Uh-oh tire go

[greg rider]

This happened today on my way to work, no warning. I knew that the tread was barely legal and I had plans to replace the fronts soon. It came apart less than 1/2 mile from work so I limped it in. When it cut loose it shook the front end pretty bad.



This is after I trimmed off the gator skin. It still holds air,,somehow. Gonna go to the tire shop in the morning after work so they can mount the spare.

[Gordon Maney]

I threw off a chunk like that on the rear of my 2001 Ram and it bent the fender sheet metal.

[greg rider]

It beat the front fender hard but I was only going 35 or so and I stopped pretty quick,,no damage.

[Don Williams]

I was towing an equipment trailer behind my 95 Ram CTD and hit a pot hole very hard with the right rear tire. So hard that I remember thinking, "That felt like it might have broken something." Sure enough it had broken the right rear leaf spring on the truck. I got that fixed and then went to a tire store and had the tire dismounted and checked for damage. Everything looked good. About three months later I was on the interstate and the same right rear tire came apart and looked like the one in your picture. Ya just never know.

[greg rider]

New uh-oh








AGAIN with the breakdown. This morning on my way to work I heard a loud, high pitched, metallic squeal. I stopped and heard splashing on the ground and saw the tank strap and tank hanging and the gas was sloshing enough to come out the filler hole. I pulled into a driveway with the nose down hill and crawled underneath and tied it up with a rope. Just what i wanted to do in my clean, fresh, white uniform shirt. I'm gonna get a ratchet strap to tie it a little better until I get home and fix it right. The squeal was the strap on the driveshaft. The u-joint got into the tank a little but not enough to cause problems, just made a clean spot.

[Don Williams]

People who drive new vehicles just don't get to have the kinds of adventures that we do. Most of them wouldn't have something to tie the tank up with or any idea how to do it. Nice roadside repair.

[greg rider]

Nice roadside repair.

Thanks. Yes I do carry an assortment of odds and stuff for roadside repairs.

2 pieces of rope 10' and 25'
Tongue and groove pliers
Lineman pliers
Duct tape
Electrical tape
Roll of 14g wire and Scotchlock connectors
A multibit screwdriver that kinda doubles as a nut driver
Zip ties short and long
Mechanics wire
Adjustable wrench
Some fuel hose, maybe 2', and clamps
Socket and breaker bar for lug nuts
Cheap set of 3/8 drive sockets in a plastic case
Of course fuses and bulbs

Most of this fits in the glovebox and the rest is behind the seat with the jumper cables, slop boots, cheater pipe, and 3' crowbar. I learned that 14g wire can be doubled, or more, easily to replace heavier gauge wire. The Scotchlocks are for get me home only use. Rope is always handy especially when the wife makes an impulse buy of something odd sized. This will be joined by the 2 new 10' ratchet straps.

[greg rider]

Fixed





After making a few calls to auto parts stores amd getting a "sorry" everytime I decided to fix it myself. I thought about those generic strap kits but I have had those fail after a few years. The boneyard ones are just as old and questionable as my broken one. I considered a single 1/2" rod but thought it may deform into the soft tank, this is when I chose the route of 2 rods, 3/8" each, to spread the load. I drilled out the bolts in the frame, copied the bends of the old strap, and went at it. I bought a 6' piece, cut two pieces 2' long, a 4" long piece of angle, and a single about a foot long for the take-up bolt. I wanted the angle piece to act as a balance bar between the two belly straps so as they settled with weight and age, the tension would be the same, in theory anyways.