Speed and blown tires
Another thought I had while driving home today again from our holiday camping trip up north. I posted about driving to fast and not surprisingly I was told I was going to fast at 68mph even though I ...
Forum Discussion
wnjj wrote:GoPackGo wrote:
This doesn't make sense to me. If a tire starts to leak down, why would it 'blowout' as mine did ? I don't think it would. It would continue to leak air until pressure is equal to the outside, while the tire disintegrates. A blowout will result from some kind of catastrophic failure, not a slow leak.
Because a tire that has leaked down is now running severely overloaded and heats up before failing violently. With tires carrying near their weight limit, it doesn't take much of a decrease in pressure to cause this.
I had what later turned out to be a leaky rim on a snowmobile trailer. The first tire was found flat after parking for the night and was old enough we just replaced it. The replacement tire blew (bang, smoke) while on the freeway. Once I got home, the next tire place determined the rim had a slow leak which is what killed both tires.
I've been behind several trailers where a tire was obviously low, and after a while puffs of smoke. In a few cases I was able to get the drivers attention. In the ones I didn't it didn't take long before a low tire turned into a blowout.
When I stopped to help, in all the cases the driver had NO clue he had a tire going down till it blew or he finally saw massive smoke or I got there attention.
the slow leak turns into a hot tire, which turns into a very overheated tire which turns into a catastrophic blowout.
On a single axle trailer you may notice a tire going low by increased drag, but on a tandem or triple axle trailer you'll seldom notice a low tire till it is to late.
