BFG AT/KO and blown sidewall!!

[cifer]

Brand new BFG A/T KO and blown sidewall!!

Bought my BFG's at 4wheelparts in-store and installed them myself. I had them on for less than a week, and this weekend, while driving down to LA, I heard a thumping noise and vibration coming from my tires. I pulled over to the nearest gas station, and noticed my front drivers side tire was nearly flat. As I was filling it with air, the sidewall blew out. Luckily it blew on the inside, and not right in my face. I know that tons of people are running these same tires, but has anyone heard of this happening to BRAND NEW tires? I didn't purchase the tire warranty from 4wp, can I still return it for another, or are they going to make me buy another one? Maybe BFG has a manufacturers warranty or something?

My confidence level is really low after this incident, considering the outcome could have been much worse. Is it common for these types of things to happen, or was it just a freak occurence?

 

[DeRocha]

I've run them for 7+years (2 sets). The 1st set went 50K and I picked up new tires after I had a blow out on the highway (road debris). Click here for BFG's Warrantee. As indicated the are covered for any manufacturing defect.

 

[Bronco638]

Yeah, my brother-in-law is on his second set of BFGs on his 4Runner. He got close to 60K on his first set and swears by them. Sounds like you just got a bum tire from the factory. BFG should warranty it without any questions.

 

[james t]

A blowout on the sidewall like that will more than likely be either an open splice in the tire or foreign material built into the tire. Either way, they should warranty it.

 

[cifer]

Here is a pic of the tire:
www.geocities.com/cifer721/blownsidewall.jpg

 

[Josh S.]

damn dude, thats a big hole!! surprising it just happened on the freeway like that

 

[cifer]

returned the tire to 4wp, and they replaced it with a new one, under the manufacturer's warranty against defects. Kinda funny when I brought it in - when I showed the clerk the tire, he asked if I had bought their tire warranty. I said no, then he asked if I wanted to buy a new one. I was thinking, "Um, no.... give me a new tire." Apparently he wasn't aware of BFG's warranty info.

 

[Alec]

could be:
1) manufacturing defect
2) bad road damage
3) damage during mounting

You're lucky, as many places may not have warranteed it since you put it on yourself (unless you work at a tire shop).

Glad it's fixed!

 

[cifer]

Follow up: Got a letter in the mail today from BFG. They are recalling tires made with a dot number ending in either 1504 or 1604. Check out your's if you bought them this year. You may be in for a free set of tires!!! I guess I wasn't the only one who got a dud...

 

[jimcom]

Follow up: Got a letter in the mail today from BFG. They are recalling tires made with a dot number ending in either 1504 or 1604. Check out your's if you bought them this year. You may be in for a free set of tires!!! I guess I wasn't the only one who got a dud...

There's a sticky for this with a linky to the BFG site. Sorry to hear about your blowout, but I'm glad it wasn't worse, ya know.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121269&highlight=bfg+recall