Truck tire debris

[Superduper]

Just returned from 4000 mile round trip and I was just thinking the same thing about all the tire debris although getting shotpeened by pebbles slingshot from tractor-trailers is a bigger concern for me. Over the years, I've replaced countless cracked windshields directly attributable to that situation. My "new" truck now has several paint chips and a bullseye in the windshield from this one trip. Worse thing is there is no recourse.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I hit one of those HUGE chunks once. I was between cars and never had the opportunity to avoid it by moving left or or right, and speed didn't allow me to slow or stop. I hit it and hit it HARD. I was in a good size pickup, so it rolled under my trucj, but when it shot out, it shot straight up in the air heading for the guy behind me. Luckily he had room to swing out of the way and didn't end up with 100 pound of rubber in his wind shield.

The only other scare was a full size ladder in the road. I was able to straddle it perfectly, not so lucky for the guy behind me that time.

 

[Stimw]

Since the price of fuel has more than doubbled in the last 3 1/2 years truckers are having to decide between fuel or tires.
How would you like to be buying 100-200 gallons of diesel a day to keep your tractor-trailer on the road!

 

[JDgreen227]

Since the price of fuel has more than doubbled in the last 3 1/2 years truckers are having to decide between fuel or tires.
How would you like to be buying 100-200 gallons of diesel a day to keep your tractor-trailer on the road!

NO THANKS !!! My Deere goes thru 65 gallons of diesel a year, and I might buy 120 gallons of gasoline for both car and truck per year. The idea of having to pay for 200 gallons of fuel per day.....

 

[FredH]

Properly inflated tires " WILL NOT " explode apart , the majority of the time . There are occasions of trauma to the tire from curbing , pot hole damage or other debris that may lead to a failure , but again a properly inflated tire will not fail , at least I have never had one nor did my Dad nor has his neighbor . My Dad drove for 40+ years , Roy , his neighbor drove for 30+ years , and I have been driving for 14+ years . I have ran Toyo's on my drives for 11+ years without any failure of that type . I Have had to replace tires before life expectancy was reached , those were all do to road debris causing sidewall puncture . Have only had one trailer tire failure of that type and that was known it was likely to happen as trailer had been in accident and was moving to a safer location when tire let go . Talk to any tire company , UNDER INFLATION is a tire's worse enemy . Heat builds up and Bang !! . As far as the amount of " Gators " on the road , States are cutting back every were and picking up litter , trash is a easy cut to make .

Fred H

 

[sandman2234]

How many truck driving schools turning out zillions of new drivers actually teach tire inflation? I have been out there32 years and it is a new breed of drivers. The schools are too busy teaching the minimum standards then to mess with stuff a student should know in order to make a living.
David from Jax

 

[schmism]

Properly inflated tires " WILL NOT " explode apart , the majority of the time .

Had a properly inflated tire on the back of my van toss all the tread off and create a highway gator last year. I convoy with the local jeep club on outings. On one trip (of about 10 of us, half pulling trailers with jeeps on them) 2 different trailers tossed treads creating gators. All tires properly inflated because we made a big deal of going around and checking all the tire pressures in the convoy before we started.

Im willing to bet that a majority of the tires that "explode" creating highway gators, were properly inflated at time of failure.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Biggest issue I have seen is age. Proper inflation is also a factor buy I will not tow a trailer with tires 6 years old it older. It ends up bad and cost me time which equals money.

Chris

 

[284 International]

Every tire I have ever had fail on a passenger vehicle or trailer has been correctly inflated. I had a complete de-capping on my pickup last spring. I had checked all the tires when I fueled up, and 5 minutes later it failed catastrophically, the rubber tread tore up the fender and liner at 70 mph on the freeway. The tire body stayed inflated, though, and was still at 30 PSI!

I lost a trailer tire in January the same way, but it completely shredded the tire, and exploded in a single bang. It was truly a "blowout," but the tire tread decapped half a revolution before. I had checked the tires before leaving that morning, and was under 10 miles down the road when it let go.

Roads in these parts are basically never cleaned up, and there are pieces of tire constantly visible. It is easy to have several chunks in sight while driving, at any point on the highway. It is particularly frustrating since fuel prices and taxes here for road maintenance are higher than anywhere else, and roads are far worse.

I have largely quit riding my motorcycle at night after missing a lobbed chunk of tire tread that became invisible in the dark.

 

[JESSE1]

I lost the tread off of an LT235/85R16 and blew one out while I was hauling hay. The tires looked brand-new but were about 6 years old.