blammo

I was really pushing my luck driving on tires that have 56,000 miles on them, that being the original General Tires outfitted on my '05 GMC Canyon.

My luck ran out today.

I nailed a curb the wrong way performing a u-turn and blew the sidewall. Blammo.

Had to call AAA, they arrived within 20 minutes and put on the spare. It was the first time I used AAA and they did a good job.

I took the blowout as a sign all the rubber needed to be changed out because they were definitely due. The most I've ever driven on a single set of rubber is 60,000 miles and I was really close to that mark at 56,000, so I headed to Goodyear and strapped on four new tires.

Now I have these:

These are standard "Enterprise" radial tires, rated to go 70,000 miles according to Goodyear. Cost was $374.21 including tax and disposal. I get free rotations for the life of the tire, and if anything happens to them within 70,000 miles from now they get replaced.

Note to any tire shoppers that may read this: The Enterprise tire is not fancy. It's not the quietest or the best-riding or any of that, but it can pack on the miles in abundance.

I normally buy tires from Tire Rack and then strap them on at a local place, but due to the blowout I couldn't use that option this time 'round.

If I can get 60,000 out of these I'll be happy.