It was a dark and stormy night . . .

About a month ago, I noticed a slight 'thump thump' at speeds under 20 and started thinking either tire or wheel bearing. Turns didn't seem to change the sound/feel but it always smoothed out over 30 mph. I could not see anything visibly wrong with the tires other than the front pair needed to be replaced. Wear otherwise looked normal. But Monday night, I needed to pickup my laptop computer at work and my wife and her two dogs came along.

It was midnight when we left but for good measure, I felt around the tires and could feel nothing. Overcast, storms were predicted and were on the radar west of us. We walked the dogs; got the computer, and; Holly said she'd like a nightcap. So we went to a local bar and had a good time. Got back in the car, backed up less than 2 ft and 'poof' a cloud of white power flew from the passenger side, front tire:

As I was getting the tire off, a brief 'sprinkling' occurred and not having a hat, I borrowed one of my wife's wigs (sorry, no selfie and she forget about her cell phone camera


Lessons learned:

• replace that poor excuse for a jack with a Harbor Freight, mini-shop version
• store a rain-resistant, hooded, wind-breaker, bright yellow or orange with tire
• Anderson connector for UPS inverter worked perfectly so I could get to the tire

Everything worked out fine. The spare tire was (is) low but our 12V air-pump will fix that soon enough. I'll order a pair to replace the front tires, take metrics, and continue the experiment.

Bob Wilson

 

It is a little rainy but when it dries out, I'll do a full write-up on the tires. It is part of a long-term study of an alternate rotation approach.

I'm testing the European approach where tires are not rotated front-and-back. The theory is the front tires wear first and are replaced by the rear with new tires put on the rear. This changes from the four-tires-at-once over to a two-tires-more-often. I also want the tread depth to evaluate how the last alignment matched the wear pattern.

You are correct, I knew the front tires needed replacement which is part of the protocol and was planning one soon. Just I failed to recognize the pending tire failure in spite of the symptom, my bad.

One lesson learned is the tire models change faster than tires wear out. I started my tire experiments with Sumitomo T4s that had a 51 psi sidewall rating. But they are no longer available with this psi rating in the USA.

Also, doing a pair at a time actually makes evaluation of different make/model tires somewhat practical. The front tires handle the majority of the load and most of the handling characteristics. So a 'new' model tire can come in as a single pair for an affordable price and if they don't work out . . . not a whole lot was risked. A second pair for A-B-A testing can come in and give us hard numbers in place of the sales-man-sh*t.

It will also give a chance to revisit how the rear storage, tire-well, and 110VAC inverter hook-up should work. The NHW11 had a ready space above the 12V battery. In contrast, the hatchback came more 'space efficient' making integration more challenging.

Bob Wilson