Last week I had delivered and installed on my van a set of new General Grabber HTS XL tires. Cost for delivery and install was about $460. The tires were installed last Thursday. The only driving I have done on the tires is from the installation shop to my house. About two miles on paved roads with no crazy driving or road debris. The van has sat since then.
Imagine my fury when I go out to my driveway this afternoon and find this:
I charged up the air compressor and tried to air the tire up but the tire had come off of the bead and air just blew out between the rim and the bead on the tire. I jacked up the tire and was able to put in about 5 psi of pressure when I discovered this:
Yup. SERIOUS interior tire structure failure.
And there is another spot starting on the other side of the tire (note the cute little caterpillar):
I am pretty ticked off. I am going to contact Tire Rack and the installer on Monday and find out who gets to give me a new tire.
I can think of two possible causes: (1) it has been REALLY hot lately and maybe the tire failed form sitting in the 80+ degree heat for several days; (2) the set of four tires has two pairs: one manufactured in the 36th week of 2014 and the other manufactured in the 49th eek of 2014. Both the 36th week tires look a bit dirty and sun faded. Maybe they have been sitting under a window or skylight in the warehouse for almost a year and got degraded. However, one of the other tires shows an indentation in the sidewall like the tire is overinflated. What a pisser. The three remaining tires are inflated to 45PSI so I am assuming the failed tire was, too.
So, buyer beware, and be ready to deal with this crap if you buy from tirerack.com