Reply To: Blow-outs

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I was driving George Tebay’s Silver Arrow through the Mojave Desert last summer on the way back to northern Callifornia after the Meet in Temecula.

The 105* heat, and the poor quality [thin] new inner tubes didn’t get along.. I had the right rear tire go flat in about 100 yards.. Not an explosive tire failure, but quite quick.

The rear of the car was swaying around a lot, the thankfully the roadway was quite flat, and there was a turnoff for a side road at just the right spot.. So I pulled over, not that I had any choice, and got well off the road..

I had the spare on the car and back on the road in about 12 minutes.. I moved fast ’cause there was no shade, and I felt like I was under a heat lamp.

Our Pierce Arrows are quite heavy, and the tires are barely adequate for the weight they carry.. you must keep the tires well inflated to keep the swaying to a minimum, and to provide some safety if one tire blows. You will need all the control you can get from the remaining [hopefully well inflated] tire.

If I had been on a curve, or with a stiff crosswind, then the car would have been a bit of a handfull..

So, take good care of your tires keep them inflated, or even over inflated.. I run my 750-17’s on my 836 at 45 psi.. an ‘over inflated’ tire runs cooler and offers more control of a heavy car.

By the way,, George had another tube failure the next day, with the same results.. a quick deflation, a bit of swaying, and a convenient ramp to pull well of the road.. I was just behind him.. this time I mangage the tire swap in about 10 minutes.. I was starting to feel like a member of a Pit-Crew.

All the new tubes were changed to heavy duty truck tubes.

Greg Long