This was my old post from the 70 hemicharger thread back in 2008: https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthre...t=77085&page=8

Remember: Tires Expire!

I was cleaning out the Charger to get ready for a show today and found these photos from a few years back, in the console. This tire was one of a set of BFG radials that were 14 years old with only about 500 miles on them.

I was driving to a cruise night one afternoon when all of a sudden the steering wheel ripped out of my hands and spun to the right. It would repeat this every 10 feet or so. I pulled over and found nothing. So I rolled along and it started doing it again. I stopped again and couldn't find anything wrong.

Thinking I was either hallucinating, or the poltergeists/gremlins in the car were trying to persuade me to go home, I ignored them and slowed down but kept heading to the cruise night.

Seeing that I ignored the two previous hints from the Almighty, He decides to use a more direct approach: As I kept rolling along slowly, out of nowhere a Minister, dressed in his black "going to church" suit drives up alongside my car and says: "Son, pull over there is something wrong with your left front tire."

So I pull over and he gets out of his car and says to keep rolling until he says stop. He yells out "STOP" and I stop right there. We both look under the car and the enormous bubble in the sidewall is wedged against the tie-rod end, at the bottom of the tire's travel.

It seemed that the internal failure of the tire would let air out into the sidewall when the flawed spot would hit the pavement. When the tire rotated, the air would suck back into the tire. (Kind of like the old Little Rascals episode with the cake that has the rubber glove in it that goes WEEE-WAAAH )

The bubble was so big it was hitting the suspension and forcing the wheel to turn right.

Here's the tire:

And the bubble:

When we dismounted the tire, the bubble stayed in the sidewall for about two weeks, slowly deflating back to its original shape. I drilled a hole in each tire's sidewall and threw them away (so no-one would try to reuse them).

So let that be a lesson. Don't ignore the hint when God sends you one (or three).

I think I read somewhere that the lifespan of a tire is 7 years and any tire older than that should be thrown away. That's pretty good advice.

I can't believe it's been 10 years since you sold the Hemi Charger Steve, seems like it was only a couple years ago to me.

Crazy how times flies eh? I think it's still in Bob Marvin of Marvin Windows, collection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDDK...=JimMatthewman
https://visitwarroad.com/visit-the-shed/

Both sad and glad I sold it: it did pay for the majority of my two kid's college educations. And a little left over to start on the next car(s). ;-)

Pay attention to valve stems also.I was getting on the freeway with my 63 421 Lemans and blew out a RT front stem,was lucky I had room to get over and not hit anything.FWIW,Tom

As we say "The tire is not new unless the valve stem is too" We've been practicing that motto for 50 years, even with tire pressure monitoring valve stems, which CAN get very pricey, especially on German cars. Bill

I mentioned tire failures to a buddy a few months ago. Well I must of jinxed him! Not really his tires were 25 years old. He installed a new set of tires!!!

yikes!

What I find so interesting is, back in the 70's and 80's I never bought new tires for my street machines. When I got bored with the mags I was running I simply went to the local swap meets and bought wheels/tires as a set which were obviously used with no idea of date or age, then put them on and proceeded to drive the snot out of them and never had a blowout nor a concern for one. Like everything else these days, few things are made the way they used to be.

Agree with SS427! Back in the day, people would buy junkyard tires all of the time.
I have only experienced one blowout. Back in '77 when the wife and I were dating we were in my '70 Camaro on the interstate and she was driving running about 65 mph when the right front blew out on us. The tire was only about 6 months old at the time and the car steered straight and she was able to safely pull over.

Bias tires seem to hold together better than radials.