Tire blowout on highway at 80mph
 

My front-left tire blew out last night while I was going 80mph. Scared the freaking shit out of me. And the roll-over accident a couple hundred feet behind me didn't help. :S

Anyone ever have anything like this happen to them?

oh man that sucks. I've never blow out a a tire driving fast, I've run over stuff and blow them that way, but that just sucks its not that scary really.

Well, that sucks, but tires have a speed rating... What was yours? Ill bet it was around 80. Go for the 110s or something next time.

Why were you speeding? ;)

because I was mad at my dumbass boyfriend...

I have had a <b>rear</b> tire blow out on our van while driving on the interstate. I felt the vibration and watched the tire fly apart in my rearview mirror. Of course that's nowhere near as dangerous as front tire blowout...and I was doing the posted limit (not criticizing). Almost as scary as the blowout, was changing the tire on the shoulder of the intrstate with traffic (especially the big rigs) screaming past at 65 mph. :eek:

check. As long as you had a reason :D

speed limit was 75 there, so i was going max 5mph over the limit

Get H-rated tires next time. It could save your life, especially if the speed limit is that high and traffic goes faster. Glad to hear you're in one piece.

*ignorant about cars comment* --> didn't know normal cars needed different types of cars beyond winter, all-season, etc :S

guess i know now... :|

glad to see you are okay...

wow... musta been scary...

how do we tell what speed tires are rated at... cuz when im drivin to cali from lubbock the speed limits for a good part of the way are 75 and im goin 80-85ish... it would be good to know if i need to go a lil slower...

Man, that's scary. I'm glad you're ok, though. And I'll be sure to check the rating on my tires!!!

That happened to me just as I crossed the border from North Carolina into South Carolina. Once I dealt with the fear of having an accident, I had another problem: I knew I had exactly half an hour to spare in the trip on the way to the meeting I HAD to be at and HAD to be on time for in Atlanta.

Get this: I had the donut on, the tire shop located and traveled-to (at 50 mph), a new tire bought, put on my rim, and installed, and was back on the road in 27 minutes. Just enough time to change clothes in the bathroom and be in my seat as the meeting started. WOO HOOO!!!

a typical tire size is P225/75R15S

P is for P-metric
R is for radial (as opposed to bias ply)
the last letter (in this case "s") is the speed rating

some manufacturers us this syntax P225/75SR15, placing the speed rating before the R

note: just because you have high speed rated tires does NOT mean the you cant have a blowout while travelling at a speed lower than the rating. in fact, most blowouts are not caused by speed, but rather by something in the road (debris, a pothole, etc) damaging the tire.

blowouts due to speeding most often occur while cornering, which places the most amount of stress on the tire, particularly the sidewalls.

Still good to establish a good saftey margin though...

as long as u are ok now, just be safe in the future. :)

Glad to see you're safe and everything. If that had happened to me I'd probably have lost control and been killed. I have no idea how I would react in that situation.

Yes long ago I had a blowout on the same tire at 80mph. I managed to get the car off the highway without incident. To have any chance at controlling the car in such a situation one must steer to the side the tire blew out on.

Was anyone hurt?

Not a blowout; I was riding one night (on my pride and joy: a 1963 Norton Atlas), and I came around a blind curve @ 55MPH- THERE WERE ABOUT 15 COWS IN THE ROAD! Result: one badly-broken hip, one badly broken motorcycle and 15 or so mildly entertained cows..:( :( :mad: :mad:

Lady, Hello from a tyre man.
Firstly, happy to hear that you are OK. In reference to "mad at my boyfriend" .... I am sure others have said that killing yourself over something HE did is a tad pointless.... but I digress...


The most important question first, followed by ....
What were the tyre pressures? and...
When were the pressures last checked?
What Brand?
Full tyre size description, and vehicle description.
Remaining tread depth?
Vehicle weight.
These are the main questions for determining the causes of premature tyre failure.
And as said by Sion, foreign objects have a major influence......

As I noted in a thread in the Motors forum, those speed ratings on tires are significant - I had my truck and its 112mph rated tires up to 142mph on a dyno - and they were on the verge of blowing off the wheels, so keep the ratings in mind!