Big rig blow-out

[painman]

Just remember if you can't see the trucker in his mirror he can't see you. Thanks GalaxyBlue, good reminder. PM. <><

 

[Tbird]

I pass the rigs FAST as I can...but you guys got me thinking that in my anticipation to pass,

while hanging back to let the traffic ahead make room for me to make a complete pass, I am

probably hanging too close to the trailer.

One thing I didn't see mentioned here is that you can HEAR a tire that has a loose retread.

That's when it gets scary to pass!

 

[RonBB]

So, give me a ticket,, ain't riding behind or beside a Semi ,,,,,

My thoughts exactly.

One item I didn't see mentioned is the fact that the truck tires run much higher pressures to begin with. Even the one ton farm, Contractor utility P/U tires run in the range of 60 PSI. When/if they start heating up you can imagine the pressure that builds up. Be carefull of all trucks. I got ran onto the inside shoulder(median) of an interstate onto 2 inch rock at 70 once to avoid a truck changing lanes that didn't see me-Luckily was able to keep it up. There are hazards everywhere. Adam, great insert of the no ride zones.

 

[2wheelingdawg]

I drive a big rig for a living. I have had tires blown very violently over the years. In addition to the rubber, it usually tears off the mud flap bracket which is a solid piece of angle iron, probably 5-10 pounds. it can tear off pieces of the underside of the trailer as well. Also depending on which tire blows, it can tear out the air lines on the underside of the trailer. This causes the trailer brakes to come on immediately, possibly sending the trailer into your lane. If you are lucky enough it stays out of your lane, and you are not hit by flying debris, then you can be blinded by all the smoke off the tires if the air lines are torn out. Being a truck driver and a motorcyclist, i have seen both the good, bad, smart and stupid from both sides of the fence. It amazes me the number of bikes that ride in the blind spot. Be especially cautious of trucks pulling 2 or 3 trailers. it doesn't take much at all to make the trailers wiggle, especially the rear trailer. A big gust of unexpected wind can send the back on halfway into the other lane. Most of the tires are run 100-110 PSi so you can imagine the force of the blow out. Stay out of the blind spots and live to ride another day. just my $.02 on the matter. Damn truck takes up to much riding time!!!

 

[2wheelingdawg]

One other thing i forgot. On the scoot, alot of times you can smell hot rubber. That should be your first clue there is one getting ready to blow. It is not 100%, sometimes they just blow with no warning. Alot of times you end up jerking the wheel because it sounds like a gunshot and scares the living hell out of you even in the cab. Pay special attention to mobile homes and container trailers. They probably lead the blowout category, since most of the time that driver will never see that same trailer again, nobody cares about a bad tire. As long as it has air in it when you leave the rail yard/port, Sad but true. I've seen alot of containers with tires that don't even have enough tread to be legal.stay safe

 

[thegunslinger]

Last year I got to experience this twice in one day. I'd left Wisconsin heading for New York. Going through Chicago (never do that again) the truck to my right blew a trailer tire. It was raining hard and I was boxed in. One piece hit me twice. It hit the fairing bounced off hit the Jersey barrier, then hit me in the knee. Later that day the truck to my right had one let go just outside of Cleveland. I wasn't boxed in that time so it weren't no thang.

 

[SMC]

:blink: I love where I live, the only problem is the number of trucks on the highway I have to use to get to town or work.

There are some rock quarries down the road that literally supply all the needs of the Dallas/Fort Worth area for gravel, construction needs. There are also a large number of tanker trucks servicing the huge number of oil wells that have been drilled in the last ten years...along with a good number of flat transport trucks hauling drilling rigs, bulldozers, cranes and backhoes.

Too many of these gravel haulers don't use covers on their loads, the heavy equipment haulers don't clean the treads and beds of their haulers before heading out on the road.

The result is you have gravel bounding out of the beds, dirt clods and stones coming off the haulers and some disgusting runny liquid coming off the backside of the haulers. Not to mention the exploding tires, road alligators, lost loads and the good ol' boys driving that gravel hauler that have watched too many NASCAR races and think they are in some Speedway 500 road race...trying to pass you at 75-80 mph!!!

I HATE AND DETEST OF THESE TRUCKS AND TRY AND GET AWAY FROM THEM AS FAST AS I CAN. They have already broken two windshields on my car in the last three years.

 

[daddysbike]

I pass them quickly and stay as far away as possible.

Last year on my way home from work on I85 in north GA in my Camry a 18 wheeler blows a re-tread. Large chunks of tire go everywhere but I'm far enough away to not get excited. I chart my planned route to avoid whats already in the road and whats flying toward me. Then the dillweed in the pickup truck between me and the rig just freaks out and swerves all over the place doing his best to hit every piece of tire. I gave up hope and just held my line as everything came flying at me. 2 big pieces hit my car thanks to nitwit. It dinged the plastic front fender. Glad I wasn't in my bike.

In '05 at 6am in the dark I was on my then Goldwing doing about 80mph on the interstate going to work. No traffic anywhere and I glance down to change the radio staion for a millisecond. When I looked back up I saw an entire tire rolled up in its side in my lane. Before I could react I ran over it. I was thinking "this is it, I'm going down" Amazingly the wing just went "ba-bump" and rolled right over it. I could not believe it! I got off on the next exit to check the bike (and my shorts) the silver lower fairing was black on both sides from the tire. I also remember feeling the tire hit both feet.

At the time I also owned a VFR and was glad I was on the wing that day.

There's something to be said about heavy bikes.

Steve

 

[LSUBOY]

Had one blow up on me on interstate 20 by Marshall, Texas. I was ducking and dodging like Joe Frasier.

My lession learned was BIG TRUCKS?????? Either get w a y ahead of them or w a y behind them. Another bad habit is stopping on the highway apron for any reason. That will get you killed too.

Was on I-4 in Orlando at about 11:00 P.M. coming from Bike Week and there was a pack of about 10 Harley's in front of me with no windscreen, helmets, etc. and it started raining like a son-of-a-gun. Damn if they all did not pull off on the apron with their lights justa running. Just waiting for a drunk driver or someone else to plow into the back of them.

 

[wfooshee]

. . . a 18 wheeler blows a re-tread. . .

These aren't retreads that are blowing, they are tire carcasses. If it was just retreads, there'd be no steel strands in the "alligators" you see lying around. The tread contains no steel belts, the carcass does. This is not a case of shoddy retreads delaminating.

The blowouts are (usually) overheated underinflated tires, failing at the sidewall/tread junction. The tires comes apart, throwing the tread portion onto the road while the sidewall stays on the wheel for a little while. Since just the tread gets thrown, people assume it's a thrown retread, but it's the whole outer section of the tire.

Regardless, you don't want to be around it when it goes. It's frustrating, either in bike and car, to see a .7 mph difference between two trucks so it takes 3 miles to get the pass done, traffic stacking up behind them.

 

[SR-71]

I've [luckily] never had to deal with a nearby blow-out, but have dodged a lot of chunks of rubber over the years.

But be careful passing those semi's, especially on downhill slopes in the rain...

One the scariest things I've had happen is having a semi jack-knife in front of me. I was in the fast lane and a semi was 7 or 8 car lengths ahead of me in the center lane; we were both doing about 65. Everything looked like I could easily pass by in the fast lane, then in a split second the cab of the semi snapped completely around to the left and its head lights were pointing nearly backwards at me, with the whole rig still moving forward. The semi, totally out of control, began sliding sideways across my lane (still doing a good clip!). Luckily I was able to nail the brakes as the semi slid across in front of me. It slid completely off the left side of the road and into a ditch (which had to be a major jolt for the semi driver I'm sure!). I was in a cage, but still scared the #hit out of me. :blink: