I just had a steel belted radial delaminate on my '68 390 F250 2WD while doing 70. This was a first for me. The flap of rubber cratered my straight rear fender, caving it is toward the frame. I changed the tire and thought things were OK.

About 60 miles later, again at 70 and in the left lane, the rear end started fishtailing and I about lost it. Everyone around me gave me lots of room to get off to the right shoulder. We were at an off ramp and I took it. There was a very loud metalic grinding noise and clunking. It sounds as though I either broke the axel or striped the diferential gears. I nursed it back home. Nasty noises at start up or under load. Has anyone heard of this before? Tommorrow I intend to pull the rear plate on the diferential and take a look.

Also, do you think there might be any recourse from the tire manufacturer? The dealer has long gone out of business and the tires were beginning to get to replacement time, but were still legal.

Thanks!

 

Hmmmm....

Checked your diff. fluid lately (or changed it?). The nasty noises might be the rear differential going. (Just hazarding a guess...) Looks like you may be suspecting this already. Don't know if the blowout was a symptom of this or if it cuased it...can't think of any way a blowout might have caused it off of the top of my head, but I'm no tire or alignment expert myself.

I don't know how your '68 F-250 is, but my dad's (soon to be mine) '64 F-100 is absolutely HOWLING (both the motor and the wind) at 70. I rarely like to push it that high (it's probably got a pretty high-numbered rear-end, I haven't bothered to figure out what sort of gears it's running in the rear yet. It's a stocker 223/3-on-the-tree). If anyone knows what ratios were available from the factory and how to figure out which one this truck has, I'm all ears :-) It's a 2wd, short frame, stepside.

Note for future reference: it is VERY important to regularly rotate radials! Failure to do so will lead to cupped treads, which can cause de-lamination (if allowed to go on too long). 6,00-8,000 miles is a good mileage for rotations. Long before it gets that bad, though, you will feel funny vibrations at freeway speed (hard to tell down here in Oregon, with our rutted freeways!). I think Seattle's freeways are in much better shape (when they're not stop-and-go). Of course an empy 3/4 ton truck will make lots of funny vibrations all on it's own...

Make sure that the two rear tires match each other. You will make the diff work overtime if the sizes aren't close.

Finally, the F250 is not a light duty truck. If you are hauling with it [load-wise, not speed wise :-) ] make sure that you are using LT-Rated tires (as opposed to P-rated).

As for recourse: I'm not a lawyer either, but try snapping a digital photo of what's left of the tire (somewhere where the tread-wear indicators are visible) and the wheel well/rear-end/bed. This would most likely be a small claim. If you tried to chase them down, you would have to get a lawyer. This would probably be more expensive than the out-of-pocket for the damage. At least no one got hurt, though...that's the important part. Been there, done that (well, back in the analog photo days...sent a nasty letter to a tire co. who shall remain anonymous after a blowout in an '84 T-bird). Didn't get too far, just burned the cost of postage. However, companies are much more customer-oriented these days. Who knows, maybe they'll be nice (if they can afford it, which in this economy, is probably a "no").

 

Thanks for your reply

I've had bowouts, but never a delamination. With the delamination, there is this bodatious flap of rubber on the end of a stick (axle) whipping around at 70MPH and knocking the stuffings out of anything in it's way. I gotta believe that this is not the heathiest thing for the drive train.

Your comment on rotation is valid. They were 8 ply FT tires. Tire placemsnt was based upon wear, positioning my self for replacement. As for as load, I have a 4000 pound payload. The truck was empty when the delam occured and had 500-800 in it later.

I'll have the housing cover off tomorrow and will take a look at the damage.

Take care!