general problems of the 1999 Ford E-250

I own a Ford 1999 e250 van that has been customized by the sportsmobile company into an RV. It came with four firestone steeltex radial r4s lt225/75r16 m/s tires. As I was driving in the left lane of I-505s (just n of exit for allendale rd), the tread on my left rear tire separated. I was able to safely pull onto the right shoulder. I drove (at reduced speed on the damaged tire) to the midway rd RV park at the next exit. There I mounted the spare. The tires had 22k miles on them and had been maintained properly.

My wife and I planned to take two of our grandchildren to the north carolina zoological society in asheboro, n. C. . On the morning of July 7 we headed south from central virginia on route 29. We reached lynchburg within an hour and noticed that the ride was getting rougher. We pulled over to the side of the road to check the vehicle. I visually inspected the undercarriage, the suspension system and the wheels and did not see anything out of the ordinary. We were concerned about continuing our trip and decided to turn back and head home again. I drove 35 mph with the emergency blinkers on until we reached a gas station near the intersection of route 29 and 60. The vibration had turned into a steady thumping as I had proceeded to this point. I visually inspected the vehicle again and noticed a tear along the inside side wall of the passenger rear wheel. On closer inspection I noticed that the tear was along the edge of the tread and could be pulled away from the tire. We decided to call aaa and have them change out the tire for us. After arriving home from our attempted trip we decided to replace all four tires with goodyear tires for a total cost of $529. 33. The attendant (mackenzie horn) at the goodyear service center, jenkins automotive, 1564 seminole trail, charlottesville, va 22901 (434) 974-6680 confirmed our belief that the tire was indeed defective.