This article is running in the Jacksonville FL newpaper today....
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-onlin...t_3627928.html

 

Saw this story on the news here in California today. Tragic. If it turns out the tires were to blame I hope Firestone and Ford do the right thing.

 

So is the problem only with the Radial ATX tires or with the Wilderness Series in general? Right now, the family has my tuck with Widerness AT's, the Explorer with Widerness AT's and a 99 F150 with Wilderness HT's. Combined, we have about 190,000 miles total on this particular series of tires (not the same set ) and haven't had a problem. Once the HT's are worn down, a more agressive tread will be put on. Just curious.

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1997 F150 XLT, Flareside , Moonlight Blue, 4x2, SC, Auto, 4.6L, 3:08, Cargo Cover by Century, Blue Oval reciever hitch plug, Driver Design bug deflector, 235/70/16 Firestone Wilderness AT's, sliding rear window, captain's chairs, Valvoline Durablend Oil, Purolator Pure One Oil Filter, and 107,000 miles and counting!

 

The article listed AT, ATX, and Wilderness series. That's all I know. Just bought a used 98 Explorer for my wife last week and it has these tires. I know I will be keeping a close watch on them.

I was wondering if it could have been a maintenance error. I have heard that if you rotate tires to the other side of a vehicle where they will be turning in the oposite direction from the way they were previously turning that it can cause seperation problems. Would be curious to know a little more facts.

 

Assuming all of the 90 complaints are valid then 90 out 12 million would make these one of the safest tires on the road. Wouldn't it?

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2000 F-250 Super Duty, SuperCab XLT, Oxford white with medium grey cloth captains chairs, 5.4L Triton V8 (260 HP - 345 FP Torque version!), 4R100 4 Speed Automatic Transmission, 4 wheel ABS, Deluxe Aluminum Wheels, Trailer Towing Package, Class IV Hitch, Reece load distribution system, Escort Sensor II Electronic Brake controller, Sure Stop towing skirt, "Westin" black powder coated step bars, "White-White" head lamps, Herculiner bed liner, ISSPRO Tranny Temp Guage, Excursion center console, Ford moulded mud gaurds, K&N Air and Oil filter, Amsoil XL7500 5W-30, Air filter minder, Perma Cool 8" (800 CFM) Tranny Cooler Fan (manualy switched).

 

Hey, everything is relative. Your odds of dying in a plane crash are one in a million. Make it an SST Concord flying from Paris to NY on July 25, 2000, and the odds jump to maybe one in a billion. BUT, if you are on that plane your odds are one in one - or 100%. Then it is a big deal to you.

 

Good point Fuller. If your one of the 90 or so cases affected by this I don't think your biggest concern is the 12 million other folks it didn't happen to. It's the one more that just pulled out of his/her driveway.

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Stock Stuff:
Y2K SCab 4X4, Chesnut Metallic, 5.4L, 3.55 Limited Slip, Skid Plates, Factory AM/FM/CD, 40/60 Split Bench, Sliding Rear Window, Towing Package and Keyless Entry.

Extras so far:
305/70X16 GY Wrangler AT's on American Eagle Series 146 chrome wheels.

Future plans:
Spray in liner, chrome step bars, Lund hood deflector, chip?, K&N? we'll see.

 

Catastrophic failure of tires at speed became a rarity, compared to the old days of blowouts. Until these tires. They are bad news. If I had an Explorer with them, they would become fishing reef material real quick. This is not new news, it has been spreading slowly by word of mouth by people who had trouble (and lived!), and by some of the Explorer boards. So not really getting out to the masses, who drive on obliviously. I'm surprised that some TV news magazine show hasn't picked up on this yet, and gotten it splashed all over the tube. Seems they are too busy trying to pretty up Enviro Al Gore to care.

 

Does anyone here remember the Firestone 721?
The first widly advertised steel belted radial from back in the 70's??
It's the same thing as back then. Those tires had a certain production run that went a little wrong and the belts separated and the tread came loose.
I had these same tires on an old chev and I ran them till they were bald and never a problem.

This may be the same thing.

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96 F150 XL,special
Air/PS/PB/AM-FM-Cass/
Light Package/300 I6/
5 SP Man/...
Nothing fancy just my little baby

 

My department stopped buying Firestone tires after several roll overs involving state and county SUV type vehicles. In all cases the sidewall blew out at speed.

 

does anyone know how many of these deaths were actually the result of the occupant NOT wearing their seat belt? Im going to make this one point: If the occupants of vehicles (equipt with firestone products or not)do not wear their seatbelts the risk of death or injury increases tremendously!
(thanks, had to get that off my chest)

 

Well, this topic finally made it to the TV media. Saw it last night on both local and national news. I suspect we can assume the initial denial, followed by the "we're cooperating with the proper authorities", maybe followed by some sort of recall/exchange/cash credit. However, if I had these tires, which I don't, I would have pulled them off 6 months ago.

 

Nobody in my family will ever buy Firestone/Bridgestone tires again. We used to have Bridgestones on some of our transport trucks but they kept blowin out on the highway, so we will never deal with that POS tire. I guess people are just tryin to save money in buying these tires. But I guess ya get what ya pay for, which is why ya try and buy the best ya can. Firestones are up there with Generals.

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Patrick aka Mudder or MR.Daylighter of Arlington Texas (D/FW), member of the Texas Chapter club DAYLIGHTER edition F150 ®, Black 98 S/S S/C F150 4x4 0RP 5.4 V8 3.55ls, Ramsey Pro 8000 hidden winch, Grizzly roll bar, Superwhite Bulbs, 2 Baja back up lights, 2 KC 57 Series 5x7 100 watt long range lights, 8 165 watt KC Daylighters, 4 chrome, 4 black ( with 10 KC's, I come alive at night), Manik grill guard, Westin step bars, Rhino Taillight guards (thanks Pony), Magnum bug shield, Sonic aluminum treadplate 36" tool box, Flowmaster 40 series dual exhaust, Airaid High Flow system, Edelbrock IAS shocks, 285/75/16 BFG AT/S KO, American Racing Baja wheels, personalized plates, Cobra CB radio with 3' whip antenna, Escort Laser/Radar detector, Nokia cell phone, a Mobil Speed Pass on the back window, a F150 Online sticker, and a DAYLIGHTER sticker on the front windshield, and yes, I also have been infected with the infamous door crack. More to come for the Daylighter: JBA headers, superchip, 4 more Daylighters, and a Lighted Ford tailgate logo. If you would like to see pics, email me at mudder46@hotmail.com or see pics at me and pony's website www.angelfire.com/ok3/ponysix8 , and to hear the Flowmaster exhaust http://www.angelfire.com/ok3/ponysix8/images/T005.wav
Also the Moderator of the Ford Trucks vs. GM trucks forum over on fordvschevy.com so check it out.
Check out the Toughest SOB in the WWF crush the Rock's Lincoln: http://www.amta.net/files/sc-2.avi
OH HELL YEAH!

2 BRT 4U "Go ahead, flash your brights at me, see what will happen."

Got light?




[This message has been edited by mudder (edited 08-03-2000).]

 

Just bought a used explorer with these tires so I was very concerned when the article first came out. Will probably be replacing them very soon.

Also more news on them this morning on the news. Seems that Ford has already recalled them in 7 other countries, Venezuela was mentioned, but not in the U.S. Also the # of complaints is over 200, not 90, plus there have been over 20 deaths in the U.S. with 2 of those deaths being here in Jacksonville, FL.

I will be pricing some BFG All tarain TA's today.

 

The complaints on these tires are in the thousands. The "90" reports were just those NHTSA received in May, 2000. There have been 21-40 deaths (depending on the source) and over 500 lawsuits as of 2 months ago.

I can sort of understand why Ford didn't recall the Explorers, because of the big $$ involved. But I can't understand why Ford didn't do the right thing by stop equipping their Explorers with the Firestone tires. Apparently Explorers are not having any problems with other brand tires. Ford knew about the Firestone problem for a long time; not just a couple of months ago.

Duking it out in court with Firestone later would be much better for Ford than the mess they are in now.