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While driving on the highway in his Ford Bronco Sport Badlands, owner JF suddenly struck road debris that jolted him in his seat. The impact was harder than any he had experienced before on a paved road. The tire pressure monitoring system immediately lit up a warning icon, and the car was clearly damaged badly. JF pulled over to inspect the damage.
What JF found was that two of his wheels had badly damaged rims. Not the tires, those didn’t fail by all appearances. Incredibly, the Pirelli tires handled this situation better than the rims did. Here is exactly what JF says about this wheel failure:
So…something happened yesterday! Frakked two rims. Hit some debris on the road. The impressive thing is that the Pirellis that came with the Bronco Sport did not blow up or tear up…the rims are what failed!
We’ve checked in with JF who gave us permission to tell is story and to use his images. As you can see, two of the wheels failed completely on this Ford Bronco Sport. Please don’t assume we think it is the fault of the Ford brand or of the model. At some point, something has to give when an impact happens. Here is what some other Bronco Sport owners said about the post JF made.
- LC – I would be checking four-wheel alignment and control arm damage. That is a nasty hit.
- NC – Wow, haven’t seen a rim fail like that.
- SD – That’s the problem with high offset wheels. One of them on my full-size Bronco Wildtrak had the entire inside half of the wheel break off, leaving just the face.
JF was unharmed, and the Bronco Sport took the hit like a champ, other than the wheels. They need to be replaced. Jerry also got new tires, since doing otherwise may have been unsafe. The Pirelli Scorpion ATR tires seemed to handle the debris strike remarkably well.
Interestingly, Pirelli advertises the Scorpion ATR with an emphasis on safety. Here is what Pirelli says about this tire on its site:
The Scorpion ATR is a versatile tire that delivers exceptional performance both on and off the road, with a focus on SAFETY. It features a specialized tread design that provides reliable traction and wear resistance, as well as a self-cleaning pattern that is ideal for off-road driving and resisting hard shocks on uneven surfaces. On the road, this tire offers excellent Safety…
We capitalized safety to highlight its use in the overview. Clearly, Pirelli is being truthful in its advertising here. We would never have expected any tire to take a hit that severe and come out less than fully shredded.
What do you think about this?
Are you surprised that the Pirelli tires did so well? Have you ever seen two wheels fail in such a fashion? Tell us in the comments below.
John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John’s by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.
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Source: torquenews.com
