BFG tire disintegration

dodge guy wrote:
I've always had BFG's. never had an issue. What is the date on the tire?

Me too, BFG on four trucks, over thirty years. Seems this one might just be unfortunate timing, picked up a nail and no where to turn out - had to roll, and roll it seemed forever. Finally a turn-out.

Don't know the tire date, but will look tomorrow. I've had them around 2.5 to 3 years. Not sure mfgr date. Will post it tomorrow

Yeah I've never had bad luck with the several sets of BFG ATs over the years. Haven't run them in a while though.
Agree now, tires not old, truck not loaded, is a suspect tire failure unless it was running really low on air for a good distance at speed. Miles not feet.

My point on the 17" tires is E load 17s are now only made in lighter load index. 121 or 3195lb max is all you can get now. Idk why but the mfgs quit making heavier 17" truck tires several years ago.
You have a truck that weighs 3klbs + empty on the rear axle. Add your moderate size camper and you're at max load rating of even good 17s like your bfgs.
Similar size 18 or 20" are rated higher. For example 275-70-18 E load tires are 125 or 3600+ lb rated.
OE rims are not the weak link IMO. They are very robust and have large factors of safety in my opinion. Can't say the same for all aftermarket rims though. Hence my reccomendstion for takeoff OE wheels in the larger size.

Where I live there are ALOT of new takeoff HD truck tire and wheels for sale on Craigslist, form all the folks who put aftermarket wheels on.
IMO they're a good value. Typically $1000or less for a new or almost new set of tires and wheels.
Of course the tires aren't typically the longest lasting or good snow tires, but you can get your money's worth of use out of them as summer tires or have them siped for winter use.

monkey44 wrote:
Me too, BFG on four trucks, over thirty years. Seems this one might just be unfortunate timing, picked up a nail and no where to turn out - had to roll, and roll it seemed forever. Finally a turn-out. Don't know the tire date, but will look tomorrow. I've had them around 2.5 to 3 years. Not sure mfgr date. Will post it tomorrow

I had a set of four BFG TA/Ko LR: E tires OEM size (I bought these in 2006; precursor to the more contemporary KO2's). 3 of 4 of these tires developed sidewall and tread cracking very, very badly at the 3 year mark. I take meticulous care of tires, check inflation weekly, cover them up from direct incoming solar when parked for longer times. The camper is a light weight pop-up (nothing heavy) on a 2500HD.

I was quite pi$$ed. Changed them out a little after the 3 year mark for Michelin AT2's. At the 4 year and 7 month mark with the Michelin tires, both front tires cracked badly (rotated yearly, regular wheel alignments). Changed the Michelin tires out for our present tires: Goodyear Duratrac LR: E. Doing well with these after the 4 year mark, presently.

I ALWAYS check the manufacturer's date of manufacture stamp on new tires before they are mounted, and will refuse a tire or tires if the date is older than ~2 months. But, doing forensics on tires I believe is case-by-case (my case may be extremely different for/from other situations).

My take on the defective TA/Ko's is that they were, well, defective from the get-go. I will not buy BFGs again. Your mileage may vary. This was just my personal experience.

Thanks for all advice ...

Might just stay with stock wheels and new BFG ... hard to break old habits. Might be due for a new truck next year anyway ... been thinking about it once 2020 has been out on market a year or so.

Will probably upgrade the 2008 Lance to a lighter camper too, as we do less cross-country now. Something a bit more compact ... NL Sportsman springs into mind :)

I also had bad set of BFG, however mine were commercial TA.My front tires separated while on a trip at the worse time.Saturday night while driving through Atlanta. These tires were just under four years with 23000 miles.The tread wear was not good and I figured I would be lucky to get 30000 out of them.Since it was a Sunday when I needed to find tires, the only ones available were Westlake. Never heard of them, but can't be much worse then the BFG and the price was a lot less. Also this truck spends it life in a garage unless camping and air pressure is monitor with a tpms system.