Anyone out there seen this type of Hancook tire failure. My in-laws have an '07 F150 4x4 that has only 10k miles on it. About a month ago there were about to take a short trip out of town and took it to the dealer to have tires rotated and pressure checked. They made it about 50 miles into the trip and boom! They stopped and the pics is what you see. They didn't run over anything, had no rim damage, and found no evidence of a nail or anything else.

Hancook's response was that they hit something and caused the failure. NO WAY!! Look at the tear pattern. I counted 22 tears almost equally spaced around the tire. no tire should ever do this, even if it did become flat.

 

Wow, weird pattern. My toyo at blowout looked nothing like that!

 

Glad i don't have those haha...that's a real shame though.

 

I've had tire failures before on several different brands of tires. But that is the strangest looking FAIL I think I've seen.
I've got Hankook Ventus on my truck now, and they are about 3 years old. No problems yet

 

That is very weird and after the Hancook saw those pics I would like to know their theories on what could do such damage!

 

I've never seen anything like it.

My truck came with those tires but they didn't last 1000 miles before I replaced them with Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor AT's. Awesome decision!

Based on the eveness of the blowout (and as much as I hate the OEM Hankook's - they are very marginal for a F-150), I would suspect the dealer had the inflation pressure too high. The high pressure combined with the heat generated from the freshly rotated tires wearing in was simply too much for the wimpy sidewalls. But that is just a guess.

 

I only see one problem with that though, Real, if it were the case, would there be twenty two cuts in the sidewall like the OP said?
I would think that, even if over pressured, the heat would only result in one blow out, sidewall rip and a rapid depressurize but not twenty two cuts.

That's just how I think though, I mean anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

If it was a pressure problem, it would be far more likely it was too low a pressure. That is what builds heat in a tire. That is one of the main causes of blow-outs and tread separation.

 

I agree with Kingfish, low air pressure is a lot worse then high. Especially in hot weather.

 

I noticed that exact same sidewall pattern formation on the Hankooks I took off my truck. If they weren't snowed in my shed, I'd take pictures.

Yikes!!!

Do I smell a potential Firestone, ugh I mean Hankook blowout hazard fiasco?

Hmm...

 

hey PawPaw, I like the F22 Raptor graphic in your signature.

yep, I wonder if there might be a big issue with these Hankook tires. We may file a complaint with the NHTSA. My concern is the other 3 tires on the vehicle.

You'd think that Ford would be programmed now to respond to tire issues after getting raked over the coals on the Firestone/Explorer issue but I guess not.

 

I agree that generally (air pressure) too low is worse than too high (and that may be the problem here). But the OEM Hankook's have SUPER thin sidewalls and a 35 psi limit. It also looks like winter weather and an early morning tire fill (more cold air will fit in a tire at 35 psi than warm air) and once on the road the friction from wearing in the fresh tire rotation just took the carcass beyond what it could contain.

I do not suscribe to the thought that a blowout due to the wrong air pressure would only blowout in ONE localized spot. The way tires are constructed a failure in one spot could cause a simultaneous failure all the way around.

The reason I suspect the wrong pressure is due to the uniformity of the damage. A localized defect or weakness in the sidewall WOULD likely blow-out at that one localized spot only with the rest of the tire holding together.

I have seen exactly ONE tire failure that looked just like that but it was on a radial tire for a motorcycle which is a very different application (I did not remember this when I offered my first opinion). However, it happened at high speed after the tires were aired up to maximum (perhaps a bit beyond). So, I suspect an over-pressure situation in that case too.

And I very much agree that low pressure is the more dangerous situation but in this case (tires freshly serviced) it appears high pressure is more likely. But hopefully someone with extensive knowledge of tire failure modes (not just personal experience) will chime in.

 

The damage to the tire is indicative of low tire pressure. We see it all the time down here in Texas especially during the summer. The tire builds heat in the sidewall and fails. They may have thrown a nail that you might never find the hole or Discount Tire had a recall on leaky valve stems about 1-2 years ago or so. Maybe that's the issue but low pressure was the cause of the failure- not a Hancook issue.