I got a set of 185/65/14 General Altimax Arctic snow tires about three years ago.

When I had them mounted last Winter, one of the tires got a bubble in it because there was a tear in the bead of the tire and the metal belt was showing. I bought a new tire and all was well again. Two of the tires were cupped badly because my car was out of alignment so this Winter, I bought two new tires. I had them on for about three weeks and I noticed that one of them bubbled. Part of the bead on this tire was ripped badly in two places and the belt was showing through in one of those places.


I haven't hit any curbs nor have I hit any big booming potholes, although the roads in Maine are very rough. I do slow down as much as I can if I am forced to hit a bad spot.

So my question is, what's going on? Is anyone else running these tires and have you had any problems?

 

I've never seen that happen.

Bad lot of tires?

Switch to a different brand?

 

Do they come with any warranty at all?
doesnt seem normal to be getting new tires that often..

 

maybe you bought old tyres? When it was prodaction?

 

Where did you get these tires mounted? Were they mounted by the same person? New tires don't come like that and if mounted properly, should never just rip a bead like that for no reason. I can only assume that whoever mounted the tires stretched them way too far or did something just off the wall stupid and tore the bead.

Rough roads wont cause a bead to rip like that unless the whole tire de-beads, you drive on it and hit something that would tear it. Trust me, I've seen a few de-beaded tires from Rally racing and a lot of people can just pop the tire back onto the rim.

Either that or those General brand tires are complete junk. I for one don't trust them lol. Bridgestone, Falken, Yokohama, & Kumho are all tires I've dealt with and never any issues.

 

These tires have been mounted/unmounted by two different tire places. The second (and current place) I've known and worked with the manager for the past five or six years. Whenever he's working on my car, I stand right out in the shop and watch what he's doing and because we've known each other for a while, he would own up to making a mistake.

The original tires bought from Shop A did come with a warranty, but then when the guy I knew became manager of Shop B, I took the tires to him to have them mounted last Winter. He noticed the bead in one of the tires was torn so obviously it was either like that when Shop A unmounted them or Shop A put the tear in them. I went back to Shop A looking for a free tire and ended up spending $82 for a new tire.

This time when the tire got a bubble, I got a new tire from Shop B mount, balanced and studded for free.