[njsteve]

Looks like my dog is a jinx. Part 1

Two weeks ago I took our Jack Russell out to a cruise night in Grampa's Lincoln. We got 3/4 of a mile from the house when the left rear tire disemboweled itself.

I heard a thump and then something sounding like a football thrown into a blender. Luckily we were only going 20 mph when it happened so I stopped within a few yards. No real damage since the tires are so skinny and fully contained inside the skirts. I backed up into a neighbors driveway and noticed the sound would disappear when in reverse. So I got a brainstorm: it seems that when you back up, the delaminated section would roll back up onto the tire carcass like when you pull the toilet paper roll too hard and have to re roll it by spinning it backwards.

I then spent the next 45 minutes backing up in the opposite lane (with the direction of traffic) on the side street by my house. That worked out to 1 mile per hour since I was 3/4 of a mile away and it took 3/4 of an hour. (Feel free to chime in if my math is wrong). The dog just loved it. He was wagging his tail the entire time standing on the seat. I, on the other hand pulled a lower back and neck muscle from being twisted around looking out the back window for 45 minutes.

We got home and I pulled all the old tires off. Luckily I had a set of unused Goodyear Eagle ST 225/70x15 sitting in the garage and mounted them on the car blackwall side out. They were close enough to the factory 225/75x15 Michelin radial tire option that came on the car originally. I did check with Tamra at MK Insurance and she did some research: but the collector car policy specifically excludes tire road hazards from the policy.