Has anyone had issues with the General Grabbers blowing out? I had one blow out on me two days ago while going down the highway at about 75 mph. This is on a 2003 XE V6 4x4 and the tire blew with only 4800 miles on the odometer. It split right at the molding line that runs around the outside of the sidewall just inside the tread in three diferent places. I'm wondering if it's just my bad luck or if anyone else has had this happen. I'm heading back to nissan tomorrow to talk to them, just want to see what everyone else has to say.

Justin

you'll find alot of small complaints about the grabbers, such as traction/offorad...but nothing like you've mentioned.
how did you handle it? did you swerve, etc? hope no one was hurt. a blow out like you mentioned at 75 mph could've ended up alot worse.

Sounds like the tire was low on air pressure and the sidewall was pinching itself. It tends to wear on itself and wears though the sidewall. I have seen this many times. Look for a nail or something in the tread.
Dan

Get them to install some Bridgestone Revo's or BFG A/T...and maybe pay the difference of whatever you get and the "Crappers"...It's worth a try...

Naw - that only happens to Ford drivers who don't know what the hell they are doing.

When I had my 2wd with Grabbers, I lost a swatch about 3 inches wide and over a foot long out of the middle of the tread, exposing the steel belting. I had been off-road and my tires had spun some, but everyone I showed it to agreed that it was tread failure and not off-road damage. I'm glad I noticed it while I was airing up, otherwise I might have had a similar experience on the highway.

Grabbers are crap.

First thing I told the saleswoman when I bought my new Xterra was that if I didn't get new BFG Long Trails off of one of the SEs on the lot, I would walk. It's a minor thing, but it was that important to me.

We went back and forth, they kept trying to tell me that Grabbers were fine, that Nissan wouldn't use them unless they were okay, yada yada yada . . .

So, I finally got my Long Trails in the end. Only had the Grabbers for about 4 days, but I hated 'em.

I had a 31X10.5 grabber AT blow out at 75mph on I78. It was not fun at all. The truck tracked straight while the tire flopped around ripping off my corner rear bumper piece, putting 2 dents in the quarter panel the size of my fist. and ripped the wheel well molding off as well.
The tread seperated from the tire most likely due to dry rot or cracking.
It scared the crap out of us but the truck handled fine, we were able to get off at the next exit and drive into a parking lot to change the tire with the spare.
I have some pix of the tire and my quarter panel I can post later if anyone is interested.
L8r

Yes Grabbers are crap but no tire should blow out like that when it's still that new.

When the tire blew i just let off the gas and let it coast. I was impressed with how flat it layed down and how straight it did track. The part about the low pressure is possible, but i was on a road trip so i was watching the pressures closely, as in checking every morning. I'll still go out and look for something, but i doubt i'll find anything. It blew just outside Albuquerque so i stopped at the nissan dealer there, another on the way back to st. louis, and then the one i bought the X at in st. louis.

I went to nissan, nissan said it was grabber's problem, grabber said it was nissans problem and that to replace it they wanted 50% on the tire price. I pulled out my owners manual and under warranty it said Nissan would be good on the tires for 12 months or 3/32nds for blow out and such so long as it was not the result of a puncture. I presented this to the nissan dealer and they referred me to nissan of america where i now have a case worker and a case number :rolleyes: .

something tells me they're real gun shy about admitting the tire was bad because of the whole firestone and ford thing, they think i'll sue or something. All i want is a frickin' tire I'm going to get my free tire out of this and then i'm going for a set of BFG A/T T/A KO's. Anyone looking for 5 grabbers with less than 7k for super cheap? didn't think so. . . (but if you are )

Justin

This makes me wonder if the Explorers rolling over is the fault of the Bridgestone tires or the Ford Explorer. Apparently we have two blowouts here and they all say that the truck handled okay. The X even looks like that it has a higher center of gravity. Guess the Ford's suspension is crap (have you seen them sag with the slightest load?) But then again, we know our vehicles a lot better than soccer moms (and the richer ones are now switching to H2, atleast up here in Vancouver, half of them are mid-aged women. I hope they break a tie rod and slid into a ditch)

Explorers rolling over was the fault of the people driving them, not the vehicle or the tire.

Ford were pussies for settling with those soccer moms and dads who shouldn't have been behind the wheel of a vehicle to begin with.

with the recent stories and videos we've seen, that's starting to look like a fairly accurate prediction. i just pray neither i nor anyone i know is in the way of those h2s when shit hits the fan.

and back on topic, so what happened when you went to the dealer?

the explorers rolling over definately was the fault of the drivers. motor trend did a test with the same tires and something to make a tire lose all pressure suddenly and the explorers tracked straight if the sttering wheel was held straight. the tires were not up to spec though.

That makes me thing again about the tyres on my truck. Althou I have gone stretches of highway at 90mph Nothing blew and Everything felt stable and safe. One more argumet to replace the crappers.

Well Nissan keeps giving me the run around and this whole thing is going no where fast, they keep calling at times like 2 in he afternoon or 10 in the morning, times when everyone's at work. Then at 5 i call them back and it's "oh, well, let me look up your case number, oh, no progress has been made, please call back later."

I've also noticed bulges in the sidewall of two of the other tires on my X, they're 180* out on one tire and 90* out on the other. They're not so much bulges as they are dips that go from the molding line just below the tread down to the lip of the wheel. Anything to be concerned about?

As for the whole Explorer thing, here goes:

The story with firestone and ford is that there really was nothing wrong with the tires or the explorer (in a blow-out situation), it was a cost saving decision by ford execs that made it all happen, and then the idiot drivers that didn't stop it. When the new body style explorer was getting ready to come out a roll-over test was done and they were found to be too prone to roll-over. An engineer at ford calculated that if the explorer sat just over 1/2" lower and/or had a bigger tire foot print, that would make the explorer stable enough to pass. the engineer called for a suspension change to drop the explorer, or wider tires (and hence rims) but they were ready to hit show rooms at this point. Someone else came up with the great idea of reducing the recommended tire pressure just enough to drop the explorer 1/2" when unloaded and widen the foot print, in turn making it more stable. the problem here was that the tire was now inflated below firestone's recommended minimum pressure. The under inflated tires caused the tread to be over stressed, especially in turns and at high speeds. That's why the tread started seperating and the tires started failing.

I'll try to find the source again, but after the settlement all of this was disclosed by ford in an "oh by the way" type memo.

Justin