The paste and copy below is from the Spoon back in '19. I was lucky when I had a blowout on a Michelin LTX 235/85/16 E rated (10 ply) tire that was at about it's midlife point based on mileage and just turned 6. Not mentioned in the original post was the partner tire that also still looked great didn't go 100 miles on a backhoe trailer (it was well within it rated load range) and it blew out. There were no open recalls.
This Public Service Announce is related to tires. A tire story from two days ago that's still very fresh. I was returning home from a (800 mile each way non stop, sorta) trip to check on a pipeline company project I've been roped into, I was in my '95 Dodge Diesel dually about 200 miles west of Dallas Tx on I-20 and had a blowout on the right front tire. Speed was 70 and even though I had one hand securely on the steering wheel (as opposed to finger tips only) the truck immediately shot 10 feet to the right before I could wrestle it back under control, lots of noise and smoke. Had I been on a no shoulder road or had another vehicle been immediately on the right, it'd have been BAD.
The PSA component here is stay aware of and CHECK your tire age. The tire that blew on the front had about 30,000 miles on it and had just turned 6. The manufacture date was 3-13. Cold pressure was 75 psi and no previous repairs, it was Michelin LTX which should be a great tire.
A lot of jurisdictions require tires to be no older than 5 years old when on the front, I've always felt that was a bit ridiculous since I've regularly ran tires much longer with no catastrophic failures. I've gone though several sets of 235/85/16 E rated BF GoodRich Liberator tires and usually at the 7 year mark they go on hay trailers. It's not uncommon for the tread to separate at about the 10 year mark. However due to the way we pull at low speed on secondary roads it's never been a problem. I've never had em blow.
The above said, it's to the tire shop tomorrow for new steer tires and one very good looking Michelin will be set-aside for trailer duty.
