I own a 1998 F150 approx. Two and a half years ago I purchased a set of 4 general ameritrac SUV tires from sears, size P225/70 R16 109S. Within a period of one year and a range of 18 to 28 thousand miles, three of the tires have had the tire separate from the steel belts, the last which happened today, almost killed me. Something is wrong with the manufacture of these tires. I do check the pressure on a regular basis, every 2 to 3 weeks. I still have the last two tires that have failed.

- Port Saint Lucie , FL, USA

I have a 19'98 Ford F150 that came equipped with Firestone 235/70R16 wilderness ht tires. One of those tires started to separate about two weeks ago. I have replaced the tires so the safety issue has been dealt with. However, I've tried talking to Firestone about the tire separation & they aren't the least bit interested. Their district mgr ( bob ) said the tires are six years old and I should be happy that I've gotten that much service out of the tires. Their store mgr ( mike hemel ) in charlotte nc said tires separate when then get old. After a 30 second analysis of the tire he said my vehicle was out of alignment which conforms to the first rule of bad customer service => blame someone else. I offered to kathy smith ( Firestone corporate) to take the vehicle to my normal mechanic and have the alignment checked under the scenario that if it is misaligned, I would pay the bill & if it is in alignment, Firestone would pay the bill. She declined my offer, again suggesting Firestone really is not interesting in getting to the root cause of the problem. I do not know anything about the reliability record of this type of tire or the process to get one of your specialist to analyize the failure mode of this particular tire. I have all five of the oem tires, one of which is the spare ( new condition ) I'm more than happy to make these tires available to you for analysis; but, I'd rather not keep these tires around for very long if this is something that you believe does not warrant an investigation please advise me how to proceed as soon as practical.

- Davidson, NC, USA

While consumer was driving on the highway tread separated from right rear tire. Consumer had not struck anything, and tire was still inflated. He was able to pull to the side, and examined what was left of the tire. He realized that all the tread was gone but sidewall was still intact. It was a wide track baja A/S, LT245/75R16. The road was clear and dry. Ten minutes prior to the failure, the consumer felt vibration shuddering throughout the vehicle. Tire had approx. 35,000 miles on it. Consumer has one of the failed tires, he replaced and discarded the other three.

- Bellevue, NE, USA