Wow, what a trip! We left the Houston area this past Thurs to stay at a CG in Weatherford Tx, about a 310 mi trip one way. We spent part of Fri afternoon at the Granbury Wine Walk (the weather drove us off) and came back on Sat afternoon to spend a bit more tine.
Headed home on Sun morning in nice weather.
Just before Navasota (Hwy 6/290) about 215 miles into the trip one of the TM tires threw about 50% of its tread. I thought it was a backfire from the truck passing us. About a second later the TireMinder starts telling me "blow-out". A quick check in the mirror and I can see the remnants of the tread flopping on the roadway behind me. A call to Good Sam Roadside Rescue got the local tech on his way to us. Tire changed and we're good to continue.
He tells me that the tire next to it is in bad shape also.
I decide to press on towards home and travel SLOWLY. We hugged the shoulder and drove 35-40 mph limping on.
At about mile 291 on the Grand Parkway the TireMinder lights up telling me that we have 0.0psi in another tire.
Another call to GS Roadside gets another tech coming our way with a new tire.
This guy works for a Goodyear Commercial Tire service company (think 18 wheelers) on I-10 (about 10 mi away). Roadside he mounts a replacement tire (a G'year 614 LT tire).
I give up.
We need 3 more tires (the spare in use is a "brand-X" and I don't want to travel any further than absolutely necessary at this point.
We drive to the shop where I leave the 5th for the night. The tech (Scott) followed me to the shop and when we got there told me that another tire had a big bubble or blister that he could see from behind (I'd hope you'd make it to the shop). They will install 3 new tires in the AM and be done by 0900.
So about $1600 later I have 4 new tires and spent about 12 hours on the road on a trip that should have taken 6-7 hrs.
I've always been careful when tending to the tires. I've always checked the pressure before each trip. these tires have never been over 65mph under my control (can't say what happened before I bought new). In storage the tires are covered. They "looked" fine (no dry-rot) and have maybe 7500 mi on them. The date code was 3512 on one of them so they were 3-ish years old.
In a 300 mi trip I had 2 tires completely fail and a third that probably would have failed before I got home (another 20 mi).
I met some excellent people on the road: The 2 techs that worked on my tires and a Texas Highway Patrol officer (Trooper Duke) who stopped to offer assistance.
What I have learned: (all of this is IMHO!)
1) My TireMinder earned its keep that day. No damage from the blowout or flat (it was a blow out also, just slightly slower). If you don't have a tire monitor, get one.
2) GS Roadside also earned its keep that night also. If you don't have some sort of roadside assistance, get one.
3)The TM tires cannot be trusted. If you have 'em, replace 'em.
The first tech looked at the tire next to the blown one and commented that it wouldn't last much longer. What he saw is looking across the tread, the center treads were raised when compared to the treads on the edges of the tires. Somewhat "domed" in appearance, almost as if the tire were over inflated. He commented that is what they look like as the start to separate.
Here's the first blow-out: