Had a tire explode today

[Joelster]

We put 60 miles on our Mach 1 today. On our way to it's first official "cruise night" we felt a vibration around 30mph so we pulled into a parking lot to inspect it. As we were rolling through the right front tire popped real loud and blew out. Tires are date coded from 2014 and have nearly full tread and zero signs of dry rot. They are Cooper Cobra GT tires on 14x6 or 7 magnum 500 wheels.

Got a ride home and grabbed my truck and trailer. Had to put the 49 year old donut on it to put it on the trailer. Put the tire on my tire machine to take a look inside. It wasn't patched or anything. Just decided to let go. Just thankful it happened at 5mph and not 65mph on the thruway.

 

[DAverkamp]

Wow, thankfully you felt the vibe and whoa-ed down before disaster and that you stayed safe!
That type of failure across the entire tread face is rare but did happen to my wife when she hit a very large pothole and broke the bands. Upon pulling up to save my damsel in distress I zipped my lips about how she did not see the pothole so I would live another day, but it still is a card I get to play when she gets on me. Also, after seeing this, I will call about the status of my new TA’s tomorrow..

 

[Joelster]

We're going to take this as an opportunity to upgrade. Looking for a larger set of Magnum 500's. I'm finding lots of them in 15" sizes in chrome, but ideally we'd like a set of 17's, but the only ones I see in 17 are a polished aluminum, and they justbdont look right to me. Maybe I need to see them on a 71-73 Mach 1 to make a better choice.

 

[DAverkamp]

We're going to take this as an opportunity to upgrade. Looking for a larger set of Magnum 500's. I'm finding lots of them in 15" sizes in chrome, but ideally we'd like a set of 17's, but the only ones I see in 17 are a polished aluminum, and they justbdont look right to me. Maybe I need to see them on a 71-73 Mach 1 to make a better choice.

There has been alot of recent thread/posts on that subject since March so start searching.
I roll on 15x8 M500’s.

 

[RD-72]

Look like someone was watching over you tonight...glad your safe.
last fall I drove about an hour to a car show at highway speeds...was all over the place on the road...realized that my tires were around 30 years old (but tons of tread...car was parked for almost 30 years). I bought a new set the following week, and the tires separated when the tire shop was removing them...I got real lucky as well

 

[Sheriff41]

We're going to take this as an opportunity to upgrade. Looking for a larger set of Magnum 500's. I'm finding lots of them in 15" sizes in chrome, but ideally we'd like a set of 17's, but the only ones I see in 17 are a polished aluminum, and they justbdont look right to me. Maybe I need to see them on a 71-73 Mach 1 to make a better choice.

I recently did the same thing. My Cooper Cobras on 15" Magnums were date coded 2013 but still looked new. The car hadn't been driven much over the last decade and stored in a garage but I didn't want risk it. I went with HK Magnums 17x8 with 255/40-17 fronts, 17x9 with 275/40-17 rear. The HK wheels have a true Magnum 500 look, look great and, even with the low profile tires, the ride is not degraded. For me the only downside is no raise white letters on the tires.

 

[giantpune]

I had one blow up on my about this time last year. We drove 3hr to go pick this up. The tires looked fine. About 1hr into the trip home, right in the middle of atlanta traffic on the highway mine blew. There was very little warning. It went from smooth driving, then about 2 seconds of heavy vibration, then the tire blew out. It smacked the fender hard enough to put a big black mark. The mark came off with some elbow grease and the paint end metal under was fine.

We pulled over and got the 40yr old spare on it and limped to the next gas station to fill it up. Then drove it nice and slow and prayed the whole rest of the way home.