So the time has come that I need to get to rubber for the ole' workhorse.

Coming back from NH this past weekend I had a tire blowout @ 70mph with the wife and daughter, luckily friends were behind me to guide me from the high speed lane to the shoulder.
The swap with the spare took only 20mins, could have been less but I had to unload a bit of my cargo to access the tools and drop the spare what a PITA.

I wish Ford could have put a little more thought into the mechanism to drop the spare, especially when you have a full load of cargo. At least provide a better tool to do the hand crank or move the access point to the outside like the Yukons do...

Anyhow, I'm gladly looking to get rid of the Conti-craps... I currently have the stock 17" on and looking to possibly upgrade to a larger size. Anyone have any opinions to the take-offs found on Ebay?

 

That sucks. Changing dirty tires are never fun. How did the truck compose after the blowout?

 

265/70/17 = 32" tire

I highly recommend the Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armour. I had them in the above size on my Durango with the Hemi. Before those tires, I could do a AWD burnout on the pavement and get stuck in a puddle. After them, I never spun the tires again, and the held up very nicely in the Lava Rocks and mud out here in Hawaii. My #2 tire behind the Michelin tires. Also, they are pretty reasonably priced. I paid $860 installed for mine.

You could try upsizing to a 33" tire...but then you'll run into having your speedo slightly off (too slow). They do look good though

 

If your looking for something bigger I have a set of 18" with Michelin LTX A/S 255-70-18 tires, mounted up with TPMS inside id let go for $600 plus shipping. I know I shouldn't be "advertising" here but was just trying to help Simpson out.

 

I agree but with the Yukons and such you see an access hole in the rear bumper. I prefer the cleaner look with the crank inside, sure its an inconvenience but how often do you have a flat tire while everything is loaded in the back or your truck?

 

I'm definately with you on the cleaner look but, when your your on the side of the road on 95 up in NH and you got Semi's blazing past you let me tell you its pretty inconvenient...... lol

It's an eerie feeling when your SUV is propped up with a an itty bitty tiny jack...and you feel the whooooooooosh of Semi passing.... All of a sudden what took about only 20min felt like an hour, especially with the wife and 1yr old as precious cargo.

 

Surprisingly well, originally I thought it was the rear drivers side but it was the passenger rear side. I heard a pop and felt the truck slightly rumble and then the TPMS warning popped up.

The road was clear and dry and the tire blew on the sidewall, I was able to confidentally move from the high speed land to the shoulder with no problems. I would suspect it would be a little more challenging if it were one of the front tires.

 

I had my blow out on the front tire this past weekend. The ford is actually pretty stable. The tpms lit up and gave enough time to pull off the highway.

 

I hope it's not a trend! I still have a lot of thread left on mine and sure wouldn't want to replace them.

 

That same thing happened to me on the Maine turnpike doing 70 mph but I had the original continentals still on the vehicle. 8 of us in the truck with a full load and trying to change a spare. I agree, it's a PITA. What's worse is that crappy jack that they give us.

Now when I travel, I have a hydraulic with me.

BTW, the remaining three of those conti's came off the next day.

 

Yeah...I had the original Continentals on there as well...Im in the works to replace the rest of them as well... what hydraulic jack to youy have?

 

Just a simple single piston jack that will lift 3-4 tons. Very light weight and easy to stow away for a trip. I forget the brand name but it works well.

 

Are you able to store it where the original jack is located?

 

No sir, not enough room for that. I bought a medium sized tool bag from sears made from a web material and on a trip, I bring my jack, motor oil and simple things like that. Otherwise, the jack stays in the garage in it's tool bag.

 

I've got a small bottle jack under the storage partition behind the rear seat. that + a block of 2x4 will do the trick in a pinch quicker than the OEM scissor jack.

Luckily my wife has GEICO and Ford Roadside to fix any flat issues that may occur when I'm not around.