Blown Truck Tires , Littering Our Highways !

fordy · #1 09/27/11, 11:20 AM

..............This situation is SO BAD in my area of North Tx that it is a Hazard for both small vehicles , and , especially bad for 2 wheeled scooters ! Drivers know when they blow a tire , so why aren't they required too pull over and clean UP the Pieces strewn all over the Road ? A Tx Highway patrolman couldn't answer my question . Seems the trucking companies treat their blown tire parts and pieces as if it were a burger sack from Mc.D's.........like it doesn't really present any kind of significant hazard for all the other vehicles on the road . , fordy

Darren · #2 09/27/11, 11:39 AM

Believe it or not, most truckers don't know when the tread comes off a tire unless it's a steer tire. My uncle had a car run up under the back of his trailer and he didn't know it. That was decades ago. But it does give you an idea of it's like to drive a semi. If a tire blows out, chances are the driver will hear it. Losing the tread, probably not.

Sawmill Jim · #3 09/27/11, 11:56 AM

Yep and a semi running 65 mph if the driver saw it and got stopped would be a long way from the tire . Ever try dragging something off a dark busy interstate with cars trucks and some idiots coming at you

Survival rate might not be so good

Fowler · #4 09/27/11, 11:57 AM

Funny you should mention this and be from Texas....LOL

My daughter hit one of them big tires on the way home the other night and it completly rip out her under carriage, scared the pee out of her. It also could not be avoided the car in the other lane hit it first it flew over then my daughter hit it.

Sawmill Jim · #5 09/27/11, 12:02 PM

They don't call em alligators for nothing they will get you

beowoulf90 · #6 09/27/11, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordy

..............This situation is SO BAD in my area of North Tx that it is a Hazard for both small vehicles , and , especially bad for 2 wheeled scooters ! Drivers know when they blow a tire , so why aren't they required too pull over and clean UP the Pieces strewn all over the Road ? A Tx Highway patrolman couldn't answer my question . Seems the trucking companies treat their blown tire parts and pieces as if it were a burger sack from Mc.D's.........like it doesn't really present any kind of significant hazard for all the other vehicles on the road . , fordy

The reason they aren't required to stop and clean it up is;

There would be more death and destruction with folks trying to clean it up, while 2 and 4 wheelers zip by at 65 mph or faster..

As others have said, unless it is a steering tire the driver might not be aware that a cap has come off or that a tire blew out. A tire doesn't have to blow out with a big bang, it just has to be flat.

Here is an example do you always here, when a stone i caught in your tread of a tire? If your window is down and the radio is off, you might hear it, but if the window is up and you have the radio (or any other noise device) playing you might not hear it.. Same thing for a trailer tire, also remember a trailer tire is 48 - 53 foot behind the driver and may not be heard over the engines purr...

bignugly · #7 09/27/11, 12:35 PM

I noticed most posters are from Texas and maybe this is occurring because they are allowing Mexican trucking companies to come into the US. They do not have to follow our DOT laws per NAFTA agreement. They just had a big drug bust of a mexican truck carrying 3000 pounds of grass here in northern Illinois.

geo in mi · #8 09/27/11, 12:37 PM

Only consolation is that for the most part, at least alligators stay in one place on the road and you might see them and take evasive action. Now, deer, on the other hand........

geo

Danaus29 · #9 09/27/11, 12:41 PM

Blown tires are everywhere. Not just in Texas and definitely not just since Mexican trucking companies started shipping across the US. The problem is as old as recaps or retreads. It's poor workmanship on recapping tires.

Michael W. Smith · #10 09/27/11, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sawmill Jim

Yep and a semi running 65 mph if the driver saw it and got stopped would be a long way from the tire . Ever try dragging something off a dark busy interstate with cars trucks and some idiots coming at you
Survival rate might not be so good

Ummmm . . . . . . yeah. We have Interstate 80 here, and the speed limit is 65 MPH. But the majority of the traffic is going 70 MPH or more. You aren't even allowed to be parked along the interstate unless it's an emergency. And I highly doubt tire treads would be an emergency.

Even when trucks break down along the Interstate and are on the berm, many times they get hit with a semi coming along. Trying to dodge cars and other semis wouldn't be a good thing for a driver to do. There would be more than tire treads to clean off the road!

JuliaAnn · #11 09/27/11, 12:58 PM

Yes, it's a problem, but I'd like to see someone who doesn't drive a tractor trailer with a loaded weight of what, 75,000 lbs., may be 80,000 lbs., to a speed that is safe for the driver to pull the load off onto the shoulder (if there is a shoulder that would support that much weight and not have the entire rig sink into the ground). That much weight, that much forward momentum, *ain't* going to stop on a dime. What kind of a hazard would a loaded tractor trailer pose as it slows from 60 down to about 20 in a lane of traffic where everyone else is doing 60 to 70 or more? What kind of hazard is the tractor trailer going to pose as it sits on the shoulder of the freeway while the driver gets out to walk back a half mile or so to get the alligators out of the freeway? What kind of hazard is the driver going to pose as he's out in traffic, dragging treads off the road as other drivers speed headlong toward him?

No, driver's don't always know when they lose a tread. Blow-outs, yes, tread loss, no, not always, unless it's a drive tire. I speak from experience.

julieq · #12 09/27/11, 02:27 PM

Tire shreds are just something you need to be on the look out for, like critters and deer.

fordy · #13 09/27/11, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by julieq

Tire shreds are just something you need to be on the look out for, like critters and deer.

................That is is possible during daylight hours , after dark , not so much ! In Tx the road REpaving crews having started using a cheaper type of asphault that is pitch black and very rough , whereas they were using a very much lighter colored pavement , smoother and much nicer to drive upon . , fordy

Macybaby · #14 09/27/11, 03:47 PM

I drive 60 miles of interstate twice a day. In the summer this is a regular occurance, but in the winter I see very few.

Our speed limit is 75 mph here, but there aren't that many people on the road so playing slolom with chucks of tire on the road isn't all that hard, though I see plenty of people run right over the stuff that is in plain sight. Usually the next day enough traffic has gone by to cause the stuff to end up over on the shoulder.

I'm always watchfull coming up on and passing semis - seen too many of them with tires starting to flap and I don't want to get hit by those chunks flying off.

oneokie · #15 09/27/11, 04:27 PM

Find a less traveled route to where you are going?

Bearfootfarm · #16 09/27/11, 04:39 PM

A truck came by here one morning and lost a whole tire.

It took out about 100 ft of fencing, and broke a couple of 4 X 6 posts, and the truck didn't stop

JuliaAnn · #17 09/27/11, 05:13 PM

How about starting a business that removes treads from highways and freeways of the state and then get a paying contract from the state? That way you would solve the problem and have a nice business.

ALSO--when driving my car or pickup, many times I've had to steer around a tread in the road but the moron tailgating me ends up hitting it. People follow too closely and can't swerve to avoid something in the road that the vehicle they're tailgating manage to miss.

watcher · #18 09/27/11, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bignugly

I noticed most posters are from Texas and maybe this is occurring because they are allowing Mexican trucking companies to come into the US. They do not have to follow our DOT laws per NAFTA agreement. They just had a big drug bust of a mexican truck carrying 3000 pounds of grass here in northern Illinois.

More likely because its hot in TX right now. You'll notice more gators on the road in the summer than the winter.

watcher · #19 09/27/11, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danaus29

Blown tires are everywhere. Not just in Texas and definitely not just since Mexican trucking companies started shipping across the US. The problem is as old as recaps or retreads. It's poor workmanship on recapping tires.

Not according to the NHTSA. Its study "found in its analysis of tire fragments and casings collected that the proportion of tire debris from retread tires and original equipment (OE) tires is similar to the estimated proportion of retread and OE tires in service."

fordy · #20 09/27/11, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuliaAnn

How about starting a business that removes treads from highways and freeways of the state and then get a paying contract from the state? That way you would solve the problem and have a nice business.

ALSO--when driving my car or pickup, many times I've had to steer around a tread in the road but the moron tailgating me ends up hitting it. People follow too closely and can't swerve to avoid something in the road that the vehicle they're tailgating manage to miss.

.....................Actually , there are cleanup crews that work both sides of US 377 as well as the middle portion , but I'm not sure IF they include pieces of truck tires although I'd think they would . Seem too be mostly minorities working on the crew just from my casual observations . , fordy