Where are all these ancient threads coming from This was probably one of your first few posts Dman.

 

not me lol

 

gs300rich, yep this is probably my 200-300th post

tlw, damn man, your slippin, he should have YOUR title.

 

I did a write-up and a whole thread on just this subject some time ago.....the Ford-Firestone problem. The tires affected were only Wilderness AT's, and then only certain ones, not all Wilderness tires. That's why you still see a lot of Wilderness tires on the road...they are not the recalled AT's ( or shouldn't be ).

I'm not going to rehash all of the details again about the Explorer's suspension, the conflict between Ford and Firestone on recommended tire PSI's, and the low safety margin of error in the Wilderness AT design. This has all been explained by myself and many other sources.....and the public also shares in the blame for not checking the tire PSI's and then foolishly driving overloaded Explorers at high speeds on very hot roadways that contributed to tire heat buildup....most of the failures happened in the South and particularly the Desert Southwest in summer when the roadway gets to blistering temperatures.

 

It's not Firestone's fault. It was Ford's fault. Toyota and GM used the same Wilderness tires with no problems. ANY tire can separate without warning, even your beloved Michelins or Toyos.

 

It was partly, but not totally, Ford's fault. In response to customer complaints about the Explorer's rather harsh truck-like ride ( the Explorer was developed from the Ranger pickup ) Ford downgraded the recommended Wilderness AT tire pressures from 30-32 PSI to 26 to try and smooth out the ride some...an old and inexpensive trick. Firestone objected to this and said that that 26 PSI was not enough. Other SUV tires, however were able to run at 26 PSI and NOT fail....the Wilderness tires apparantly were OK at 30 PSI but marginal at 26....and then under ideal conditions. This shows that the Wilderness tires did not have much of a safety margin of error built in.....and that part of the blame is on Firestone. But the third....and perhaps most crucial factor.......lies with the Explorer's drivers themselves. By neglecting to check their tires regularly and in many cases not even having 26 cold PSI in them....and then driving overloaded vehicles pulling trailers on long vacations on blisteringly hot desert roads....the potential for disaster and tire failure was obvious.