Posted by NCWayne on June 10, 2013 at 23:06:20 from (173.188.169.54):
Over the years I've had a few flat tires, and they have usually been the result of something like a nail or screw puncturing the tire. Today, I had a new experience. Well, not necessarily new, as I have seen it happen once before to a friends wife, but I've never had it happen to me.
What happened to me today was I pulled into a gravel parking lot, and parked. I came out less then 30 minutes later and all was OK, until I circled around the building to leave. When I pulled onto the asphalt and tried to accelerate I heard, and felt the familiar signs of a flat. Thankfully I was able to pull immeiately into the next paved lot to get off the road. Once I got stopped I took a look at the tire and was amazed at what I saw. There was no nail, screw, or anything you'd normally expect in the tire, Instead, right dead center of the tread (which was still around 50%) was a regular old blue rock, just like you'd expect find in a gravel parking lot. It wasn't in the tread, it was literally imbedded in the tire. I tried getting it out with my pocket knife but it would have taken a decent sized screwdriver to have gotten it pried from it's new home.
I've only seen this happen once before and it was on a friends wife's SUV. She picked that one up on the road, where as mine was in a gravel lot. Either way, with the hundreds of millions, plus of rocks out there the chances of hitting one that's shaped just right, and that set just the right way to go through a tire like these two did would have to be astronomical.
Thankfully our '98 Surburban has a good jack setup and a full sized spare, so a 'parkinglot repair' was almost as easy as having my service truck with me. Fortunately was able to hit my local tire shop, which wasn't but 5 minutes away, and get two new ones on the rear. Funny the guy changing them for me looked at the spare and was amazed that it looked like new (which it was), and had no dry rot, or any other signs of age, etc you'd expect on a tire nowdays. He said the date code was for 1997 so it had to be origional to the vehicle, so I was the first one to even skin the paint on the spare. Needless to say it went right back in it's inside holder and covered right back up for next time.
They say the new tires don't last as long as the older ones and in my experience it's true. The tires on my '55, that was wrecked back in '90 and has sat since then, look better than some I know of that aren't but a few years old. The tires on my old Jeep were bought back around '94 and I wouldn't have a problem riding them cross country right now. On the other hand the ones on an old trailer I was given weren't but maybe half that age and they dry rotted/cracked and ultimately just popped while sitting there. I don't know what they have done different, but personally I like the older, cheaper, longer lasting tires alot better than I do the newer, more expensive once with the shorter life expectancy.....Kind of sounds like the newer, more expensive gas that is infused with ethenol making it less powerful too....I guess we can say Thank you Uncle Sam, and the illustrious EPA for both....
Ok, got long winded there, but my question to ya'll is this. What have ya'll found imbeded in your flat tires, and what is your experience with the life expectancy of your tires before they rot off? Whats the oldest, running, tire on a piece of your equipment?
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