Retreading is widely used on aircraft tyres and they don't seem to shed treads often. Subject to some pretty horrendous loads too - spinning up to 150mph from still in less than a second
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Retreading is widely used on aircraft tyres and they don't seem to shed treads often. Subject to some pretty horrendous loads too - spinning up to 150mph from still in less than a second
They don't, however, tend to suffer damage from kerbs like truck tyres do; whilst I accept Number Cruncher's comments about under-inflation, this must also be a factor.
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re-treads on trucks are far from illegal - About 50% of all trucks are running on retreaded tyres. Lots of info. on this site,
www.tyres-online.co.uk/technology/truckretsys.asp
Edited by Honestjohn on 21/08/2009 at 09:55
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The usual root cause of this type of tyre failure is overheating caused by under-inflation.
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i saw a lorry knock a traffic cone into the air
car behind was a hyndai accent
the accent windscreen, roof, bonnet were all caved in most spectacularly
id have never thought a bog standard traffic cone could cause so much damage
lorry drove off probably doesnt even know he did it
felt sorry for the driver of the accent
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I know of someone who had the exhaust from the car in front smash into his car - it fell off. Lucky for him he was driving a small 4x4 (original Honda CRV). I found it odd he swapped the CRV for a Mazda MX-5 after that - it might have been a different outcome in a MX-5 had the exhaust hit him.
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Some 30 years ago whilst travelling down the dark wet M1 about 3am in an artic truck, i was being passed by another truck when lo and behold a complete truck tyre on wheel appeared directly in front of me lying flat in the middle of the inside lane (i can still see that wheel like it was yesterday).
Remember this was before the section was lit and we had quite poor headlamps in those days, thats my mitigation by the way..;)
I had no choice but to go straight over the wheel at 60mph..it took the exhaust clean off.
I stopped a few hundred yards down the road, apart from the missing exhaust and some scrape marks on the front axle and the diff, and a huge dent in the cross member just in front of the trailer axles, all seemed ok'ish.
The exhaust had vanished, but i didn't hang around being terrified the wheel might be still around and may well come bowling down the carriagway at 60mph at me, if another truck hit it or it's pair.
So i dragged the noisy truck into the newly opened Rothersthorpe services, and phoned the Old Bill to let 'em know so they could comb the motorway.
Whilst there i noticed an artic which had obviously just arrived missing a PAIR of wheels from his trailer, i got his details for the ensuing claim and he told me it had happened before!!! the mind boggles.
They never did find the wheels, but the Bill came back after the search and nicked the other driver (driver's always responsible), i was towed in, the possibility of severe damage too great to risk further driving obviously.
Can't imagine the prospect of hitting an inflated truck tyre on wheel in a car or bike at motorway speeds, bad enough in a truck.
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driver's always responsible
Not the same as a complete wheel coming off but there was a recent thread on PistonHeads where a truck had a blowout right next to another car and the flailing tyre damaged the car.
Both stopped but the truck drivers insurance rejected the claim and the car owners insurance advised that was correct. Basis was that it was an accident and nobody could be held responsible unless negligence could be proven.
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I was driving through a contraflow some years ago when a car coming the other way hit the cones, and sent several of them my way. They went under the front of the car, and I went from 50 to 0 very rapidly. I wouldn't have believed the braking effect of cones if I hadn't felt it myself.
I managed to get onto what should have been the hard shoulder, and was currently the inside lane, put on my hazard lights and expected the recovery people to arrive any minute, as the area was covered by CCTV. When they didn't I tried putting the car in reverse, but that didn't help, and eventually had to crawl under the front of the car - leaping to one side every time a truck approached - and dismember the cones. I knew there might be discussion, so put two of them in the boot.
I stopped at the next police station and reported it, but they didn't seem interested. I took the car to my local garage, who examined it, but there didn't seem to be any permanent damage, but I did have to pay for the inspection. Much correspondence ensued, the Highways Agency blaming the contractors, and the contractors blaming the people who put out the cones - and all of them asking for the registration number of the oncoming car. They claimed there was no evidence on the CCTV (now there's a surprise). In the end I did get the cost of the inspection refunded, but not without a struggle.
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used to be quite a common sight... but I haven't seen one for ages.
that is one benefit of the highways agency 'wombles', they do a good job and get stick for it.
they run up and down my bit of M5 every 15-20 minutes picking up stuff and dragging broken cars out of the way.
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My near miss many years ago involved a railway sleeper.
I noticed an odd shadow in the lane I was in, and was fortunate enough to pull over a lane and avoid it.
There were others on the hard shoulder further on who had hit it, with devastating consequences.
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The big handle thing you use to raise or lower an hgv trailer ? Big solid lump of bent crowbar with a socket spanner type end anyway. One of those came bouncing down the motorway towards me one day. Went straight over my roof. Fairly scary at the time.
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Belting along a one-way bit of Harrow Road where it runs beside the M40 overhead, quite near here, before cameras or any of that, a taxi up ahead ran over a brick and tossed it into the air. I thought it was going to glance off the bonnet and come through the windscreen into my face, but it bounced harmlessly off the bumper overrider, bending it.
Later that car's flat windscreen dissolved without warning into little cubes of glass in the outside lane of the M1 and landed in my lap. Extremely tiresome driving it after that, but the screen was cheap.
Last year or so, late one stormy night, ran over a very big shattered oak bough complete with branches and leaves on a downhill bend on the A24 in my Escort, just south of Dorking. The car bounded into the air but no apparent damage. Very tough, Escorts. I stopped at the next opportunity and called plod to tell them about it, the only time I can remember doing that. I thought it might be dangerous for say a motor bike (or even another car or driver).
Edited by Lud on 20/08/2009 at 21:24
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that car's flat windscreen
It was a Citroen Dyane
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Going down M5 one dark night in the old Zodiac I ran over something - lot's of it and black - 30 min later on radio they warned of a lorry had shed a load of coal - bit late for me but no damage.
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Did it make any of the nutties slack ?
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i was sent out to drag back a 'trailer, puncture one wheel'back to the garage a couple of years ago. when i got to it it was a range rover on a towing dolly. he had hit a three inch square length of wood and had sheared the wheel clean off.
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HB
As you should know this was a 60's Ford - no nuts ever became slack after 2 weeks on road - a nutty splitter was always required ;-)
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A few years back in November on the inside lane at 70 mph of M40 somewhere near High Wycombe , with SWMBO and helicopter jr in a VW Polo I suddenly saw someting heading over the bonnet and hit the screen which luckily was laminated and held.
The second before it hit was the most frightening moment in my 40 plus years of driving because if the screen had not held I was a dead man and it would have probably have wiped out the family as well as I was driving......
Never found out what it was but dents in the bonnet , mangled and twisted wipers and the point on the windscreen where it hit all suggested a half brick which was thrown up by a lorry wheels .
A seriously scary brown trouser moment.....
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About 10 years ago I was driving to Frankfurt airport late evening. I was late for my flight so was driving the rented Mondeo foot to the floor, despite the rubbish headlights which only hinted at what was in front.
In the faint yellowy glow in front of me I suddenly saw something that looked like a block of concrete on the road but it was too late to brake or steer, so I drove over it. There was an almighty bang and I pulled over onto the hard shoulder to check the damage. Part of the underside of the front bumper was missing, there was a huge dent in the offside sill and both offside wheels were buckled.
I weighed up the consequences of calling a breakdown service and missing my flight against the risk of driving on. I decided to drive on as I only had a few KMs left. The steering was shaking like hell and the car was difficult to steer in a straight line but I made it to the airport. When I gave the car back I explained what had happened and showed them the damage. Oddly, I never received a repair bill and never heard anything else about it.
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