Beware of flying truck tires....

[rojodawg]

Saw this video online and thought it was a good reminder for all spyderlovers to take extra caution when encountering trucks. Thrown rubber, or entire tires in this case, can kill. Not sure there is much you can do when encountering trucks coming toward you in opposite lane, but when traveling in same direction, I avoid riding beside them, or even close behind, whenever possible. Would rather pass and keep them in my mirrors, or drop back and leave plenty of room if I can't get by them safely. (Yes, the date on the camera is wrong). Stay safe!


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=081_1374988366

[billrob71]

Holly crap that would be a bad day.

[happyspyder2039]

Holly crap that would be a bad day.its a good thing there wasn't a :spyder2: involved

[jerpinoy]

That would bring a real bad day.:banghead:

[Chupaca]

ever run over a road alligator (chunk of tire tread) they can reek havoc under a vehicle. Then you spit it out the back at some unsuspecting motorist. Wheels and their parts are dangerous. Check myth busters episode on this subject..!! :lecturef_smilie:

[Bob Denman]

:agree: :lecturef_smilie:ALWAYS stay away from the big rigs... They'll run those tires until there's nothing left of them... and then they'll run them a bit more! :yikes: The tires have to commit suicide like that to gain any relief! :gaah:
And anybody who is in the way, can pay the price! :shocked:

[Highwayman2013]

I drive an 18 wheeler and can tell you our tires on all positions except steering are recaps. The problem with them is usually low air pressure causing the tire to overheat and blow apart. Another factor is the age of the carcass, they try to use them too many times BOOM! One capping is enough. Sure wouldn't want those tires coming at me. I am not comfortable with any vehicles next to me on a 4 lane highway.

[Bob Denman]

Highwayman,
I really should clarify my point :opps:... I wasn't taking a shot at your profession; it's just the "Monster of economics", that makes you have to squeeze what you have for everything that it's worth.

[Topshotta]

I haven't seen a tire come off, but have seen the layer that is stuck over the original tire ( not sure what its called) fly off all over the place causing other drivers to sway all over the freeway.
scary fecal!

[Flanker]

I've always been paranoid on the road around larger trucks; and not just for fragmenting tires. Thrown stones (got one directly into my R eyebrow last year...............thank ICON for a quality face shield!), unsecured cargo falling off the back, and I once had half the tail gate on a 10 ton stake bed truck come loose, fall off and bounce around wildly on the freeway surface at the end of a large security chain (was able to get the drivers attention and motion him off onto the shoulder to check his truck out). And nowadays......................truck drivers are just a susceptible to distracted cell phone syndrome as any other vehicle driver. It's enough to make a Spyder rider want to stay home!

[PrairieSpyder]

That could have been deadly!

Once I was in my car on the interstate behind a pick-up carrying bales of hay (the small round ones a man can lift, not the huge ones they use now). He was in the left lane going slower than the traffic and I was impatient. One of those bales rolled off and landed right in front of me and up against the front of my car. Luckily the bump from the front of my car was enough to make it bounce off into the median and I sustained no damage. I don't follow farmers so close anymore now.

[Oldmanzues]

I try to keep my distance from anything with on/in it. We had lots of examples in our teen driving class. One was kitchen stove coming off the back of a flat bed trailer.
Then, I do screw up and assume ( I know what means). I was following a pick up boxes slightly high the side rails on the interstate. No problem, right. Then all of the boxes came flying up and back. I did not hit anything, but pulled over to check. a cop was (somewhere) behind us and stopped all traffic. Found out the boxes had wicker lawn furniture and air coming over the cab, just picked them. Never asume.
Oldmanzues

[bruiser]

Last week coming back from PA., the left front tire on rollback literally exploded. We were two lanes over from it. The remains of the tire hit a car that went skidding off behind us. The truck driver did a good job of controlling the truck which was now running on the rim and showering sparks all over the place. Fortunately there wasn't a large pile up as traffic was rediculous. It's not only trucks that will loose a tread. Any vehicle is subject to throwing a tire or a whole wheel just like in the video. Wonder who put those wheels on that trailer?

[3corvettes]

I had that very thing happen to me coming home from Colorado in July. We had 3 lanes of traffic, we were in the far left lane. A dump truck passed me in the right lane, then changed to my lane. There was a flat piece of retread lying in the in the middle of the lane. When he went over it, this caused a vacuum and the piece went air born. I had no time to swerve to miss it, and it hit the lower part of the front end! Luckily I had Spyder Pop's bump-skid on and that helped a lot.
Estimate to fix, with labor was $2500. Spyder has been in the shop for over 2 weeks, and I'm getting stir crazy!!

[Bob Ledford]

One afternoon I was South bound on I-295 Jacksonville FL when a Northbound delivery truck sailed a sheet of plywood off his load. It went really high and headed across the median towards me an my GW. I looked right at the car to my right and he must have read my mind as he headed right allowing me to go into his space just as the plywood exploded in my previously occupied space.

When we got past all that I gave him a thumbs up and a wave! That is as close as I ever got to filling my drawers on the spot.

[bikeguy]

WOW! You don't often see both duals come off a truck. That is a very scary scene. As someone else mentioned, I wonder who put the wheels on that truck. But you also got to wonder what the driver was thinking. I can't believe those wheels came off without some significant vibration or other warning. I live just off a fairly busy 2-lane highway and, over the years, I've seen or heard many tires blow out and/or lose tread rubber. One happened just yesterday about noon when a rear tire on a large motor home blew out right in front of our house. They got stopped about a quarter mile down the road and changed the tire while I raked the "gators" off the road. It literally sounds like an explosion when that happens and if you hear and see it just once, you will never want to ride alongside a truck again. Cotton

[cyclelover63]

This is a great REMINDER THREAD about safe riding.....When i was aboout 16 years old,my buddies and me were in a convertible 66 Mustang and a semi coming the other direction lost its spare tire from under the trailer..It bounced over our car and down a hill...We went back,got a pickup,rolled the tire up the hill and in our pick up...Sold it to a trucking outfit for $20.00..You never know where your next BEER money is going to come from!!

[dshogman]

Quite a few years ago, when I was Harley riding, I was heading cross country somewhere out there. Went by a 18 wheeler very rapidly as is my wont - looked in the mirror as I passed the cab and one of the trailer's axles had apparently broken off at the tire on the curb side. I watched in horror as the entire tire and axle came out from under the trailer and started cartwheeling back down the interstate - right where I was several seconds ago. As I watched, cars were going in every which direction to get off the road and out of the way of the cartwheeling axle and tire. I pulled over at the next exit and got off the bike shaking my legs in an effort to clean out my jeans................:opps:

[Daisyjoe]

My brother worked as an inspector for a large road construction company after he retired. The crew was working on I-95. The air flow from a semi pulled one of the orange construction barrels into the lanes of traffic. The first approaching vehicle happened to be a motorcycle and his wife was riding on another bike behind him. My brother and two other men quickly acted to divert traffic away from the fallen biker. Don't know if he lived or not. You just never know when something will happen when you are on the road.

[JJW SpyderRider]

I have seen this on I-90 in Chicago :yikes: Wheel bouncing across three lanes of on-coming traffic. It did end up hitting at least one car. :pray: I was on a bus as it went flying by but did not see how it all ended.

[Can-Am Poogs]

I drive truck on my days of sometimes for fun. Yes for fun. If you had my job, you would understand why I think driving a truck is fun. If you stop the video before it hits the windshield you can see the tire didn't come off the wheel, rather the wheel and tires came off the drum. That happens when you don't check your stud pilots, or if you don't have stud pilots you haven't physically checked each nut by hand. Not surprised. You wouldn't believe how many drivers just turn the key and drive and don't do the walk around they are taught to do.