Tires

[banjo]

Things you find when reading the Federal Register....

In justifying changes to tire retention requirements, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration quoted some
statistics.
Nine complaints about trailer tires in 15 years ????


From the Federal Register

"Based on the foregoing information, the agency could not identify a current safety problem related to a trailer rim's ability to retain a tire in the event of rapid deflation. Over a 15-year period of consumer complaints, we found only nine complaints related to trailer tires, a rate of less than one complaint per year, and few, if any, of the complaints appear to be related to the rim retention requirement. Thus, we tentatively conclude that there is no continued safety need justifying the requirement that trailers comply with the rim retention requirement in S4.4.1(b) of FMVSS No. 110. We do not believe that excluding trailers from this requirement would have any measurable effect on the safety of light trailers. "

[Rough2000]

What about those alligators the 18 wheelers leave in the middle of the road during the summer??:E

[h2guy]

This item deals with tires NOT staying on the rims when they fail. Has nothing to do with trailer tire failures themselves.

No one wants a 120-130 lb truck tire departing the rim and going into traffic.

[TomHaycraft]

Banjo, two items stand out to me. One, how many of the failures so commonly talked about on these forums are from failure at the rim (sounds like most just self-destruct for a number of reasons)? And two, while 9 complaints over 15 years sounds very low, how many owners go to the trouble of reporting blow outs and failures to the NHTSA?

Good food for thought though, in how we might need to change how we follow up with tire failures in the future. On the good-news side of things, nice to see that the NHTSA is reviewing their files and making data-driven decisions. We as owners, just need to provide them more complete data!

Thanks for posting.