Is it possible to be unaware you blew out a tire?

Try pointing to the trailer and then make a circling gesture with your finger. not the middle finger.

 

Y'all who say you've had a "blow-out" and never knew it are mistaken. You may have had a tire go flat, or taken a large puncture, and then had the tire come apart; but if you have a true blow out (a casing failure,) you and every gun-shy hound in the 3 nearest counties will know about it. I've had trailer tires pop my ears in the cab (with the windows UP!) if the failure point is pointed that way when it lets loose.
Loud is not a forceful enough descriptor. We're not talking shotgun blast here... this is closer 155MM Howitzer loud.

 

I've had one fall apart without me realizing it (besides little vibration), until it broke off mud flap which traveled over drive tires, banged into rear side of my cab while at the same time cutting off both of brake hoses.
Being at highway speed, i had dragged trailer with locked up wheels probably for some 300 feet before stopping on the shoulder.

 

After driving across the hot summer NM/AZ desert I pulled onto the CA Blythe scales. I could see all the leo's laughing and pointing towards my trailer tandems. I looked in my passenger mirror and watched a bubble grow out of the sidewall to the size of a basketball.

He pulled me around back and come out there still laughing. He pulled out his pocket knife and popped it. That was the only time I ever had to get tire road service other than a couple breakdowns. He didn't write me up either. But it was funny.

Most bangs I catch or the obvious tire coming apart. There are them few silent trailer flats. But usually another trucker will warn you if you don't catch it. I'll even warn a driver if he passes me with the loud thump thump. That's one about to come apart.

 

Sicne most steamship owned chassis are still running 10.00x20's, failure from tread seperation is normal. Recently had one go flat from tread seperation, no blowout, probably drove that way for 40 miles before I saw it smoking. Since I don't have a working CB in the truck anymore, no one could have told me, and being that I was running 75 on cruise, highly unlikely anyone besides a 4 wheeler would have caught up to me and told me about it.

I've had true blowouts that I did not hear, sometimes it can depends on the road conditions, weather conditions and tire position. Had one blow on a 53' container year or so back, RIR, tandems were next to the last pin back. Coming out of a RA after a quick stop, gotten up to speed and passed a slower truck, just after moving back to the right lane, 4 wheeler passed and pointed at my trailer. Sure enough, a piece of rubber came flying out. Stopped, and it had blown. Was fine when I left the RA as I checked them before I got in the truck. PSI inflation system was working, heck air was still hissing from the inflators when I stopped.

 

At a fuel stop once and heard a bang. Turned out a truck at the fuel island blew out a air bag.

 

Lost both tires and wheels on pos 45x96 1985 flatbed for company i used to drive for. Passenger side rear axle Never felt a thing, noone said anything on cb....brake drum was riding about 3-4" off the ground(spring ride). Finally noticed it when i rolled into georgia scale and saw tires leaning on driver side in my mirror under their lights(it was dark and raining). Funny thing georgia told me weight ok driver go ahead....then they saw it after i pulled off scale and saw dollar signs.

They pulled me back around and weighed me again...gave me a ticket for being 5000 over on front trailer axle....i was only 70000 and change gross. Boss man had about 1200$ in tickets to pay and my license got screwed. After we fixed it they wouldnt let us pull back across scale to get ticket removed. One of the main reasons i left that company was their old junky trailers and i was tired of fixing things myself all the time


I thank god those tires came off on the woods side of the road and didnt cross the median.

 

I've lost an inside trailer tire before and didn't find it until my post-trip at the end of the day. Tire never disintegrated and was just rotating on the rim.

 

Try looking in your mirrors every once in a while. The chunks of tire should have been a clue.

 

Running at night you can't see chunks flying out in the mirror.