Tread Seperation?

[ntuhlekt]

So I have been hearing a strange noise coming from my passenger side rear tire, its really loud like a flapping flat tire almost. I hear it every revolution. Tire has plenty of air and hasnt lost any, so I was trying to inspect the tire for any faults to see why it was making this noise. The tire has a small plug in it but no way is it the culprit. Then I found this. (pic below) I've only had this bigboy since May so what I am thinking is these tires might have been retreads? My relative inexperience on the subject might be obvious.

With the noise it is making and after seeing this I am afraid I might lose my tread on the highway and have a blowout, so I thought its probably time to get a better quality tire.

Since May the only halfway major work I have had done is replacing the lower control arms.

I dont intend on lifting at all, I want a beefy/aggressive looking tire with stock suspension/lift.

I have been reading for hours on what others suggest and these seem to be the top choices aside from the Michelins that I dont care for too much.

Destination A/T
BFG All-Terrain T/A KO
Nitto Terra Grapplers

What is the largest tire size I can fit on the stock rims (17") with rub-free turns, etc. 285/70/17?

 

[walnuts4x4]

285s will fit... but I would also say look into the General tire Grabber AT2

http://www.generaltire.com/tires/Grabber-ATsup2-sup

 

[dougmcp]

The photo is not a retread tire but shows signs of running under inflated.
Rotate your tires and see if the noise goes away, if it does then it's the tire out of balance or out of round.

 

[ntuhlekt]

thanks guys for the info.

Yea recently I had my tires rotated during an oil change. Not soon after my steering wheel was vibrating and bouncing all over the place, I thought maybe when they rotated the tires one of the weights came off or something. So I took it in to get looked at and have the alignment checked. They gave me a printout of how the alignment was bad, etc and that the tires needed to be re-spin balanced. So I had that done, now about 2 weeks out I am hearing this crazy noise described above. Knowing that tire had a plug in it when I bought this was a little disturbing too.

I was wanting to get my tires replaced when I first got this but couldnt justify the need, I think this just gave me the push to go ahead and replace them. I am going to have them replaced today.

I have a appt setup to have BFG At T/a KO's put on today 285/70R17. I never seen those General before, they look nice.

 

[GAINMOB]

i've bought tires for the air force years ago for all types of vehicles and equipment...from my experience...you can normally see immediately if a tire is a retread...that doesnt look like it to me...looks like cracking of the tire that may or may not be an indicator of seperation...i bought many brands for chevy/ford/dodge for 1500's/expeditions/explorer's to graders/plows/sweepers...so take it for what its worth...

does the seperation line in the pic go all the way around or just that one spot?

 

[ntuhlekt]

yea it was just that one spot. but it was making the most ridiculous noise, i should have take a small video.

I went ahead and got those BFGs installed today. Impressed with the look and feel so far .. (i probably would be with any tire compared to the stock set.)

 

[GAINMOB]

couldve been that it was about to break off there and leave you with a chunk missing out of the tire...good catch