When I was at Purdue I worked at Sears in various capacities. One was as a
car 'inspector'. It was my duty to check cars over for anything else they
might need besides their scheduled service. Tires of course were included.
Many tire brands exhibited slipped belts, in other words the tread had
shifted from the inner core of the tire so it looked like a snake when you
rotated the tire. Bad. Firestone was the worst (721) but almost all  other
brands were culprits except Michelin. I never saw one do it. One lady had
over 100,000 miles on a set and they were bald but they were perfect.

This is what you don't want to hear: Oh fuXX, Oh fuXX, Oh fuXX, Oh fuXX, when
your wife is fixing a sandwich in the back of the van at 70 mph when a rear
tire goes. BTDT.

Happy owner of Michelins. Ask me more if you want.

Mark
87 Westy

In a message dated 8/18/02 1:44:52 PM, hseaver@CYBERSHAMANIX.COM writes:

<<   Yes, absolutely. I wish people could see the like new passenger car tire
that
came on my westy that I ruined just by making cranking the wheel all the way
to
the left and stepping on the gas, apparantly. There was no other major trauma
like a big pothole or anything, we just turned in to a gas station, and when
we
came back out the front end shimmyed so bad at low speed it I had to really
hang
on to the wheel with both hands. Just that side thrust totalled that tire.
There
was no shimmy whatsoever before making that turn.
   It was so bad that I thought the steering box had broken. My wife said it
felt like a bulge in the tire, but I could see no bulge. After jacking it up
and
checking wheelbearings, tierods, rack and pinion, balljoints, etc., we were
totally mystified. Then someone else was looking at it, had me spin each wheel
while it was jacked up, and looking at it from the front you could see the
tire
was totally out of shape when it spun. These were Goodyear tires -- I've never
seen a tire so badly damaged so easily. >>