See What Happens When an Overinflated Tire Gets Squashed by a Hydraulic Press

To the frustration of tire manufacturers, people tend to forget that a small piece of rubber is all that connects their expensive vehicle with the actual road surface. That means not enough attention is shown to choosing the right tire or taking care of them.

Having the correct tire pressure can make a very important difference. For instance, under-inflate them and not only are you exposing your wheels to severe damage in case you run into a pothole at speed, but you're also likely to burn a lot more fuel than you need to.

Overinflation is just as dangerous as well. Too much air and your tire is ready to burst at any time. Hit something that causes the gas inside to rush to one side, and if it can find the tiniest weakness in the tire's structure, it's likely to blow. If that happens at a high enough speed, I guess we can all imagine the possible outcome.

Putting an overinflated tire under a hydraulic press isn't going to simulate anything that can happen in the real world, but it makes for a very entertaining video nonetheless. Like us, the press operator and the owner of the "Hydraulic Press Channel" on YouTube thought the tire - inflated to twice the recommended pressure - would blow up almost instantly.

However, the result is surprising as it is encouraging, showing it takes much more abuse for the tire to give in. Should we relax knowing that and carry on with our care-free attitude toward tires? Of course not, but it does show why we don't see a lot more accidents caused by wrongly-inflated tires more often.

P.S.
The Hydraulic Press Channel now has a PO box where anybody can send stuff to get smashed by the almighty press. If you have a fetish seeing a certain thing get annihilated, then having it shipped to Finland should be a lot cheaper than buying a press or an elephant. Details in the video description.