Exploding tire experiment

Yeah man. Crap is scary. Many nefarious websites show truck tire explosions in 3rd world countries. Scary business!

I was reminded how tough even crappy re capped drives are when i had a fully loaded tanker high hook/pop out on a farm this spring. I caught it as soon as i pulled out of the farm and caught the trailer on the truck frame. An angular piece of the trailer frame was resting on the 2 of the rear drives and thought for sure i was going to have problems with those tires going forth. Zero issues up to when i quit early July.

 

I actully had one of these explode next to me once. They had a new guy roll it into a safety cage then hook the tire to air and get called away. I didnt know about it and was talking to one of the techs about a headlight for a truck when it blew. Threw both of us off our feet and full on ripped the cage out of the concrete.

I never have gotten my full hearing back lol.

 

Did they ever say how much pressure they pumped into the tire to make it explode, or did they just pump so much in until it exploded?
Because they did not seem to be monitoring the pressures as they were standing on the sidelines waiting for the explosion.

 

Michelin had a video about welding on a rim it was a eyeopener how fast it exploded after they stopped welding.

 

37 minutes,,not sure what kind of compressor they had, most only go up to 120, a rupture like that had to have hundreds of pounds of air. And these folks are pretty far away, like it's going to be a nucular[sic] blast, car tires just pop, and truck tires don't blow into bits of razor shrapnel, if secured, they just make a louder pop. Now what IS dangerous, is old split rims, that notoriously took peoples heads off. If the ring wasn't properly seated, upon becoming dislodged, can take your head off. I was in a rail yard one night having a tube tire fixed on a wagon I was picking up. As the guy changed the tire, started airing it up, laid it on the ground and went to his truck. I thought to myself, what if that sucker blows and just then, KABOOM. I bet it blew the ring 50 feet in the air. If no cage was around, I'd wrap a chain through the wheel, this guy was a doofus, and was a close call. No sir, no tears were shed from this old gear jammer when tubeless came out. That night when I got home, I told the ex-wife about it, all she said was, "I had a rough day too",,,

 

You would be surprised at how easy it is to up the air pressure. A couple turns on the air compressor regulator switch and you can actually get some real pressure. I have a switch that’s adjustable from 0 to 230 psi on my industrial compressor.

 

Actually know a guy who was using a wire wheel on a grinder to clean up the face of a wheel after airing the tire up and the tire blew up in his face. Messed up his hands good and broke his jaw as I recall.

 

Had one blow up after mounting a used tire. Ripped the pants off my right leg, laying on the floor and thought it was broken. Took about 20 minutes to have feeling in it again.

 

Oh i belive it. The fact the air alone was enough to pick me and another dude up and pysically throw us on our backs even 10 feet away was a pretty scary thing. I can not imagine being upclose to it.

Also on widowmakers when i was a kid out woth my dad, i watched a guy change one on a loader once. Even with that heavy ### chain it retained enough pressure to embed itself in a concrete wall.....40 feet away