Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor Warning

Just a word to the wise, though it may be obvious to some...

Be careful off-roading on this tire if you didn't get the LT series. My P265/75/16 were great on road, in snow, rain, dirt, and on trails. Despite my issue I still think the traction from this tire is great, it rides quietly, and is probably perfect for a whole variety of situations. Just a bit over 10k on this set.

Hit a trail in CO that wasn't too extreme yesterday.. after I think about the number of stock vehicles I saw up there, and even an early 90's Subaru wagon and VW westfalia van.. makes me wonder if it was just bad luck, but I noticed this lovely gash in my sidewall the next afternoon (today)

Idunno if tire psi made any difference - maybe airing down would have prevented this, or made it worse? Not sure but glad it lasted at least. Had my wheels installed 2 weeks ago by local DT and checked tire pressure after noticing gash, 39-40psi on all 4. The slit tire doesn't seem to be leaking but it just looks too deep to trust. Maybe as a spare at most but if I pop a tire on the trail in the future and have to swap on an already gashed spare... probably not best solution.

 

40psi is a little high to begin with.

 

Yeah :| I always have believed in going by the card in the door. I should have checked before hitting the trail, but I also should have double checked when I left discount tire. They're just so damn professional (of the few I've visited) that I assumed it was standard practice to go by what vehicle states. Hell, I sold tires for a while and preached that to everyone.

The tear looks deeper than it is in the picture, if I peel it open a little it's just a flap that's deeper at one end. I'm going to take a flash light out tomorrow and see what I can see in the deepest point. If it's not showing any cotton/wire/whatever junk then I may just rotate it to the rear and use some RTV silicone to keep wedge down. I really have no idea how thick the sidewall is on these tires and at what point I'm even nearing wires/ply/whatever.. Goodyear boasts the kevlar reinforced sidewall on these, and if it's not complete BS, maybe that makes this slice less of a threat than on other tires. Since they have <10k miles and well under a year of use, babied until yesterday's first REAL offroading adventure, I'd like to think they have a better chance than others in same boat.

I've been reading online all afternoon/night, pricing tires, pricing shaving a tire and getting a new rim - using this as spare.. blah. If you weed out all the people echoing "Any sidewall damage is unsafe and the tire should be replaced immediately", you'll find many with real world experience. If I don't see anything at the deepest point I'll consider it mostly cosmetic, use the room temp vulcanizing jazz, and keep on rear until I can afford a better set. I also suppose I won't be doing any wheeling for the rest of the summer / possibly year :|

Truck will sit for several days anyway as I do my work commute in beater, will thoroughly inspect for any sidewall bubbling (on all tires), other gashes on inside and outside of all sidewalls, and stick that flap back down. If it HAS lost any air by that point then I'm going to have to think more about the shaving vs financing yet another f'n set of tires.

 

The tire shop probably got confused about the P Metric version and inflated them to an appropriate setting for an LT tire. 38-42 psi is about right for an LT on a Tacoma. Dropping the pressure to 15-20psi greatly reduces the tendency for cuts and punctures, no way to know for sure if airing down would have prevented it, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. LT tires are noticeably more cut/puncture resistant - if you're going to do much off roading you should consider LT for your next set.

David