(By Greg Rourke) – Truck tires are nothing to mess with. We’ve reviewed the aftermath of truck tires exploding previously on these pages. When handled properly they are inflated inside a steel cage, with a clip on tire chuck to keep your hands and other precious body parts out of the blast zone. When they let go, the cage is usually destroyed, but hopefully all the shrapnel is contained. Not everyone has access to an inflation cage, and will use other methods to contain a tire should the worst happen. None of these other methods are acceptable. I know a gentleman who used a gas station lift to protect himself. He laid the tire down flat and lowered the lift until it was just above the 11R22.5 tire he was trying to seat. He ended up with over 500 stitches in his face which now looks like a baseball. He wasn’t that good looking before, but that’s not the point. The point is 100 pounds of air contained by rubber can wreak havoc.
Here we have an example of a tire going boom. It appears our dash cam loving friends in Russia were in the right place to catch this, but far enough away to keep them from harm. We have a semi rolling into what looks like the fuel island at a truck stop. The driver stops, and starts to back up for some reason. BOOM! The tire explodes, the concussion blows the snow off all the nearby roofs, and even the rim can’t get far enough away from the mess.
If I had to guess, I’d say this is the result of a brake hanging up getting the tire hot. In winter you can get ice in the release valves of air brakes. Spring brake chambers on semi trailers need air to keep the brake released, so if it’s leaking the spring overpowers the air and the brake stays partially applied. Why did the rim come off? It’s entirely possible the center where the lugs are was blown right out and the outer rim got loose.
