Joined
·
166 Posts
I would strongly recommend reading this thread if you have custom wheels and tires on your 300. I learned alot about cruising down the highway lookin good and not being prepared for the misfortune of a blowout. My wife and I were on a 600 mile trip up into South Dakota. We were 160 miles north of Fort Collins, Colorado, about 12 miles outside of Douglas Wyoming, when all of the sudden I am in the fast lane of a 2 lane interstate and I am saying to myself something is not right. The steering wheel is starting to shimy and the car is shaking as well. We are passing two vehicles at about 85 mph, I get into the right lane, letting the car coast down in speed and all of the sudden at 75-80 mph smoke and chunks of tire are flying everywhere. This was definitely a NASCAR style blowout. I continue to slow down using my brakes, but not using them so hard that I will grind my wheel off. I have gotten over on the shoulder of the road, so those other two cars can continue by me even after seeing the tire blow, why stop to help an arrogant ass speeding in a 300c, I guess. I get clear over into the dirt with the blown tire to save the wheel from the asphalt, but there is a linear pole coming up and I am still going to fast, back up on the asphalt around the pole and back into the dirt. We get out the tire is smoking but the wheel doesn't look to bad. OK so we survived no wreck, no damage to the car. This is where I start learning everything that I didn't think would happen with custom wheels and tires. Luckily I did want my custom wheels and tires to be as close as possible to the stock ones. I pull out the spare, the jack and the lug wrench. Guess what, factory lugs are 3/4", aftermarket lugs are 13/16", I can't even get the wheel off the car, remember we are 13 miles from a town of 3K people. As luck would have it I flag down a Dodge dually pulling a goose neck trailer with a car on it. He has tools and helps me change the tire. So now we are on the way to Douglas at about 50 mph, not excited about this at all because we have the AWD model, can't be good for the drivelines because those tires are not the same. We get to Douglas, the first automotive place we see is the Chrysler dealership. Well obviously nobody carries a 20 inch tire anywhere. Not Douglas, Cheyenne, Casper, Rapid City, not even Fort Collins where I got the tires. So now we are finished. No tire and don't want to drive the car on the spare. My only option is to call a friend in Fort Collins, I call him at 330 in the afternoon, he goes over to my house loads up the stock wheels and tires in my durango and heads 160 miles north. When he gets there we go back to the dealership and they open up after hours to let us use the shop to swap out the wheels. My buddy gets back to Fort Collins shortly before midnight. The things I learned in this situation that I want to pass on are as follows; carry the right lug wrench, people with 22's, especially AWD cars, I would not advise long trips, just asking for problems, if so maybe spend the money to set up a fifth wheel to match.
I am posting this thread because when I contacted Nitto they told my they are not liable for any cost, that is incurred in a situation such as mine. As for the tire blowing the tire shop is saying symptoms of low pressure, which is not true my tires were all at 35 psi when I left, it was 80 degrees outside that day, no debris, no lacerations to the tire what so ever. I am saying manufacturer defect. Also unbelievably, no wheel damage, you will see in the pictures, the tire rolled to the inside of the wheel and actually doubled itself up on the inside of the wheel and about 2 inches of sidewall kept the outside edge off the pavement. Any more questions I will be happy to answer.
I am posting this thread because when I contacted Nitto they told my they are not liable for any cost, that is incurred in a situation such as mine. As for the tire blowing the tire shop is saying symptoms of low pressure, which is not true my tires were all at 35 psi when I left, it was 80 degrees outside that day, no debris, no lacerations to the tire what so ever. I am saying manufacturer defect. Also unbelievably, no wheel damage, you will see in the pictures, the tire rolled to the inside of the wheel and actually doubled itself up on the inside of the wheel and about 2 inches of sidewall kept the outside edge off the pavement. Any more questions I will be happy to answer.
