> No one likes "blow-outs" but they aren't the worst thing either (IMHO)
> until you get to fairly high speeds (70+). Trouble is the average
> driver today has just never experienced the situation...whereas given
> some of the past junk and low income of youth days in my past I
> had my share of blowouts on several different vehicles.
Just a side comment on one of my pet peeves ... SUVs have become immensely
popular today, but no one considers how high their CG is. If you get
sideways in a car it just slides and can frequently be recovered ... in most
SUVs you turn over. Even if they don't go over, they get extremely
squirrelly near the limit, at least the few rentals I've driven do.
Suspensions soft enough to give car-like rides to a truck don't help the
matter either, and the best traction-control/ABS in the world is useless if
the tires aren't on the ground.
I've had several high-speed blow-outs, even lost wheels a few times. Was
doing close to 80 when the Stag shredded an old (and extremely
weather-checked, I had no business driving it) tube tire ... didn't hurt
anything but my pride and some paint on the fender. But after some ginger
experiments on the last SUV I rented (only because they had _no_ cars
available), I believe it would have been unpleasantly exciting to even have
a "well behaved" flat at speed. I d*mn near lost it in just a simulated
60mph avoidance maneuver, similar to the one Consumer Reports used to
black-ball the Suzuki Samurai. I noticed too that the power steering
stopped working under fast inputs ... GM's attempt to reduce the problem ?
End rant, new relevant question :
My BS RE71s have done the same thing the previous Yokos did, get hard and
slippery with only about 1/2 the tread gone. Is this a common occurrence on
soft compound (treadwear 140 as I recall) street tires ?
Randall
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