First front tire blow out....

Cloud Dancer wrote:
There is NO "sideways force of the blowout"!!!!! If you're referring to the energy that's released by the compressed air escaping,...THAT force is NOT organized,...it is NOT a vector. ITS direction is scattered all over the place.

Agreed, and in rereading my post, perhaps I should have rephrased that. When I stated "sideways force of the blowout" I was implying the resulting force on the motorhome due to the blowout! Of course there isn't a direct sideways force due to the escaping air. But after it blows there IS an added drag force which becomes part of the velocity vector of the motorhome. THAT'S what causes the motorhome to move in the direction of the blowout.

And the fact that we all seem to agree that "stepping on the brake" immediately afterward makes matters worse, bolsters the sideways force theory. Stepping on the brake reduces the forward velocity component effectively making the sideways drag forces appear greater, causing the motorhome to continue to move even further out of its lane. In panic, the operator (usually) tries to over-correct at this point.

In fact, if you think about it, if there was NOT a sideways force created by the blown tire (NOT the air leaving the tire, the extra drag caused by the deflated tire), there would be NO NEED to try to correct the steering. The motorhome would continue travelling in a straight line (Newton's First Law of Motion). After the blowout, there IS a force pushing the motorhome in the direction of the blowout. There has to be.

But I didn't mean to imply that the escaping air out of the tire was the direct cause of the force pushing the motorhome. I assumed that point was understood in our discussion, but I can see how it could be misinterpreted. Thanks for the correction. :)

~Rick

ON EDIT: One last thing I'd like to add which might also be part of the explanation as to how "severe" the handling situation becomes after the blowout, is the size of the rig. Many of you have DP's which probably weigh 15-20,000 lbs. more than my lowly gasser, and most of that weight is on the rear wheels, and you might even have a tag axle to boot. I believe all of that would go to add A LOT of stability to the vehicle under such conditions. Just the added weight of your rigs nearly doubles the forward energy of momentum of what my lowly rig would have. :) I'm just thinking that the very size of your rigs may help minimize the adverse effects on handling of such a blowout, and may be why some of you didn't experience as drastic an event as those of us in the smaller rigs will probably get to experience. :( LOL