Blow front tire, what do you do?

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
With ABS they should never lock up.

Un fortunately they will, ABS works by applying break pressure to the wheel that is going to fast or by bypassing pressure in some cases to release the wheel but all it takes a a small dirt particle and the bypass doesn't work. Had wheel speed sensors fail on our Grand Cherokee and it locked the breaks with me in the middle of a 6 lane intersection.

In the Michelin video, they don't fully explain the reasons you should step on the throttle and NOT the brake. My guess is that they think that very few people would understand it, so they leave out the interesting stuff. Just do it.
It's easy to say, but nobody really knows what they'll do until after it happens to them.

Really hard for any of us to say what we would do. My time in the military we trained, repeatedly, initial reactions to combat situations until we knew exactly what to do without having to look or even think. Same reason airline pilots spend so much time in simulators or why it takes NASA so long to train a crew. Pretty hard to do in an RV.

Our best option is prevention. Stay on top of pressures, maintenance pre-drive checks and such.

Think about the laws of physics. When you're driving down the road at say, 50mph, all your tires are rolling at that speed, contacting the highway, creating friction and generally leaving you to be a happy camper. All of a sudden, one of those tires goes flat, say the driver's side front. That tire immediately creates more friction as well as dropping that portion of the coach. As that friction increases, that area of the coach begins a rapid decrease in speed, pulling the coach in that direction. If you hit your brakes, you increase that decrease in speed more rapidly causing your vehicle to pull in the direction of the failed tire. By accelerating, you are in effect, overcoming that decrease in speed. Once you've regained control of your vehicle, then gradually decrease your speed across all tires and gently pull to the side of the road.....Dennis

Apply accelerator to gain control of steering and then coast to stop and pull over to side of road. Don't worry about the RV or damage, as it can be repaired/replaced, you and your family cannot! Run through the scenario in your head as you drive...We revert to our training instinctively, but as said before, you only know what you will do once you encounter the incident.

If you have ever watched COPS on TV, there is always a high speed chase where stop strips are used to disable the bad guys car. Ever notice that when the tires are blown, the car just keeps on going at a high rate of speed? Just because you lose a tire, doesn't mean that you have to panic, just accelerate a bit and regain the control and slowly come to a stop.

Pull over to the side of the road and call Coach-Net.

1st Rule...NEVER drive a Class'A' over 65 mph! Notice in the U-Tube...he was easily passing the truck who said he was doing 70 mph...80? 2nd Rule, DON'T touch the brakes if a front tire blows!!! 3rd Rule, ALWAYS drive with BOTH hands on the wheel at ALL Times!

4th Rule, Don't pay ANY attention to what a CAR does on COPS. LOL

Jesus take the wheel.