what is it like to experience tire blowouts?

On drives and trailer tires, loud noise like you bumped a dock too hard followed by leaning like the wind is pushing you, not that bad.

Steers, heh, if you're going 65 or under you can probably keep it straight until you get off the road otherwise you're going for a ride.

Don't slam on the breaks, coast it down and slowly start heading for the shoulder. go easy on steering nd breaks like you're on snow and ice and you'll be fine .

 

I'll bet this gets easier:

 

When you hear a loud gun shot type noise, check your mirrors. More than likely you will see a big gator (tire tread) or chunks of tire all over the place. I would ease it to a safe place off the road, or if there s a tire shop lets say 10 or 15 miles away, I d ease it there and get it replaced versus waiting hours for a tire shop to come out

 

Then again you may here the loud pop and see nothing. But when you check your tire, the sidewall may have blown out

 

You usually don't even hardly feel a trailer blowout, you can usually hear it pretty well.

You can feel drive blowout a lot more but it's still pretty uneventful, other than the loud boom scarring you.

I've had one steer blowout and even though it was a pretty rough ride, it was nowhere near as bad as the horror stories you hear. I just eased over on the shoulder. It did pull to that side but it wasn't more than I could hold.

I'd much rather be sitting in the driver's seat of the truck when it happens than be in a small car along the side.

 

Sometimes your tire will go off with the force of a hand grenade, enough to kill anyone too close. If you don't believe me then Google "truck tire explosion" (warning: you will see people seriously injured or killed from either the force of the blast or the shrapnel).

Other times you can hardly hear it, especially if you have a habit of driving with the music on (I drive without music 100% of the time). It might be a little "pfffft" that makes you wonder whether a tire deflated or not. Always best to pull over at a safe location to check it out. Once I had to drive 50 miles with a flat trailer tire to get to a safe place to call road service. I saw tread releasing, the recap pulling off from a failed patch.

I've had drive tires go, but never a steer. Watch this video and memorize the fact that if you are governed DON'T drive up against your governor.

 

I once lost part of a recap on my drives 5 miles west of Fernley NV. Was the bumpiest ride to the tire shop there. Thankfully never lost a steer.

 

Had a lady down in Dayton texas that wouldn't pass just hanging out beside me. About the time she got to my drives the outside tire blew out. Let me tell you it scared her a lot more than me. I still get a laugh when I think about it

 

My brother thought he was saving big money recapping his drives. Three blowouts and $5000 in road service and repairs to fenders he's a firm believer in using virgin rubber.