Expo Member needs help - tires

dhackney

Expedition Leader
Tom,

I think every point you make is valid.

I would also add one a friend emailed me after seeing the photos: "Never get underneath a vehicle that is supported only by a jack." Especially when buses and trucks are blasting by a meter or less away.

The crawling underneath and driving in the dark are both manifestations of adaptation and comfort. After a lot of tire changes, I got too casual about my process, especially related to basic safety.

After a lot of travel down here, we know for a fact it is not as dangerous as most people assume, so we didn't and don't consider it insane to drive after dark. Having said that, I agree with your strategy that it is best to make camp at least an hour before dark. If, for no other reason, that it removes a lot of stress from your day and gives you a chance to unwind before dinner, etc.

In our case, we were used to driving after dark in rural areas, which we've found safer than urban areas in all parts of the world. The Panamericana is a different place, and our level of comfort was unwarranted there, especially when devoid of local knowledge about conditions in specific areas.

To answer some of your questions:
1. Remaining tread. I didn't measure it, but I would term it "not much." Our former spares that we were running on the front still had plenty of tread, but were apparently out of round. We balanced them twice but still had a bad shake between 90-100kph. The rears and the spares were simply chewed up. Whatever tread that was left was badly cut, gouged, and beat up by Patagonia and the Peruvian chicken bus roads. In the end I believe every one of those six tires had at least one patch.

2. Tire strategy. In terms of strategy, we were attempting to finish up this section of South America and make it back down to Chile to pick up the 6 new Yokohamas we had shipped in there. Obviously, we didn't make it.

The end to that strategy came when Steph was cooking one evening while we were camped and the sidewall blew out of the driver's side outer duallie. On examination, it looked like driver error. The outside sidewall was scraped vertically, with a small cut about .75" / 19mm long visible on the outside and a split ~2" / 5cm long on the inside. My assumption is I hit a sharp curb corner or scraped up against something and flexed the sidewall beyond its capacity. From that point on, we knew we could not run on chicken bus roads, but would instead be restricted to asphalt until we replaced the tires.

I like your strategy of 12k purchases for trucks with all the same tread pattern/tire. For the reasons stated earlier in the thread, I chose to try a different tread on the front. We'll see how that works out.

Outside the U.S.A. the 742 Yokohamas are VERY difficult to obtain. We were forced to purchase them in the US, pay to ship them in, pay customs duties, etc. Consequently, for overseas travel your strategy would require significant market research as to availability in given countries, along with non-trivial assumptions about distance traveled and wear rates. Domestically, I think it is a winner.

3. Tire life. Because we carry around a significant percentage of the universe's known and unknown weight (we are responsible for all the missing mass of the universe attributed to "dark matter"), our tire life is significantly affected by road quality and surface. Areas such as Patagonia and non-tourist-trail rural areas, where we prefer to be, and their network of chicken bus roads cause very high wear rates, even at our low speeds.

Consequently, I cannot accurately predict a minimum or maximum tire life for our chassis. Given our experience, I would rate the Yokohamas good for ~20k miles / 32.2km of a mix of paved and unpaved roads with our chassis. We will have to see how the Goodyears hold up before we have any idea about their wear rate(s). After the first 10 miles they still look great. :)

I completely agree with your assessment about squeezing out a few hundred more miles of tire life vs. the inconvenience and potential danger of used-up tires. That is the reason I shipped in the set of new Yokohamas before we left central Chile five months ago. Unfortunately, our resulting travel/route precluded installing those tires before these reached the end of their service life.

******

Bottom line, this tire experience is very similar to our buildup experience. Yet another example of "Do as I say, not as I did." :)
 
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Desertdude

Expedition Leader
Doug, I have got into the habit of throwing a wheel (with tire on) under the vehicle as a safety wedge in case of jack failure on the road. Nothing more scary than laying under the vehicle and running scenarios. :Wow1:

Glad your rolling again.
 

whatcharterboat

Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
Desertdude
Doug, I have got into the habit of throwing a wheel (with tire on) under the vehicle as a safety wedge in case of jack failure on the road. Nothing more scary than laying under the vehicle and running scenarios.

In the workshop I will always use a 3 or 5 ton jack as a safety net but in the bush a wheel thrown under should be the minimum precaution. The guy that builds our leaf suspension packs is confined to a wheelchair due to an accident involving a jack. Amazingly he still gets around the springworks but in admin/design role.

Outside the U.S.A. the 742 Yokohamas are VERY difficult to obtain.

Also I am learning not to make assumptions that your FGs are not the same as ours in Oz. Ours come standard with Bridgestone M+S 7.50R16 that are "F" load rated. So yeah, in retrospect theses numbers may have helped a little but Doug, it certainly looks like some very capable guys over there have got your 6.

Regards John.
 

kerry

Expedition Leader
I concur with the need for additional support other than just a jack. I met an owner of a Bluebird Wanderlodge on a forum who bought his bus from the widow of a man who was relying solely on a jack for support without having chocks under the wheels.
 

dhackney

Expedition Leader
These are sobering anecdotes regarding injury and death due to jack/vehicle accidents. I hope we all learn something from this.

The "wheel under the chassis" strategy is exactly what my friend suggested ("admonished" or "berated" would probably be a more apt description...).


kerry said:
relying solely on a jack for support without having chocks under the wheels.

Even if you are stupid enough to crawl under a vehicle with no support other than a jack, at least chock the wheels first.


2008-09-30-SD870%20IS-7769-800-crop-arrow.jpg


Sorry this is blurry, it is the background of a blown tire shot.

There was one on each end of that tire, front and rear.

Note the rock holding it in place. The wind was blowing so hard, the first time I placed them they blew about 25 meters away into the desert.

.
 

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