sparks on the road

[PepperElf]

Not really anything sucky, just something interesting.


I learned this from my boyfriend a while back but... most transportation trucks only put the good tires on the front and back. The ones in the middle are retread to save money. This means they're old tires with new treads on them.

and they break. That's why on highways where you see a lot of hauls.. you'll see bands of tread, like road kill on the side.


I think I saw one blow out yesterday. I was coming up doing 80 in the left lane (limit is 70 but 80's kinda normalish) when I saw the truck in the right lane... had ... SPARKS? ... yep, sparks trailing behind the vehicle.

I slowed down cos I don't want to pass him when his vehicle is making sparks. He started swerving a little to the left and then went to the shoulder to stop and investigate his tires.


That's when I passed him - in the left lane of course. Around here you're suppose to pull to the far lane for stopped emergency vehicles. Many of us also do this for non-emergency vehicles as well. We don't really have to... I just feel it's polite.

[wolfie]

Not really anything sucky, just something interesting.


I learned this from my boyfriend a while back but... most transportation trucks only put the good tires on the front and back. The ones in the middle are retread to save money. This means they're old tires with new treads on them.

and they break. That's why on highways where you see a lot of hauls.. you'll see bands of tread, like road kill on the side.


I think I saw one blow out yesterday. I was coming up doing 80 in the left lane (limit is 70 but 80's kinda normalish) when I saw the truck in the right lane... had ... SPARKS? ... yep, sparks trailing behind the vehicle.

That's pretty much a myth (alligators coming from retreads). If you take a close look at most alligators, you'll see that they contain cords - in other words, the failure was in the tire carcass, rather than in the retread-to-carcass bond. Most common cause of alligators? Underinflated tires, which don't get caught because too many drivers are too effing lazy to do a pre-trip.

I've seen a blowout (guy was passing me when it happened - changed the colour of my pants). You get a BIG cluster of sparks at the failed tire. A narrow trail of sparks is most likely something dragging (a chain, or the spring that hangs the air lines going to the bogie).

[PepperElf]

i don't really look too closely at... alligators? cute nickname.
kinda hard when i'm doing 80 in a 70... or even 70 in a 70

but nice info

[lolad]

I've had an inside tyre blow on me.

I was only doing about 70 km/h and there was a loud bang and a significant could of what i thought was smoke that could be seen in the mirror.
I pulled over and had a look, seeing as the smoke stopped.

It was a retread that the side wall blew out.
But since i was empty and only had a couple of k's back to the depot I drove there and had the tyre guys come and change it there.

Found out later there was a batch of retreads that all had faults with the sidewall and were all blowing.
Nice of them to tell us that before it blew

[Shalom]

When a tractor-trailer tire blows, it sounds like a damn shotgun going off.

I was driving south on the NJTP once, at the spot where the east and west spurs combine. I was in the right lane of the west spur, and a northbound truck on the east spur blew a tire.

All of a sudden I hear POOOOM!!!fapfapfapfapfap... ( yeah, I know, but ... that was the exact sound it made. I can't help it.) I nearly jumped out of my seat, and that was at the far side of at least twelve lanes of traffic, with lots of empty space between the roadways to boot.

Also saw one in the process of delaminating once. I was hearing a sound like BAMflapBAMflapBAMflap. Turns out that the tread on one of his trailer tires was half separated, but the piece of tread was attached at the rear, so at every rotation of the wheel it would slap the bottom of the trailer (BAM) and then the roadway (flap). I assumed the trucker knew about this, as he was heading for an offramp; he could hardly have missed hearing it.

Most common cause of alligators? Underinflated tires, which don't get caught because too many drivers are too effing lazy to do a pre-trip.

I can't find it now, but there was once a website dedicated to people who have made RVs out of old buses. The author had a checklist of things you should do before going out on the road; one item that stuck in my head was that you should keep a mallet in the bus, and before starting out, walk around the vehicle and whack it against each of the tires in turn. If one's significantly underinflated, it will sound different from the rest of them.

[PepperElf]

wouldn't it just be easier to use a tire gauge?

[Aethian]

From what I know, which isn't saying a lot, on those tires it's hard to do.

[dalesys]

wouldn't it just be easier to use a tire gauge?

Nope. Did this with a ball peen hammer when I was jumpin' trucks at Little America (1972).

This can be done standing up, whereas a gauge would require bending over, finding where the valve stem has rotated around to this time, removing the valve cap... Repeat (x18)

[Chromatix]

FWIW, it used to be necessary to hit train wheels with a hammer too. A healthy wheel will ring like a bell. A cracked one won't - and if a wheel tyre is cracked, that vehicle has to be removed from the train immediately.

These days, ultrasonic testing is used to find cracks much earlier in their progression, so the man with the hammer between the platforms is a distant memory. Even so, consider that a single carriage has eight wheels, there could be a large number of carriages in the train, the locomotive often had twelve or more... and half of them were up against the platform face.

[angelkirie]

Maybe it was something like this: http://www.kgw.com/news/Semi-truck-d...129264468.html

[kpzra]

Nope. Did this with a ball peen hammer when I was jumpin' trucks at Little America (1972).

This can be done standing up, whereas a gauge would require bending over, finding where the valve stem has rotated around to this time, removing the valve cap... Repeat (x18)

Not to mention it's a pain to check dually tires. My fuel trucks tires were kept around 200 psi, you have to have a tight grip on the gauge if you are using it. It got to the point we had to call/take it to a maintenance shop to have anything done with the tires.

Plus, when it's -20 out, the less time outside the better, and we had 52 tires to check. Thumping and visual was the way to go.

[wolfie]

Not to mention it's a pain to check dually tires. My fuel trucks tires were kept around 200 psi, you have to have a tight grip on the gauge if you are using it.

200 PSI? What sort of compressor do they use to inflate them?

Another reason is that every time the tire valve is opened (i.e. to check with a gauge), there's a chance it won't re-seat properly, and the slow leak (not enough to hear) will deflate the tire - you don't want to cause the problem that you're checking for. I generally gauge my tires about once a week, and use the hammer for other checks.

Sometimes dual tires are impossible to check without taking the wheel off - I've run into (and reported to maintenance) a few where they were mis-mounted, so that the valve stem on the inboard lined up with the "web" of the outboard wheel, rather than one of the openings.

[kpzra]

Not sure, we only occasionally used the building air compressor to to them, but they were split rims so anything over 10 psi that needed to be added went to the maintenance company. I worked at a private airport terminal so the compressor was big since aircraft maintenance was done by tenants there. These were 5000 gallon Jet-A trucks.

[wolfie]

Reason I asked is that none of the compressors I've dealt with would have been able to inflate those tires. Industrial compressors (for air tools in factories, etc.) typically top out around 150 PSI, with the lines feeding tools regulated down to around 90 PSI. The compressors for air brakes on trucks are required to cut out no higher than 135 PSI, and the main reservoir is required to have a 150 PSI pressure relief valve.

[kpzra]

Like I said, we weren't allowed to really mess with them due to the PSI they needed not to mention the trucks were usually full so there was 5000 gallons of jet fuel in them. All I know is what was on the side of the tires and what my check list said it should have until they had us stop checking them with a gauge and just doing a visual.