To make a long story short, I got up for work one morning, everything was fine. Started driving, everything still fine. I think I would notice if a tire was down, flat etc. I got onto the highway and all of a sudden...BOOM! Front right tire blows....no debris on the highway, flat as could be....nothing. The sidewall now has a about a 10" hole in the side. By the way, the tire pressure was right were it should be. The tires had about 500 miles on them!!! Oh, and did I mention a $7000 insurance claim becaus eof me hitting the concrete guardrail. I was without the truck for 5 weeks! The tire was sent to Goodyear in Akron, Ohio for their evaluation. I got a letter back stating something to the effect of "of we're sorry, our team feels that there was not a defect in the tire"....BS! 4 tire dealers in my area all agreed that it was a defect. I sent a letter back to Goodyear, and they replied with something like "we take our customers very seriously, but ......"....you figure out the rest. For a company to do this is deplorable, especially one as big as Goodyear. I would caution everyone to aviod Goodyear tires period and hopefully nobody will have to go through the headaches I have over the past little while. Oh, by the way, my insurance just went up too!
AVOID GOODYEAR!!!!!!!! Go with Toyo's, Nittos, etc...

 

if those 4 dealers are all willing to testify, then take it to court.

make a few bucks and buy yourself a new truck.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if your insurance company might want to have a look at those tires and speak to their own attornies.

 

Are those the up graded tires from Goodyear. I have Goodyears on my SC F150.

 

I have ran Goodyears for years with zero problems. I would figure pretty much any tire maker will have the occasional bad tire, and when that happens you would HOPE they would step up and admit fault and pay damages. But thats a fantasy....almost no company of any kind will admit fault and pay a $7K claim without being forced to. Get yourself a lawyer and pursue the case if you have the will to...if not pay your deductible and move on.

 

I had OEM Goodyears on my 2002 Sport Trac. They were without a doubt the worst tire on any vehicle I've ever owned. I drove them about 5k and then got new ones. Swore I'd never own a vehicle with Goodyears again, and I still feel that way.

 

goodyear gained a customer when i switched over to their poly-v gatorback belt

 

My 2000 expy had the Firestone Wilderness AT. Ford replaced them with Goodyear RTS. They were so bad in the rain I asked Ford for my Firestones back.

I ended up puting Bridgestone Revos on. 164.$ each. The best tire I have ever owned.

 

Did you actually walk around your truck and do a visual tire inspection or check the pressure before you left?I have to agree with Goodyear on this one.The tire was most likely under inflated,got overheated and blew,Very common.If you are not satisfied with this have the tire analized,this way you will know for sure.Good luck and glad you did not get hurt.

 

I have to agree with Nightmoves. Before I worked for Ford I worked for Firestone for 10 years and my dad for 32 years. It is very rare for a tire to just blow on its own. 99.9% of the time there is another factor in a blowout. If a piece of metal or something punctured the tire and caused it to blowout, the amount of force produced would most likely blow the object far enough away that it would not be laying right there on the road next to the tire. Let alone a 10" hole would be huge for a defect.

 

whether or not it was a bad tire, my personal experiences say that goodyear should stick to belts and blimps. Had a set of goodyears ones and they were the worst tires I ever owned. Just my $0.02 and rant...

 

even so... that's a dangerous tire if a little underinflation causes that kind of blowout.

People have been driving underinflated for years. Sometimes on purpose (old guys in snowbelt areas... don't ask)


A tire shouldn't just blow if the underinflation is not visible.
Besides that, I haven't seen a tire yet that gives a minimum PSI on the sidewall. Just Max PSI.


Maybe if that were the case, some people might be more cognizant of tire pressure.

 

The goodyear wrangler rt/s is one of the crappiest tires ever made as far as traction. They were on my 02 f150 and I took them off the first day I had it.

As far as the wrangler at/s its a good tire, much better than the bfgoodrich tires that came on my 04. I actually replaced my bfgoodrich tires with a set of wrangler at/s tires.

 

The dealer took off the Goodyears on my new 02 Ranger long-box because they had bulges in the sidewalls which caused some vibration and put on Michelins. Smooth as butter after that!

 

I think we are comparing apples and oranges here.If you look at lihtnings profile he is driving a Lightning not a150 4x4.So he probably has F-1's not wranglers.Soft rubber compound and not much sidewall.

 

Alot of people give the Generals He[[, but I think they are much better than Goodyear tires. Never had a bad one.