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I read through your entire post because I was wanting to make sure that
I didn't miss the part they were addressing in the video, and maybe I
missed it. So fill correct me if I am wrong.... The spot specifically noted that visual inspection could not determine whether there was going to be a failure. It is like the crankshaft on an airplane engine. You can look at it all day long from the outside, but you won't see flaws below the surface that would cause it to fail. Now the analogy breaks down in that most flaws in the crank will be something that was manufactured in or due to some "event". The problem with the tire story is that it happens with age. But the part that is the same is that you cannot tell from external inspection that there is an internal problem. From the pictures I say, it looked like there were tread separation issues like what happens on a re-treaded tire. The tread separates from the rest of the tire. That happens a lot on tractor trailer tires because they are so expensive to buy new that re-treads are pretty common. Anyway, it seemed that the point of the story was that there should be an expiration date on the tires since there was no way to visually inspect the tire and determine that there was a problem. Is that the point, or does inspecting for dry rot etc. that you mentioned mean that there IS a way to detect the problem? I got the impression that they claim the answer is NO. Now, I do know that ABC is not beyond sensationalizing. For example, they said that there is plenty of evidence on the road that shows the extent of the problem. They then showed a truck tire recap section, which is NOT the problem they are talking about. Most of what I see on the road, and I travel from here to the gulf coast MANY times a year, is recaps from trucks. So the evidence from my perspective is definitely NOT as evident as they say it is. But little things like facts don't usually get in the way of the medial The other curious thing is that they said that the age of the tires in the main story was 4 when they were purchased, and 9 when the accident occurred. They were already 5 years old when the accident occurred. That is very close to the age of 6 claimed as the limit of when you start to get into trouble with aging tires. So even if they were only a year old, they MIGHT have still had problems. Now, I drive a lot of miles, and a set of tires would NOT last 5 years on my vehicle. Now, if the tread life on a tire is maybe 40 or 50 thousand miles, it would seem that this van either was driven less than 10,000 miles per year, or the tires were about worn out anyway. If they were NOT worn out, then it would seem that they may have been dry rotting anyway because they were used so little. Lots of questions that may make the story less sensational that it was presented. This isn't to say that there isn't a problem. One of the problems is consumer education. It seems that the answer the media is always ready with is some governmental control. But it seems to me that in the case of this van, that may not have been enough. What if the tires WERE brand new when bought, but were left on the a pretty stagnant vehicle for 12 years, then failed the same way. They were just too old, but if inspected and passed on the surface, then the accident could still occur because the consumer would not know that they should not allow tires of that age to be used. So I say lets educate the consumer. But please, not a twelve page "warning booklet" that will bury this little item between "not for internal use" and "you may drown if you fall out of this product when it is suspended from a rope over water". I can see the next ABC exclusive report: Tire manufacturers knew for YEARS that the design of their tires encouraged breeding of West Nile carrying mosquitoes, but did nothing to prevent it from happening on discarded tires. szcue@xxxxxxx wrote: **************************************** For List Info or To make _ANY_ changes, including unsubscribing from this list, click -----> //www.freelists.org/list/geocaching Missouri Caches Scheduled to be Archived http://tinyurl.com/87cqw |
