I had the belt separate from a Michelin X (or ZX, perhaps) in 1975 or
so. I was towing a pop-up camping trailer behind my TR4A at the time,
but that should not have been the cause. I understood from the original
owner
that the first set of Michelin Xs lasted 60K miles.
I had thought a helicopter was passing overhead. Dented up the RR
fender
badly, from flapping. I found the belt and tread wrapped around the
brake drum.
My local Michelin dealer was no help.
Regarding bias ply tires these days, yes, they are hard to get. I like
to get bias ply tires for my car trailer (which has MGB wire wheels on
it). I believe the tires I got were meant for an (old) compact truck.
A photo of my car trailer (with the remnant of a Healey on it) can be
seen at http://www.norfolk.infi.net/~kedwards/photos/100-6Healey.jpg
Keith Edwards
Suffolk, VA
4.5 TRs
"James A. Ruffner" wrote:
>
> I recollect that the Michlin radials did not fail, but because, as you so
> correctly mention, everyone was used to biased, they had no notion of what to
> expect from the radials of Michlin. Also, I many times had people yell over
>to me
> that my tire(s) were low, or flat, because radials naturally looked low, by
>bias
> tire standards. The radials were laughingly refered to as "zip tires." They
>had
> excellent traction, so that if you were used to biased, which begin to slip
>much
> sooner, that when the radials finally DID let go, the whole car would go
>"zip!"
> People, especially the kids, would over-drive the tires' and the car's
> capabilities.
>
> It is noteworthy that finding bias-plys is almost impossible today.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Randall Young wrote:
>
> > Phil Ethier wrote:
> > >
> > > Firestone took a shot at killing radials in this country when the first
>ones
> > > they made wrecked some police cars. Does not look like they have come
>very
> > > far in the 40 years since.
> >
> > The Firestone 500 debacle was actually less than 30 years ago (the tire
> > was introduced in 1972).
> >
> > 35 years ago, it was actually Michelin radials that failed suddenly and
> > without warning. But since everyone in the US was used to bias-ply
> > tires (which do much the same thing), it wasn't nearly as big a deal.
> > Back then a 'blowout' was a common occurence, and drivers were expected
> > to be able to deal with it.
> >
> > BTW, the Firestone 500 debacle killed the company that Harvey Firestone
> > started in 1900. The current mess belongs to Bridgestone, a Japanese
> > company.
> >
> > Randall
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