This isn’t something we planned to replace right away. After all the tires still had plenty of tread. Given that Hugo was 17 years old when we bought it and only had 48,000 miles, it wasn’t driven much. That should have been a clue. Even though the tires had plenty of tread, they could be quite old.
We knew that tire age mattered. We did some research and learned that it was possible to determine when a tire was manufactured. Our tires didn’t seem to have these markings. That should have been a another clue but hey, they had plenty of tread. (Apparently some cheap import tires don’t have these markings.)
On one of our initial modest journeys, we started to get some growing bump, bump, bump in the rear. I pulled over and found the right rear tire losing air. No big deal even though we were on a busy Long Island freeway. That should have been even another clue but hey, the spare had plenty of tread.
Then on a local trip at highway speed the right rear tire gave out in a less gracious fashion – big time blowout. It’s really amazing the damage a blown out tire can do before you can get the vehicle stopped. Not to mention the directional control drama.
Lesson (finally) learned. Regardless of tread, if your tires are old, replace them!
B190 Expedition 