So, I was driving back from Tucson this afternoon for work in my '99 Ford F250 and I had a passenger side rear tire separate on me at about 75mph about 40 miles outside of Phoenix.

Needless to say, the result was pretty catastrophic. The whole passenger side bedside is crunched/bent/tweaked, exhaust is crunched, rear bumper is bent/tweaked, broken rear taillight, and damaged tailgate. Some tire shrapnel also went forwards and hit the rocker behind the front wheel too. Looks to be at least $2k in damage. The truck may have to get a new bed.

Luckily, the carcass actualyl held together long enough for me to get off the road, and noone was hurt, but holy crap is my truck a mess.

I called my insurance company this afternoon after I limped it home on the spare and will be taking it to the repair shop tommorrow.

Moral of the story: General Ameritrac tires are JUNK!! If you have them, run to your nearest tire store and replace them, NOW! These tires had less than 25,000 miles on them and had more than 50% of the tread left. It went without warning too!! The tires have a 01-2003 date on them, so they were just over 2 years old! I imagine that USAA will be going after General for damages.

I'm very very lucky that it wasnt on the front. I had just rotated the tires front to back last weekend too!

So, the Ford is down until further notice.

Insurance is going to cover it at least, minus a $500 deductible. Makes for a real bad day though.

Yeah thats sounds like it sucked bad. Glad ur OK. Could have been a lot worse.

WOW John... That totally sucks

Hopefully, it can all get taken care of. I once had a rear tire blow out on my Mercury Topaz (I know... that car SUCKED), on the freeway doing 80. It ripped off the rear bumper and juked up the fender.

Lemmie know if you need any help or anything. Oh, shoulda given me a call... I work 1st shift now. I am outta work at 2:30. Usually home by 3, having a beer

Sorry to hear John.

gargh me good truck!

Sorry to hear, glad you are okay. I coulda been there in a flash for ya.

John, you probably know this, but quite a few people (look on pBB) are running comercial grade tires that won't do that and last a LONG TIME.

Dang!. I've never seen ,firsthand ,the damage done- it sounds gnarly.

Hopefully , you'll have a GOODYEAR for the duration.

Take a coupla carnage pics... maybe we need to make the mothership into a mother truggy

I'll get some pics this afternoon. I'm taking off early from work to take it to a body shop for an estimate, so I'll get some pics then.

Yah, I know about the commercial tires. I could run them if I got some 19.5" rims for my truck. Thats some $$$$ though that I dont have at the moment. It'd be around $3-4k for the tires and wheels required.

I figure I should be fine with some good Load range D or E Michelin LTXs or something once the truck is fixed back up.

Also, technically, my work's insurance should pay for repair of the truck. I'll be finding out tommorrow whether that is true or not. The accident occured while coming from a job site in Tucson and I was on the clock when it happened.

Glad you held it on the road. Could have been a LOT worse.

Mikey is back at Discount on main and Dobson.

Tony has been realllllll helpful too at the Discount on Gilbert and Baseline.

Thanks, Marshall,

I'll be shopping for new tires once I get the truck back from the repair shop.

My neighbor also has a hookup for tires at cost, so might be able to get something through him.

Just got back from the auto body shop.. The estimate is just shy of $3000! Pics coming shortly.

Here are pics:

Buff it out...get a new tail-light...pocket the $3000.

Yea Generals suck.