Bi-Polar Raptor

[RaptorVA]

BEN, not yet since the weather has been pretty terrible here for the last week. I dont want to put my old worn out tires on and then slip slide away. I have not gotten as far as I would like but I got my rebuilt shocks on. Baby steps I know. Just trying to get info as I wait for the weather to clear

 

[B E N]

Baby steps are good. When you go through one part at a time and solve the problem you know exactly what was wrong.

 

[RaptorVA]

Well, this picture kind of changes my path on what I will be doing next...I was driving to work the day before yesterday in fog and fairly heavy traffic. I hit something that I didn't even see in the road and my drivers side front tire immediately went flat. I pulled over to the shoulder on an almost blind curve since I had no choice and got off as far to the right as I dared before going into a 3 foot ditch. Since I wasn't far from home and I have never had the spare off and knew that I wasn't getting it out from under the bed very easily, I called my wife to come and get me. Did I mention it was 34 degrees out and the roads were a little wet and traffic was getting heavy? Hazards on and wife pulls up and we head home. I grabbed the best of my four OEM wheels/tires and the floor jack and headed back to the truck. My ass was about 6 inches from the white line for the shoulder and like a NASCAR pit crew I got to work swapping the flatted tire. There is absolutely no damage to the tire which I found extremely strange. I put the tire up in my wife's QX56 with the inner wheel exposed and saw the damage! WTF did I run over that punctured my rim so perfectly? Almost looks like a 5.56 projectile went through it! Nothing rolling around inside the tire at all. No other damage to anything else on the truck. Lucky that the rim didn't explode after that. Needless to say I will be putting all four of the OEM's back on when I get new tires. I have been driving legally since I was 15, so 42 years of driving and I have never seen anything like this. Comments on the carnage and speculations on the "planet alignment" that caused this are solicited and appreciated.

 

[B E N]

I initially assumed it was a due to hitting something hard with the tire and a casting flaw breaking out of the rim, but I changed my mind. I speculate you hit something hard and pointy that was in motion. My speculation comes from the gouge right behind the hole in the rim. Possible someone else kicked something up at you, or something came off another vehicle/out of a truck bed. Also possible whatever you hit caught and the tire and kicked it up. Think of a rod getting jammed between the spinning wheel and the road surface while the truck was in motion, this is the damage I would expect.

 

[RaptorVA]

Cross posting this from General to close this thread out:
Ok folks I am back on the stock wheels and also had my stock shocks rebuilt as well. I decided to go with Yokohama Geolander X-AT tires in 35/12.5/17. So far in my 10 miles of driving today I like them. They have a similar tread design as the Ridge Grapplers that I have on my 20" street wheels. I always re-torque the lugs when I get back home and I am always disappointed in shops and how inconsistent they are with torqueing the lug nuts and also airing up the tires. All over the place but all is good now. I am adding pics of the tires in case folks want to get a look at them. Thanks to everyone for the comments and advice!