Originally Posted By: 40w8
Belts are flexible since they are woven like fabric.
When tire hits something hard, one side of steel lets go inside, and belt rolls conical making tire want to turn easier in one direction.
Three main types of tread separation : Internal so hard to notice, exterior tread thrown off while still holding air, and the dreaded whole tire explosion.
Ah .... Mmmmm ...... Not exactly.
First, the steel belts are a series of parallel wires placed at about a 15° angle to the circumference. There are 2 - angle left, and angle right. So No! They are not woven like cloth.
While you can impact a tire hard enough to damage the belts, the usual way a separation takes place is because of an inadequacy in the design - typically not enough rubber between the edges of the 2 belts.
And while there are different types of separations in the belt area, by far the most common type occurs just under the edge of the top belt, which then grows into a bulge, then continues to grow until it detaches from the rest of the tire. While it may look different as the separation grows, its more a series of stages.
