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Eric

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On 6/20/2019 at 3:46 PM, Eric said:

The tires weren't blowing out. The tread blocks were separating, but the tires mostly stayed up. Most of the wrecks happened because the drivers heard a loud noise and did something stupid. Having a tread block separate from a tire should not cause a wreck, in almost any circumstance. Hell, having a blowout should not cause a wreck, in almost any circumstance, if the driver reacts competently.

Firestone got bent over pretty good because of that debacle, which wasn't right. Aside from the fact that the wrecks, most of them, were completely avoidable, the problem was Ford's fault. They were the ones who kept reducing the recommended tire pressure on the Explorers, to improve stability. If you run a tire low on pressure long enough, the rubber will fatigue and fail.

A lot of people were injured and died because Ford would not acknowledge and properly deal with a problem on one of their vehicles and that wasn't the first or last time they dealt with such an issue that way.

b_1972-Ford-Pinto-03.jpg

 

I've heard a lot of stories on that one.  For one, I've heard that there was an issue at the assembly line where the tires didn't fit on the line right and it was damaging them.  No idea if true.

The Explorer has been a troubled vehicle since it came out.  Transmissions mostly.  But they have seemed to have constant problems.

I have had one set of Bridgestone tires on a car (not a truck) and they were absolute ****.  But they didn't blow out (that doesn't mean anything though).

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On 6/21/2019 at 9:32 AM, pipedreams said:

Dang!

 

tumblr_popvuln62t1wd3f6xo1_500.gif

For sale, one Ford, slightly used, beige and brown interior.

On 6/21/2019 at 1:09 PM, tous said:

Insufficient data.

We need to know mass, velocity and vector.

However, we can evaluate the tree post mortem and deduce how much energy was involved, but not as accurate.

Yes, I has a slide rule.

I calculate that the energy was:

*uses slide rule*

5 metric ****-tons.  Approximately.

On 6/21/2019 at 6:32 PM, pipedreams said:

bz-5d0d011dcdc16.jpeg

Yep.  Storm door gets me 1x-week usually.

On 6/23/2019 at 2:38 AM, Huaco Kid said:

Several times,  in different locations,  we've lost huge, magnificent trees.  It's always a shame.

My neighborhood has lost several over the years.  Big water oaks.  But they get rotten and have to come down.  I had to have one taken out of my yard recently.  It sucked.

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51 minutes ago, SC Tiger said:

b_1972-Ford-Pinto-03.jpg

 

I've heard a lot of stories on that one.  For one, I've heard that there was an issue at the assembly line where the tires didn't fit on the line right and it was damaging them.  No idea if true.

The Explorer has been a troubled vehicle since it came out.  Transmissions mostly.  But they have seemed to have constant problems.

I have had one set of Bridgestone tires on a car (not a truck) and they were absolute ****.  But they didn't blow out (that doesn't mean anything though).

Ford had rollover stability problems with the Explorer. Their solution was to reduce the recommended tire pressure more than once. A tire that is low on air pressure has to flex a lot on every revolution. This generates a lot of heat and fatigues the rubber. The tire failures were a completely predictable outcome of such a decision. I'm not sure if there were other issues in play as well, but the mandated low tire pressure issue was a big one. I was an automotive service advisor when all of this was happening. We had a lot of people come in with Explorers running new, or near-new tires, to buy a fresh set of tires. The ironic thing was, if the replacement tires were aired up to Ford's recommended pressures, the new tires would almost certainly fail just like the Firestones.

I was a service advisor for Sears Automotive back then. Employees were allowed to claim tires that had been traded in by customers, for a nominal fee. I think it was $2 apiece, the same as the state-mandated tire disposal fee. The management even called it a disposal fee, which flew in the face of logic. The tires were not being disposed of, because someone was going to use them themselves. Anyway, probably half the people in the service department with a compatible tire size was driving around on new or near-new Firestones. None of them ever had 'catastrophic tire failures' because they inflated the tires properly.

Ford wasn't the only car maker doing this kind of thing. At the same time this crap was playing out, there were a couple of GM truck issues that were a PITA. One was the idler arms that GM used on late-eighties and nineties pickups. It wasn't a good part. It wore out quickly, causing wayward steering and tire wear. GM became aware of the issue within a year or so of the new truck generation launch. Their response was to increase the allowable wear tolerance at least 4 times, in four consecutive years. So, someone comes in with tire wear on their truck and the idler arm is loose, but still within GM's bullshit revised specs. It left us looking stupid and/or holding the bag. They take the truck back to a GM dealer to replace the part that we say is worn, only to have their service department tell them it is in spec and they won't warranty it. Or, they have previously bought an alignment from us and come back with tire wear and an idler arm that GM won't warranty. We end up eating the damn thing.

Another issue was the really wide reversed dish wheels and tires that GM dealerships occasionally added to their new trucks before sale. The look caught on and everyone wanted them. The problem was that the reversed wheel moved the point of weight transfer through the hub, from the back wheel bearing to the front one. The back one is the one that is supposed to bear the weight and the wheel bearing failure rate was very high. GM wouldn't warranty the bearings and damaged hubs, although their dealerships were installing the damned wheels.

I could go on and on. Car manufacturers all suck, in one way or another.

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