Have you ever?

[SeaCat]

Have you ever dealt with a Blow Out at speed? Last night I did and let me tell you it scared the shit out of me.

I was heading south on I-95 doing the speed limit or maybe just a hair above. (I was between 70 and 75 MPH.) Behind me I don't see any lights but up ahead a ways I can see a couple of trucks running nose to tail. They're running in the right lane so I shift into the center lane in anticipation of closing on them and passing.

I had just settled into my lane when it happened. A muffled bang from the rear of the car and it jerks to the right. I'm talking it's pulling like an S.O.B. and shaking like mad. I can hear shit hitting the car as well.

I cut the wheel slightly to the left as I come off the gas but quick. It doesn'tt ake a rocket scientist to figure I had a tire go down and I can even tell which one. Passenger side rear and it'e pulling me to the right but fast. Because I have a full gas tank and a relatively good sized load in the cargo area the car has tipped back and is running on the left rear, right rear Rim and the right front tire. This makes it handle a bit strange. When I glance in the rear view I can see sparks comeing from under the car.

I ease the car over to the right side of the road and stop. I'm not happy to say the least and I have to sit there for a minute to catch my breath and calm down a little. Then it's out of the car to check the damage and see what I need to do to get home.

Out comes the jack and emergency signals. I don't run flares although I do have them. What I have instead is four bright red strobes. I ran these down the shoulder of the road a ways and started them flashing. Now I can get to work.

I jack up the rear of the car as my wife stands well off the side of the road. Using a flashlight I check under the car and don't see any major damage. Okay that's a good thing. I fifnish spinning off the Lug Nuts and drop the rim on the side of the road before pulling the spare off the back of the car. It's full and ready to go. On goes the tire and Lug Nuts then down comes the car. It only takes a couple of minutes to change tires. (The hardest part was getting the jack under the car.) AS I'm putting the rim on the back of the car the first vehicle to pass comes up. IMagine my surprsie when I see the Blue Lights come on as it pulls in behind me. Damn my nights just getting better isn't it?

The cop hits his spot and comes up asking what happened. When I tell him he looks at the rim that's attached to the back of my car and shakes his head while telling me I'm lucky. Then he asks me if I have any idea why the tire blew. I honestly didn't and told him so.

The cop wanders around the car looking at the tires checking their condition then looks at me in confusion. I know what he's looking for and why. Maybe the tire had been worn through the treads? I dig in the glove box and pull out my work folder before handing him the receipt from the tires. They are less than a month old. The only thing we could come up with was I had picked up some debris from the roadway. It happens from time to time. He kept his lights on while I gathered up my signlas and then waited for us to take off. (It took longer talking to the cop than it did to change tires.)

This morning I looked at the rim on the back of the car. It is damaged beyond salvage so now I have to pick up both a new rim and a new tire.

Oh well, I'm alive and home so all's well. This was the first time I've dealt with a blow out and I'll be happy if I don't deal with another.

Have you ever dealt with one? How did you react?

Cat

 

[frdrcnjohn]

The only time that I have had a blowout it was because the tire was bald. I have had a trailer tire blow out unexpectedly and found that tire had a bad spot in the sidewall from the manufacturer. I have since only ran GoodYear tires The truck that I am going to purchase tommorrow has B.F.Goodrich on it and will change them soon

 

[TE999]

I was taking a short cut through the Georgia boonies one night on a two lane blacktop around 11:00pm to pick up my daughter from her job at Mickey Ds'...she was a HS Senior at the time.

I was driving a Hyundai Excel hatchback and the road was dark as the inside of a cow. Suddenly the left rear tire blew...it sounded like a shotgun and I thought some dude had opened fire on me. I was doing around 60MPH and that Hyundai was dragging it's ass in a shower of sparks. Being a front wheel drive car I kept control and finally stopped...there were no shoulders, just ditches and no turn offs, just pastures and barbed wire fences.

I hopped out with a flashlight and checked the damage. The tire was toast...all shredded like it had exploded. The mag wheel was dinged, but seemed ok. Way off down the road I saw a light so I decided to head for it instead of changing the tire in the dark.

I rolled along at about 10MPH, stopping twice to let the motor cool down and finally made it to a general store which was closed but lit up like a Christmas tree. The jack looked like a kids toy but it worked. The lug wrench/jack handle was useless as a lug wrench...no leverage...but I carried a 4 way lug wrench and that did the job. The spare was inflated and changing was a breeze.

When I got to Mickey D's I found that my daughter had caught a ride home with a girlfriend when I didn't show. These were pre-cell phone days so I didn't tell my tale until I returned home to a worried wife and daughter.

It turned out the steel belts in the tire had separated and Sears gave me a new one.

I drove that Hyundai 98,000 miles then the engine blew and it wasn't worth fixing. It served me well.

 

[glynndah]

No blowout but I did manage to lose a wheel once while driving. A bare axle digs quite an impressive ditch into hot asphalt.

 

[jomar]

1. We were running alongside of an 18-wheeler when one of its retreads shredded - my friend shrieked and it told me volumes.

2. Any tire insurance? They often add it in when you buy.

 

[bronzeage]

I have had a few. The worst ones were from running over something.

It was never a big deal. It was always on the interstate, at high speeds. I held the steering wheel and let off the gas. The car slowed down and I drove onto the shoulder and changed the tire.

 

[SlickTony]

Yes, I had a blowout at speed once. I was able to get over without losing control of the car. I think I was on I-10 at the time.

I have a remarkable memory of driving on 610 in Houston, on the way home from work, when I felt, as well as heard, a boom--it was as if something had bumped into my car. But there were no cars close to me. Then I saw a big rig ahead of me, with one of its tires shredding into alligators which it scattered along the road. I had felt the shock when the tire actually blew.

 

[vrosej10]

In my late teens I was riding a motor scooter round a bend doing 100km when I hit some nimrods homemade spike strip. It blew both tyre simultaneously. I managed to pull bike up without putting it down. A next to miraculous feat. I was very lucky.