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Excessive tire wear

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by e_c10, Sep 2, 2008.

  1. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    Of course it does. Adding more pressure means that a smaller contact patch is required to support the car. The sidewall deforms less as a result of the extra pressure. Modern tires don't seem to be deforming in the middle.

    p.s. I've seen precisely one tire burst from overinflation...and in that case it really wasn't the tire, but the tube that burst. This was a dump truck tire many years ago that my coworker was mounting on a suspect split rim. I warned him to watch that rim carefully, make sure it seated properly and that if it he couldn't get it to seat by 50 psig or so to take it back down so we could pitch the rim/ring. Instead he took it to 95 psig trying to get it to seat. :boom:Lucky for his extremities we had just added an extension to the hose so we didn't have to stick our arms inside the tire cage. I was standing about 100 feet away when it blew and it was LOUD. He couldn't hear for several hours. The tire was okay, but the rim was ruined and the 2" pipe that formed the walls of the cage was bent out a few inches.
     
  2. dwreed3rd

    dwreed3rd New Member

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    I saw the same thing happen back when I was a teenager in the '50's. I was hanging out at the local gas station/garage. Same thing, split rim. truck tire. Broke his arm in two places. To this day I have to walk away when they add the air to pop/seat the tire. And I get goose bumps when it pops.
     
  3. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    At the same place the year before I first worked there a heavy equipment mechanic (might have been the master mechanic, I don't recall) who was not so fortunate. He made the mistake of trying to mount a 14" tire on a 14.5" trailer rim if I remember correctly. They had a beaten up old tire machine from a Navy scrapyard and no cage at the time. In this fellow's case the tire came off at about 65 psig and destroyed his arm. It was still attached but was so badly mangled that he couldn't work as a mechanic any longer. After that they brought in unskilled labor (like me at the time) for the tirework.
     
  4. cephas

    cephas Junior Member

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    I have 35000 miles on my 06 and the tires are worn out.
    Went to South Bay toyota and they called up their reps, looked into it, and said no such thing excessive tire wear....
     
  5. dwreed3rd

    dwreed3rd New Member

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    Sorry! I don't have time to do the searches, but there are a number of threads and posts that address tire wear. While the word "excessive" may be the operative word here. It may high but not necessarily excessive depending on a number of variables that can affect tirewear. Something as simple as how you turn the whell when parallel parking, can have a significant effecvt on parking. A search on "tirewear" or treadwear", here on PC, may suggest why you only got 36,000 on your tires. BTW "worn out" is a relative term also, since some use 1/16th" tread depth as needing replacement, while I personally consider 2/16" as time to replace tires, because of difference in the speed at which they will hydroplane.
    Happy searching!