Re: Kenya

Posted by SIMON ARMS on Sep 08, 2014; 11:40pm
URL: http://sundownersadventures.385.s1.nabble.com/Kenya-tp5706989p5706991.html

Yes Mike, I agree with your sentiment completely. I have said it many times that we were very fortunate in Sundowners/Capricorn and I know its a record that Ron is very proud of. I know for a fact that we did take great care in the preparation of coaches proir to departure but accidents do happen.
This truck had a front right tyre blow out which is a bit unusual in modern times. There is talk that they ran over something on the road which caused the tyre to blow. Did it blow out, it did look a bit like it may have been running flat or near flat for sometime? I had a front right tyre blow out on the Hume Freeway ( a lot different to Kenya I admit) at 110km/hr in a Toyota Troop Carrier and I managed to control it to a stop and the tyre had a big hole in the side wall but what I saw on TV was a total delamination of the tread from the case all the way around and I would not be jumping to conclusions.

In Capricorn we used TOYO Tyres and "cleanskins" all the way around. In around two and a half years and eight overlands the Titanic never had any tyre issues.

In the early days of Deluxe we ran retreads on the drive and tag axles and some of these tyres had been retreaded several times and needless to say we had lots of trouble with them particuarly in WA in the summer. The problem got greater when the tread came partly off and took out the airbag suspension, we carried new airbags on every coach but you had to know how to put them on and it was a potential danger zone for the inexperienced.

Often tyre condition often does depend upon cost and the importance placed on safety but only a fool has anything but the best tyre available on the front.