Chunks of tyre flying past your window are not a good sign

nanospider

nanospider

nanospider

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Last night i was driving into Edinburgh on the M9 at around 6pm to join some friends to watch some game on the telly (btw, i pity anyone who didn't listen to the cbbc commentary)

About 5 miles from Newbridge I am driving up a hill in the slow lane (for i was driving a slow car) and suddenly hear a lot of road noise and the car starts to pull towards the fast lane :eek: I begin to lose quite a bit of speed and the car then starts to pull towards the hard shoulder.

I thought 'wow, i'm actually going to be able to use that big red button on top of the steering column for a legitimate reason!' slapped that and started to pull onto the shoulder (of my own decision this time) and just in time it seems as the tyre shreds and bits go flying everywhere, think some debris may have hit a guy who picked a fine time to overtake. Overtake a guy swerving over the road at your own risk i guess :D

This was also a fun time to learn how badly brakes work when you are down a tyre :D

Anyway, hop out and survey the damage, near side rear tyre is completely ****** and its now rolling on the rim, seems quite impressive anyway :)

Decided to move the car right off to the side of the road so i have a bit of room to work with, whip out the spare and i'm back on my way in about 10 mins, adrenaline was pumping all day after that tho.

Didn't fancy hanging around on the side of the motorway for longer than i had to so no pics in situ, but this is what the wheel looked like. Note plenty of tread left, approx 9 months old i think, random ditchfinder brand.

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Sorry for the mobile phone pics, was still a bit buzzed after a long day of tons of crazy stuff happening so couldn't really hold the camera steady!

Similar thing has happened to a few of my dads mates recently, with the tyres ending up in a similar state, anyone any idea how this happens? Pretty sure i didn't go over a pothole or anything like that just before the event
 
I had an Avon ZZ3 do exactly the same thing, so it does happen to supposedly decent brands too. I suspect that the tyre pressure was low, maybe due to a slow puncture that had gone un-noticed and it just gave up.
 
Sure does happen to branded tyres.

Fair Enough this is a motorbike, but had only been put on a week prior to the blow out. Happened on A90
Tyre: Avon Cora
Bike: Triumph Rocket 3
Avonblowout2.jpg

rockettins001.jpg
 
You'll be surprised at what tyres people will put onto their cars. I took a walk to our local corner shop the other day and sadly started looking at the make of tyres on the parked cars on my road. From what must have been 30+ cars I only counted around 3-4 with a branded tyre on, by that I mean a name that I recognised, all the rest had what I can only assume were el-cheapo brands on.
 
It doesn't surprise me. The cheap-ass tyres are just that, cheap. Most people are cheap (and don't want to spend more money than they have to), and most people don't realise the difference between a decent tyre and a crappy one.
 
In defence of "cheap" tyres, for most people who just potter around town and put little strain on their tyres, cheap ones are fine.

If they are regularly travelling long distance and putting a lot of lateral strain on their tyres, then cheaper ones may not be the best.
 
When I was in America, I didn't spot one car that didn't have "decent brand" tyres on. Is it just the mentality of our country that means they sell so well? Or maybe larger economies of scale in the US?
 
Bar said:
In defence of "cheap" tyres, for most people who just potter around town and put little strain on their tyres, cheap ones are fine.

If they are regularly travelling long distance and putting a lot of lateral strain on their tyres, then cheaper ones may not be the best.
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That statement would be fine in the ideal world where it never rains and you never have to do an emergency stop.
 
Howard said:
When I was in America, I didn't spot one car that didn't have "decent brand" tyres on. Is it just the mentality of our country that means they sell so well? Or maybe larger economies of scale in the US?
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No its because a lot of people in this country struggle to run a car as it is, the costs get higher every year, and people just see tyres as a necessity to pass an MOT.
 
Howard said:
When I was in America, I didn't spot one car that didn't have "decent brand" tyres on. Is it just the mentality of our country that means they sell so well? Or maybe larger economies of scale in the US?
Click to expand...

People in the US generally don't buy tyres by brand, at least from my tyre buying experiences. It's based on mileage. There are 30k, 40k and even 65k tyres - all priced accordingly. It appeared to be luck of the draw which brand you got but there weren't any Linglong or Nangkang. It was Continental, Goodyear, Michelin, BF Goodrich etc...
 
I noticed the same in Belgium. Very few budget tyres. Even the old nails and fake ebay wheels had premium rubber on. Doesn't surprise me that its mostly a UK thing, we tend to do everything we can on the Cheap.
 
I've noticed that too, not sure what it is about the UK. Perhaps it's because the costs of even getting a car onto the road legally is so high here?
 
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