yall just dont know the size of the grin i have on my face tonight. i have fought this issue till i was blue in the face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
some of you who know me well have heard me talk about this during tire conversations... how the current NHTSA tire standards are so outdated, they are a joke! written in 1968..and still standing..before radialization of tires even began...any radial can pass the standards, written on old bias ply tire technology..
Part of the Federal Tire Program i manaaged for 13 years required a 20k mile casing durability/treadwear test... yall wont believe how many brand name major manufacture's tires failed this test.. yet........ they met nhtsa standards! i met with nhtsa.. we argued, we yelled, i got kicked outta one meeting.. i could go on and on..........
welp.. nhtsa has updated the standards finaly..and put them out for comment. the tire industry got a hold of them too... they are yelling..cause it could cost upwards to 282 million bucks for them to gear up to testing to compliance to the new standards! which cover tires for vehicle 10k gvw and lower. and guess what.. prelim investigation lead nhtsa to make this statement.. a statement i have made to them since 1987: "ONE THIRD OF PASSENGER AND LIGHT TRUCK TIRES WOULD FAIL THIS TEST".........
no chit d00000000000000ds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and im willing to be its higher than that!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i know jeff y and jimbo have heard me yelling about this.. i am just so happy..i began to think i should give up the fight totally..and say the heck with it.. go on to retirement..and continue to worry about unsafe tires. my testing would have caught the firestone tire... like it had many others in the past, but uncle had "a better idea"..let folks buy tires off the shelf..dont "qualifty them to a higher standard than the adequate nhtsa standard, so they cancelled it...it was so sucessfull that 49 of the 50 states used my qpl..along with hundreds of municiple and county governments.. they only bought tire that were listed on it.. and it saved money..and lives.
(non of this is "patting myself on the back"..please dont take it that way..im sharing a career hightlight with yall... this has been a giant thorn in my craw)
now.. want to hear the bonus!!! (this is just unreal)!!!! remember the post i made last week about retreads...no standards except for passenger retreads.. welp... NHTSA is proposing to test retread medium and heavy truck tires against the new tires using the current standard, cfr 571 standard 119! (it needs updating too..but not as bad as the other stuff) the retreaders are up in arms.. claiming they cant afford the cost of testing and that the govt is trying to put them outta bussiness... right! they make such a contribution to the country........yada yada.. well...granted they do.. but that does not give them the right to build unsafe truck tires..that kill people..that leave alligators on the road for folks to run over,damage thier cars...etc... new tires are out there too.. but thats a diff problem..underinflation and lack of maint by the owner operators of the big rigs...
Comment date cut off on NHTSA's proposal is May 6. its been put on thier site in its entirety for the public to view..and comment. you can bet ol kerm is gonna be on the keyboard for a while the next few days.. as will a few other feds i know of...my old bosses! SES'ers (senior executive service)... they believed me.. they saw my results.........
what it boils down to is this new testing will insure adequate reserve load carrying capacity in tires on passenger cars and light trucks... which says "if you run underflated..you might just make it"... i.e. "firestone issue".. "soccer moms mini van with the tires checked once a year"...yada yada...
based on 223 million replacement tires, and 64 million O.E. tires...that 282 million cost to industry works out to be 4.09 a vehicle.. or..7.2 million per life saved..........
I'm on and in this like a shyster at a murder case!!!
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
kenC
Ralph 
[ 20 March 2002: Message edited by: HM Murdock ]
No one will ever know how many lives and loved ones you may have saved.
Great job! Keep up the "pressure".
Does this mean anything for performance tires such as Nittos? Does this mean they won't be able to sell these for street use? I mean, they won't even last 20k miles anyway, but I sure want to be able to buy them!
Matt
Does this mean I can't put re-treads on the SS?
I wonder how many deaths & injuries could have been avoided if this action was taken sooner. You gotta luv bureaucracy - not!
