey event I've had on the highway was last year in Iowa. They don't have over passes in the rural area so here I am buzzing along at 70 on a four lane divided section. A fully loaded semi crosses both lanes and stops blocking the lanes and both shoulders. Slammed on the brakes and flung the wheel to the left and just barely cleared the nose of rig (in the oncoming traffic lane) before flinging the wheel to the left to get back on correct side. I don't care what people say about Dodge but on that day my wifes 2012 Durango RT and it great handling saved me from a very nasty accident.

[Stuckinda60s]

Coming back from Norwalk on I80 through the mountains in PA, several years ago, driving my wife's '97 GP going uphill on a section which had been built-up between two hills. There was a steep drop-off on each side where there had been no fill. On the left, there was a small shoulder with no barrier before the steep grassy drop, 150' or more, to where the built-up areas for east and westbound roads met. There was a concrete drain tunnel entrance at the bottom. On the right, the angle was steep enough that the tops of the trees next to the road were just over my head.

I was barreling past a loaded semi at 80+ when I saw sparks under the trailer and my right rear tire exploded. I felt that I couldn't go to the left because, if I slid at all, I could lose it and tumble down the bank to impact the drain tunnel entrance to the other roadway. I didn't think I could hit the brakes or let entirely off the gas and maintain control. The only option was to slow down, pull behind the semi and ease onto the right shoulder as close as I could get to the barrier on that side.

That was what I did, without having any sense of being on the verge of losing control. I had always been impressed with the GP's handling, but was still surprised that I had so little trouble with a blowout at that speed.

The tractor I was passing had lost his rear driveshaft and that had come back and hit my tire. I got my wife out and had her stand on the other side of the barrier. The tractor had pulled over. I swapped to the donut then pulled the car in front of the truck to protect my rear from traffic. I talked to the Mexican, heavily-accented, driver and got his company information before I drove to a Walmart and got two new tires.

I sent the bill to his company, explaining that I bought two new tires because of the ABS. My tires weren't that old but I didn't want to have problems with tires from different manufacturers. They paid me without question.

[The Boss]

I was coming back from Lebanon valley after Musclepalooza Sunday night trying to keep up with Jeremy when I realized I was getting an OL code on my brake controller - I looked in both side view mirrors but didn't immediately notice anything wrong (hard to see it was just at dusk). I looked in the rear-view mirror and realized the car was tilted hard to one side (had to do a double take because I wasn't certain if that was the road edge or the center of the road side) Looked back in the side view mirror and realized I was one wheel (yes WHEEL) shy of a full set.

Now there is nothing that truck enjoys more than pulling an old car on a trailer & it had no idea there were only three wheels on the trailer and not four, and up until that point neither did I! I tried calling Jeremy 4 times and finally got him (rough service area) and was able to get out the words pull over & trailer before Verizon dropped the call. I come around the corner & there he is so I pull over too with my three remaining 1 y.o. radials doing a fine job of distributing the load.

Just as we were standing there trying to sort out a plan, the neighbor who's field we were parked in front of pulls into his driveway, and being that Eric couldn't drive the car the 85 miles home, I explained the situation and asked if I could leave it in his driveway overnight....Sure, he said.

Safely off loaded, we set on our way again, me with my 3-wheeler in tow. Long story short, we made it home, Sandra & I took a ride the next morning, I dropped off a Dunkin Donuts gift card & said my thanks, and my return ride was one of the most pleasant I've had in ages.

BTW - axle is toast, bearing welded itself to the spindle, new one is ordered, may not be here and/or ready for the open house!

[RAJ7395]

Yipes! I take it the wheel and hub are MIA?

[The Boss]

Yep, went looking for it the next morning, but the only thing we saw was the other brake shoe on the side of the road. Must have shot out and gone off into the woods. New axle is in transit, set of brakes for the other axle are as well.

[400 4spd.]

Back around '99 my wife and I were on a Florida interstate cruising along in a rental and we noticed the odor of something burning. The first thing I thought of was maybe an electrical problem with the van, then soon realized it was the smell of burning rubber. Luckily I had slowed down some while trying to figure out the cause.
We found the smell was from the tractor trailer rig I had been close to and on the left rear of, as it immediately exploded both left rear trailer tires on the forward axle. That thing looked like it left the ground when it exploded and then started swaying. I figured it had been running a flat that was catching on fire and the tire next to it gave up.
I zig-zagged all over to miss large flying chunks of tires.
It all probably happened in under 30 seconds.
In the summer of '05 we were traveling I-40 cross country and when we smelled the same thing again. I backed off and sure enough it happened to a truck in the distance ahead of us.