Quote:
Originally Posted by RidingOnRailz
The "Ford/Firestone thing" had more to do with Ford specifying '60s-era pressures - 26PSI if I recall - for their then new Explorer utility, to counter vertical stability issues in that new platform. By 1990, a contemporary competitor, S10 Blazer, recommended 35psi cold at all four corners.
Running 26psi in any recent RAV4, Explorer, New Blazer, or Grand Cherokee, is almost begging for a blowout, even on just a long drive home from the dealer you picked it up from.
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I go into great detail about this here:
http://www.barrystiretech.com/fordfirestone.html
Bottomline: There was an identifiable cause for the tire failures - unique to the tires in question - AND - while the inflation pressure wasn't helping things, it was within the bounds of what was being done in the timeframe (where other vehicles and other tires did NOT have this problem)
So, No! The pressure specified by Ford was NOT the thing that caused the problem.
(Please note: The key to sorting this out is to look at the GAWR's and tire load carrying capacity at the pressure specified.)