Tire blowout...what if?

[47heaven]

Just wondering if anyone on here has ever had a front tire blow out on them on their old Plymouths or Dodges and what was the outcome. The other day while I was driving on the freeway in the P15, I was wondering if my front tire ever blew out, say if I was traveling at about 65 mph, what would my chances be that the car would go out of control and I could possibly flip over. I have 15 in. rims and I'm not sure if they are the safety ones or not. I also have bias ply tires so if a tire blows out does it stay on the rim or come off? What are the statistics of front tire blowouts on cars like ours and how to survive them.

Darin

PS: Not sure if this topic has been brought up before, but if so I'm bringing it up again.

[Young Ed]

Darin your car should have safety rims. So the tire should stay on and hopefully you can drive to the side under control

[GeorgeLeonard]

How does one tell a safety rim from the other kind?

[Young Ed]

You can only tell with the tire removed. There is a ridge that the tire must pop over before seating on the rim

[Plymouthy Adams]

you have a safety rim...that only keeps the tire on per say..a blow out is a blowout and not fun at all..front at high speed does not always allow one to safely manuever and as such as with any car can loose control...my son just had a blow out with a brand new Michelin..his car was totaled as it immediately put him against a guard rain in a construction zone where there was no safety lane to enter....after a end swap and such..totaled...one week ago yesterday

[47heaven]

you have a safety rim...that only keeps the tire on per say..a blow out is a blowout and not fun at all..front at high speed does not always allow one to safely manuever and as such as with any car can loose control...my son just had a blow out with a brand new Michelin..his car was totaled as it immediately put him against a guard rain in a construction zone where there was no safety lane to enter....after a end swap and such..totaled...one week ago yesterday

Yeah, that's what scares me about driving at higher speeds. The fastest I have gone in the car is 75 mph, and that was cruising on old Route 66 in the desert. On the freeway I stay in the slow lane and cruise between 55 and 65. I just want to be sure that it doesn't flip. I mean, what usually happens during a blowout? Does the car pull to the side that the tire is blown out on or does it tend to go any which way? I never experienced it before, so I wouldn't know.

[Captain Neon]

I've been in two blow-outs both w/ vehicles equipped with radial tyres, and both were front wheel drive. I was driving one and I was a passenger during the other. Both times that I have experienced a blowout there was some warning that things weren't right. On my front-end blow-out, I began pulling in the direction of the bad tyre and had my steering wheel turned the other direction to compensate until the tyre finally gave out. The other time was a rear tyre blow-out and the vehicle began a horrendous noise from the back end with some mild fishtailing. When the tyre finally blew, we did a 180 and stopped on the shoulder of the opposing lane. We were traveling north, but the blow-out caused us to be heading south. The rear tyre blow-out was probably the more dangerous (and exciting) of the two.

My sister-in-law had a tyre blow-out in a rented mini-van. I don't know all of the details, but it was a harrowing experience for all involved. She too managed to keep the vehicle under control and stopped safely. She was on the way to my other sister-in-law's wedding. In the vehicle were the bride, the ring-bearer, and the flower girl.

There are benefits to having driven like a maniac as a teenager. When bad things happen, our instincts from having pushed the envelope in the past kick in.

[captden29]

you usually get a slight warning of an impending blowout, at least that has been my experience. a full blown immediate total blowout is the worst as the sound of it happening can scare you and divert you from taking proper action, which is to hold the steering wheel tight and let off the gas. resist the impulse to hit the brakes. use the brakes only when the car has slowed down enough for you to maintain control. actually, you can slightly step on the gas to keep control in a blowout and then release it when you have the vehicle going in the direction you want, but you have to know what you are doing to think about all that. rear blowouts are easier, but slowing down gradually is the key. i had a front blowout on my 51 buick, but only at 30 mph. not sure if i could have done as well at 60 mph. i had a rear blowout on a 54 chrysler at about 55 and i had some loss of control but got it back as i slowed down and just drove off the road. the dangerous part was i drove off the road on to uneven sand and the car almost flipped over. we were on the way to jones beach on long island and it was a convertible. i guess it was heavy enough to not flip, but it did tilt up.lady luck was with me that day. of course, having good tires inflated well is always helpful. capt den

[Norm's Coupe]

Best thing to do is make sure you have good tires with good tread and they are not dry rotted. If you do that you aren't any more likely to have a blow out with a bias tire than you are with radials.

Captden gave you the proper thing to do if one does occur. I haven't had one myself, even with the rotten tires I drove on when a kid (zero tread and dry rotted). However, I had a brand new company car in the late 70's with less than 2000 miles on it. One morning while on the freeway, in rush hour traffic a steel belt decided to move inside one of the tires and threw my car out of control. I simply did the same thing as if I had a blow out. Finally got the car under control, went to my first appointment for the day, then straight to the car dealer to find out the problem.

Sounds like you are worrying too much there. Forget the tires. What happens if the drive shaft should fall down at the transmission end when you are doing 60 MPH? Yes, that can also happen. But..........it's as likely to happen as a blow out if the tires are in good shape. Then of course, you could spring a leak in the gas line at the carb and have gas fall on top of the hot manifold. Just drive the car and enjoy it and forget the "What if's" until they happen.

[47heaven]

Best thing to do is make sure you have good tires with good tread and they are not dry rotted. If you do that you aren't any more likely to have a blow out with a bias tire than you are with radials.

Captden gave you the proper thing to do if one does occur. I haven't had one myself' date=' even with the rotten tires I drove on when a kid (zero tread and dry rotted). However, I had a brand new company car in the late 70's with less than 2000 miles on it. One morning while on the freeway, in rush hour traffic a steel belt decided to move inside one of the tires and threw my car out of control. I simply did the same thing as if I had a blow out. Finally got the car under control, went to my first appointment for the day, then straight to the car dealer to find out the problem.

Sounds like you are worrying too much there. Forget the tires. What happens if the drive shaft should fall down at the transmission end when you are doing 60 MPH? Yes, that can also happen. But..........it's as likely to happen as a blow out if the tires are in good shape. Then of course, you could spring a leak in the gas line at the carb and have gas fall on top of the hot manifold. Just drive the car and enjoy it and forget the "What if's" until they happen.[/quote']

Norm...makes sense, but it also make sense to know "what to do" in case one of the "what if's" happen. That was basically my purpose of the thread. Not to sound like a worry wart, but to be prepared in case it does happen. I don't see anything wrong with knowing what to do, and I'm sure you would agree. BTW...I heard before what happens if the drive shaft comes off at the transmission. I don't even want to think about that happening.

The tires are only two years old, but I have noticed that the whitewalls are getting these little cracks in them (kind of looks like after someone sticks a sharp object into them like a knife or screwdriver). At first I thought someone had punctured them, but there was no air leaking. So it seems to be just the white wall. Is this s good sign or bad?

[47heaven]

you usually get a slight warning of an impending blowout, at least that has been my experience. a full blown immediate total blowout is the worst as the sound of it happening can scare you and divert you from taking proper action, which is to hold the steering wheel tight and let off the gas. resist the impulse to hit the brakes. use the brakes only when the car has slowed down enough for you to maintain control. actually, you can slightly step on the gas to keep control in a blowout and then release it when you have the vehicle going in the direction you want, but you have to know what you are doing to think about all that. rear blowouts are easier, but slowing down gradually is the key. i had a front blowout on my 51 buick, but only at 30 mph. not sure if i could have done as well at 60 mph. i had a rear blowout on a 54 chrysler at about 55 and i had some loss of control but got it back as i slowed down and just drove off the road. the dangerous part was i drove off the road on to uneven sand and the car almost flipped over. we were on the way to jones beach on long island and it was a convertible. i guess it was heavy enough to not flip, but it did tilt up.lady luck was with me that day. of course, having good tires inflated well is always helpful. capt den

Thanks Captden...that was what I was looking for.

[Deano (GB)]

Are these old cars more likely to suffer from a blowout than a modern vehicle?

The thought had not even occurred to me. I understand that the centre of gravity and weight distribution is all a lot different to a modern car, I guess therefore that it's behaviour in a blowout situation is going to be totally different. Do they have a tendency to flip? Deano

[grady hawkins]

I had a front tire from Coker give out at inter state speed.

It definetly pulls to the blown tire. I think the best course of action is not to jerk the steeering wheel and over correct.

I lost the hub cap in the process

[Tony Cipponeri]

Funny you should ask, I had a Dakota truck about ten years ago, we weren't doing that well financely. I had bought some used tires for the truck, to make it to work. I was on the freeway coming home from work one day, I was going about 75 mph, when I heard a banging noise coming from the back of the truck. Well seems like the driver side rear tire was losing it's thread. I was getting thrown into a wild right turn, has I came around to about the 180 mark, I saw that I was going to go into the dirt along side of the freeway. I thought that I was going to be all right, but NOOOO, as I was sliding sideways, the truck caught something and over I went, 2 1/2 times I think. I ended up upside down, crawled out the pasenger side widow. I just thank the Lord that I got through that one. Tony C

[Bodacious]

In nearly 40 years of driving I've only ever had one blowout but it was a dandy. It was in my '67 Dodge PU with a big block and no power steering, so it steered like a log wagon to begin with. It was summertime (no A/C either) and I was on the interstate with the driver's window down and my dog as my passenger. Without warning my RF tire explodes like a cannon sending the truck immediately over to the berm and trying to go into the ditch beyond that, which would have stood a good chance of flipping the truck. Well simultaneously as I'm busy with this, when the tire exploded, the dog had leaped over me in an attempt to exit through my window. I barely caught her with my left arm and she continued to struggle as I fought to keep the truck out of the ditch with only my right arm, the ill-steering SOB fighting me the whole time. Finally slowed to a stop, still on the berm and changed the tire.

[Norm's Coupe]

The tires are only two years old, but I have noticed that the whitewalls are getting these little cracks in them (kind of looks like after someone sticks a sharp object into them like a knife or screwdriver). At first I thought someone had punctured them, but there was no air leaking. So it seems to be just the white wall. Is this s good sign or bad?

It would be really hard for me or anyone else to tell you if your tires are dry rotted. Even if you posted a picture, it really wouldn't be the same as looking at them in person.

Generally speaking though a two year old tire should be ok, even if it does have some slight cracking. If I'm not mistaking the general rule is that you should replace tires about every 4 to 5 years. At least that's what the tire people will usually tell you. That said, I know some people who have run with tires about 10 years old or older. However, these same people do not drive their cars at speeds in the 50 MPH range either. Would I do that or recommend it? NO.

I'm sure if you look at a two year old tire on your modern car closely, you'll see them cracking too when they are about two to three years old. Yet, they are still good at that point most of the time.

If you are really concerned about the cracking on your tires, find someone you can trust to have them look at them for their opinion. Also keep in mind, the whitewall will make the crack look bigger than it may actually be. On a blackwall, the cracks blend in better.

[billwillard]

Norm's Coupe is right on. You can worry and plan all you want to but until it happens you don't know what to do or what you will do. What ever happens today will get delt with the best you can do at the time.

Bill

[Andydodge]

December 2007 I was coming home from a rod Run in my 1940 Dodge Sedan, sitting on about 60mph when there was an unusual vibration from the front end, next thing KAPOW!!!......the left front blew, it was about 2pm on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon miles from 15 k's outa town, 3 hrs from home, after veering all over the road, thankfully the only other car around was my mate ahead in his 1940 Ford Roadster(yep they made them here in Oz), I pulled over to see a completely mangled front left(US Drivers side) tyre, it was a new tyre, 2-3 yrs old but maybe 80% tread left, but had peeled the tread off like it was a retread, the flapping tread had hit the side of the front fender lower edge and bent it in, broke the fender brace, patted the electric aerial motor a few times as it mounted to the fender brace but apart from now lacking in air and the complete sidewall of the tyre being open things were ok........I run 6x14 alloy mags on the front, so the safety rim held the tyre on......we eventually got going again after finding a spare tyre.......but the mopar front end held up fine........andyd

[Norm's Coupe]

Andydodge is the second one who mentioned the tread peeling off a tire in this thread now. I thought the tire companies had solved that problem years ago. Back sometime in the 70's we had about 150 company cars on the road all the time. There was one year where we had to replace the tires due to the tread peeling off like that on about three quarters of the cars. None of those cars were over 1 year old because we only kept them for one year. Guess they are still having that problem.

Question for those with peeling tires. Were they Goodyear? That's what was on our company cars.

[blueskies]

My wife had a front blowout in our Tahoe last summer in the Nevada desert... She was going about 85 when it happened. Not sure how she kept it under control, but managed to get it to a stop without going off the pavement. Both kids were in the car... Thankfully everything was ok, but it could have been a disaster. A fellow from our town happened to be passing along and recognized the 5B Idaho plates, stopped and helped her change the tire.

Lucky....

Pete