WAIT, that was a different forum group. Here is that posting so you can learn from it:
Lets take a moment and cover some ground when it comes to tire choices (pun half-way intended).
Tires aren't just a performance product for a vehicle, they are a safety item. Every major tire manufacture has had some sort of manufacturing defect effect the safety of their tires. Most of the time when people hear that they think of a "blow out" which would be a catastrophic failure of the tire sidewall, the tire casing. That isn't the issue. A primary issue for a manufacturing defect is a tire delamination, that is when the tread separates from the tire casing, the casing often retaining air pressure. It looks sort of like when a commercial motor vehicle has a retread come apart and you see a "road gator" on the highway. There is a significant difference though, first unlike a CMV you only have four wheels, lateral stability can be compromised. The other is that a passenger car or light truck (which is the types of tires we are using on our rigs) tire isn't designed to have a retread. In the collision reconstruction industry we call these types of tire failures "delams" and also refer to them as "products cases" in that it is a product failure not a driver error that resulted in our investigation. It is important to note that when people like me get involved for a collision reconstruction either some person or persons died in the collision or experienced significant life altering injuries (think of something bad and I'm talking about something worse).
As you read this you think "but Dave, I've never heard about this before" and you would be right. Nearly all products cases, which are civil suits, are settled prior to a trial and the cases sealed. You wouldn't hear or read about them unless you worked in litigation or collision reconstruction, even "tire guys" that work at tire shops, company reps and others of a similar position often have no idea any of this occurs.
So what happens in a tire delam? You loose the ability to maintain lateral control of the vehicle. Depending on the vehicle design that often means a hard yaw, followed by a significant counter steering input and then another yaw in the other direction before the vehicle reaches a tripping point and experiences a rolling event. To put it plainly your vehicle swings towards the failed tire, then away and then you start cartwheeling down the freeway. Quite often the tires that are the most effected are the budget tires, but even the popular "good" tires from the big name brands have experienced issues. Many of those can be partly contributed to tire age. You may be thinking "but Dave, I've never heard of a manufacturing putting an expiration date on a tire before" and you would again be right. Not yet you haven't, I expect to see it in the next five to ten years (yes change takes that long). No manufacture wants to be the first because people won't understand why and will simply assume that it has to do with corporate greed, not from the results of hundreds and hundreds of deaths.
How to do you avoid this?
1. Buy name brand tires
2. Buy mid-range or better grade tires in the brand
3. Do not run tires that are more than 3-5 years old from manufacture date (look at the DOT stamp on the sidewall)
Even then you might still have a failure. When it comes to a delam often the effected tire won't show any signs of failure until it happens. No bubbles, buldges, odd vibrations, just you driving down the road and then you're off on the ride of your life.
I can't stress the following enough: every major manufacture has had a tire manufacturing defect issue. With overlanding rigs having a higher CG, especially with gear loaded on the roof, the propensity of the vehicle to experience a rolling event is higher.
Here is one test video that is using a professional driver who is expecting the delam and knows exactly which tire it would occur at. Please note that the tire casing retains air pressure:
Here is another video with a tire delam test. Once again a prepared professional driver:
