Had my first blowout today

At a former company I pulled for, I was at the main terminal one day when another O/O rolled in. He was bragging about this GREAT deal he got on these brand new virgin tires. He just had 'em put on...still had the nipples on them from the mold. I noticed 2 of them were different, and he says "Yeah, they blew out about 50 miles from the tire shop and I had to replace them." Tore off his 1/4 fender when one blew, and the other took out his mudflap.

Yup...a heck of a deal. Figure if 25% of them had already blown and been replaced in the first hour's drive after getting them put on, I have my doubts how long any of the others held up. I never did run into him again, but when you factor in the cost of premature replacement in addition to the collateral damage that needs to be repaired following a catestrophic failure, I don't care HOW cheap they were, it cost you more than paying full price for a decent set of tires.

That company liked to use recaps on their wagons, and sometimes it seemed as though they, too, we're after "cheap" rather than quality...only requisite for wrapping a new tread around a tire seemed to be that it still held air, and even THAT was negotiable. You'd get 8 "new" caps installed, and in the first 2 weeks half of them would let go. If a tire lasted those first 2 weeks, it would generally run the duration of the tread life...but it was a crap-shoot those first couple weeks.

Most of the issues I've found with tires blowing have either been because somebody found low-quality to be acceptable if the price was low enough.

 

Reading comprehension issues? Where did Flat Tire or picking up a nail ever enter in the topic? We are discussing a BLOWN OUT Tire, as in no good, destroyed, F'd up. If you stop around every 200 miles, for a quick walkaround tire check, your blown tires will go away. And it's a good time to get out and stretch your legs for 5 minutes.
I'm full of ####? Have fun waiting for roadside tire service while I'm running down the road.

 

I'll rephrase.....will you tell us next time you have a blow out? And, I agree, stopping every 200 or so and kicking the tires is a very good idea. Personally, my bladder is only good for about 2 hours, though. And, yes, I've had a couple of blow outs in the course of my 39 year, 4+million mile career, because no matter how careful one is, stuff happens.

 

I'm ashamed to admit that it took me an unreasonable amount of time to figure out why you (and everyone else) were on the wrong side of the road.

 

You have duals right?

Get that big pig off the interstate ride on surviving inside tire until you get off that road into a nice truck stop or at best a patch of land to park on away from anything.

Don't make the poor ####### from the repair truck stick his ### into the traffic roaring by at 70... people have died doing this.

You need to get the last two triangles into the middle of the lane you are on and the last one on the edge of the road. Having all three like that close to the traffic will get them destroyed together over time from the blast of the traffic going by.

Congrats on your first blow out and that you did not suffer too much damage. You now are no longer a virgin with these things.

 

The farthest I've ever had to limp a flat tire was about 60 miles. I was lucky to see strip of rubber bailing out off a trailer tire as I checked my mirrors westbound on Wyoming 28.

I pulled over to check the damage as soon as possible. Audible hiss of air but still basically intact. No phone service, even with Verizon.

Finally I got phone service in about 30 miles. Swift's on road and I determined the best bet was to limp it to Fallon, WY and have road service there during my 10.

The tire stayed together. The service tech found a faulty patch over an old hole.

 

We had a driver leave the shop with a brand new set of BF Goodrich ST 244 steers a few months ago. Drove to Enid, loaded, and got west of town on hwy 412 when the sidewall on the right front steer blew out.

I'm pretty sure he didn't "neglect" that one particular tire on his 2-hour ride. He is an older gentleman with many years experience. He's been an excellent driver for us, always catching little things on his pre-trips that most guys would not notice.

Sometimes tires just blow out and there's nothing to indicate it ahead of time.

Placing blame on Gunner is the wrong thing to do here. You don't know.

 

It's tire neglect.... I tell ya!
He's lucky the tire police didn't catch up with him
... What's this world coming to?