Class A in pieces after accident, Ellensburg

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Anyone that was driving back in the 50's and 60's had to deal with tire blow outs on a fairly regular basis. Brand new tires were only warranted for 12 months or 12,000 miles. Poor people like me had to buy recaps and blow outs and tread separation were a common occurrence.
I was always taught that momentarily accelerating when a tire blows is the best course of action. I guess I am still here, having never wrecked a vehicle because of that lesson. Even when I raced motorcycles, accelerating when in trouble is usually the best way to regain some control.
This does not mean that you accelerate an additional 50 MPH. It means that you use the throttle to maintain speed, in spite of the increased drag caused by a flat tire, until you can slowly decelerate and steer to a safe stop.
The main thing to do is not panic and have a knee jerk reaction when you hear the big bang. Anticipating bad things is the best way to be ready to deal with it when/if it occurs. Sometimes stuff just happens.

Are you aware that on the open road most of us use our cruise control? Heck, there's no intuition to jump on the throttle when a tire blows out. It makes a lot more sense to me to simply leave it on cruise control and attend to the most important thing, THE STEERING WHEEL. It sure works for me and my rig. I've got an engine that puts out 1,050 lbs/ft of torque. And, the cruise control does an excellent job of maintaining my cruise speed, while I give it hell with the steering wheel. Works for me.