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PUBLISHED: February 8, 1993 at 1:00 AM CST | UPDATED: August 9, 2021 at 11:01 PM CDT
The world’s biggest rubber plantation, owned by the U.S. company Bridgestone-Firestone Inc., is engulfed in an unchecked fire evidently set by retreating rebels, witnesses said Monday. Civilians who fled said the fire has destroyed dozens of homes as well as the company’s headquarters at the center of the rubber-tree plantation, 35 miles northeast of Monrovia. They said there were no efforts to put out the blaze. The Nigerian-led West African intervention force, which forced rebels led by Charles Taylor from the plantation, had no comment. The plantation is owned by Akron, Ohio-based Bridgestone-Firestone Inc., a subsidiary of the Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone.
It covers 70,000 acres and has more than 8 million rubber trees. The fire began Friday and spread to the rubber trees by Sunday.
This will be along one! Get ready for some history....
This is when synthetics were introduced into the supply of everything, tires, belts, etc. At least in a serious undertaking.
Not much at first, because the science was not developed on how to use enough of it to have a meaningful impact on supply. Prior, it was a component to modify properties. Now, it would be implemented as a substitute. Neoprene and EPDM had been around for 30-50 years before this fire. But they were not utilized in the capacity that would soon follow this tragic loss to all of society.
Like most things plastic, science has improved the materials and their properties and application immensely in the last 40 years. It would take roughly ten years before there would be approval to make synthetics a major component of tires. This is also about when DOT changed requirements for date codes on tires. Also, the "expiration date" laws came into effect. If people are not aware, tires are good for 5 years, and are then to be replaced. Sounds silly if you have lived through a few decades of tires in you lifetime, but truth be told if you park a vehicle with brand new tires on it from 2020 and went out to look at them today they would likely have big dry rot cracks in them.
Side note, and I have no evidence because they would never release it in a million years, but I have long speculated that the late 90's rash of firestone blowouts and subsequent lawsuits were a direct result of firestone doing early formulas in response to this fire. There is no way the industry could admit the new wave of fake rubber tires were exploding, or they would really be up a creak then....
For all the modern google searches touting how great synthetics are, it is done because the manufacturers know that real rubber products would cost a fortune to produce and th price point would be too high for most consumers.
in the ag industry, you can get real rubber inner tubes for large ag tires yet. They are rarely used, the application is to put them inside a radial type ag lug tractor tire usually as this is the only application where a new tire costs more than the tube. As a personal example, my 1966 Moline tractor that has been in the family since new got a new set of rears for the first time since the 1970's a couple years back. The radial tires I put on were $750/each. I put a "HD" tube in them because the rims are mediocre and I did not trust them with weight fluid and no tube. They reccomend a real rubber tube for radials as the flexing and abrasion is higher with the extra sidewall flex. The HD tube I put in was 90 bucks. A real rubber tube was 450. My tractor doesn;t do much work, just snow duty and some random yard work, so i wasn;t too worried about a tube lifespan, but that should put into perspective for people the difference in cost from synthetic blend to real rubber. Also note, the real rubber was superior in lifespan and abrasion resistance.
I 100% disagree with modern claims synthetic rubber has improved belts and tires. At first they were put into the blend in small amounts to increase treadware or lifespan. These were OK, and generally the loss of ride quality was easily made up for in actual lifespan. In my youth, you could buy 70,000 mile warranty tires that had good tread patterns and actually rode nice, and did not have a 5 year lifespan. As things changed, this became impossible to replicate. High treadware tires do not ride as good as the old ones, and nice riding tires do not have a tread warranty anymore. Especially truck tires.
Case in point: my 1990 Ramcharger. It came to me wearing "new" 1995 Wranglers on factory rims. The original owner had upgraded to 31.5x10.5 from the factory 235/75. Those tires were 25 years old at the time and had zero rot and no cracking. I bought a set of chrome rims and put brand new BFG TKO's on last spring. The 1995 real rubber goodyears ride smooth and quiet and outperform the brand spankin new BFG tires in both areas easily. I put two of the wranglers on my dakota and got an immediate reduction in noise and harshness in the ride. Smoothed the back end right out. 30 year old real rubber tires were quieter and ride nicer then 3 year old less than half worn out coopers that were on there(one cooper failed from hitting something so I ditched the pair)
To manufacture that 30 year old wrangler now? yeah it wouldn't be $250/tire like the BFG nowdays, it would be $600. Who would buy it in our walmart world? So we get to live with expiration dated chinese trash/recycled content epdm rock hard, noisy, harsh riding tires.
The factory spare goodyear was in the trunk of my 1978 Monaco police. It remains soft and no rot to this day as it has been out of the sun. Raise your hand if you think a single 2025 tire would be that way in ten years, much less 50...... real rubber was a blessing, and no amount of spin will make epdm a quality replacement.
