UPDATED - Ran over Gator

[Bill_Diana]

Last week we enjoyed a peaceful 5 night stay at Country Acre Campground, Lancaster, PA.

On our way home we were travelling the Pennsylvania Turnpike and about 4 miles from our exit, something terrible happened. A tractor trailer about 70 feet ahead lost the tread from a tire. Directly in front of me laying across my lane was a piece of tire tread about 4 feet in length. I was travelling about 56 mph at the time and in the far right lane. In the lane to my left was solid line of cars and the berm to my right was very narrow.

I no no choice but to run over the tread. I spaced it so the front tire did not touch the tread. As the tread went beneath our motorhome it badly damage the exhaust system. The engine was now running very loud.

I decided to travel the additional 4 miles and exit the turnpike. I was concerned the brake lines, transmission fluid tank, engine water hoses, etc would have been ruptured. Once off the turnpike I pulled off to the side and glanced under the motorhome. It was apparent the exhaust system was mangled and I did not see an signs of fluids leaking. We traveled another 3 miles to home.

Contacted the insurance copy and the adjuster said take it to a shop of my choice and have them take pictures. Due to Covid the insurance adjusters are not coming to view the damage.

Tomorrow the motorhome goes to the repair shop for thorough inspection underneath. I'm still amazed that now damage has been done to our care that was in tow.

Other than being upset, no one was injured.

UPDATE....well here it is 21 days after the accident and the insurance adjuster was finally able to visit the motorhome. I was able to be at the repair shop yesterday while the motorhome was up on the lift. I was surprised they allowed me to walk under the motorhome to snap some photos. Looks like the only damage is the exhaust system. The system is a Gibson and is no longer available so the repair shop is going to salvage what they can and the rest will be fabricated. The total estimate for repair is $2,000. I think I lucky that only the exhaust was damaged by such a large piece of rubber.

[Boomerweps]

In the 1970s, I would have my existing tire cores recapped locally when needed. Never a problem. I would even have the company recap my tires when I was home on leave from the Navy.
Road gators are 95-99% commercial trailer tires and there isn't a big statistical difference between new and recaps. Recaps have to meet DOT standards.

[dedmiston]

Grit dog wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
Another reason I travel at 55 max.

Because the OPs “approximately 56mph” was too fast? Lol
Please just keep in the far right lane where you’ll only aggravate the truckers.
There’s safe and then there’s impeding the flow of traffic. And 55mph on an open freeway is impeding traffic.

I kind of agree, except that here in CA (where Lwiddis is from), the speed limit for towing is 55.

But yes, Lwiddis is kind of a dork for implying that the extra 1 MPH is what caused this to happen. He rarely returns to threads that he comments on though, so I wouldn't try too hard to engage him in a discussion.

[ford_truck_guy]

DarkSkySeeker wrote:
Are they 'retreads' (existing tire regrooved) or 'recaps' (layer of rubber bonded onto old tire without remaining tread)?

They ( Gators ) would be Re Caps....

[Grit_dog]

DarkSkySeeker wrote:
Are they 'retreads' (existing tire regrooved) or 'recaps' (layer of rubber bonded onto old tire without remaining tread)?

Cmon man they’re “rethreads” dontcha know....

[Grit_dog]

Lwiddis wrote:
Another reason I travel at 55 max.

Because the OPs “approximately 56mph” was too fast? Lol
Please just keep in the far right lane where you’ll only aggravate the truckers.
There’s safe and then there’s impeding the flow of traffic. And 55mph on an open freeway is impeding traffic.

[DarkSkySeeker]

Are they 'retreads' (existing tire regrooved) or 'recaps' (layer of rubber bonded onto old tire without remaining tread)?

[dedmiston]

Moved from Roads & Routes.

[dedmiston]

Lwiddis wrote:
Another reason I travel at 55 max.

Yep. This whollllllle tragedy could have been avoided if they hadn't been recklessly doing 56.

[Dutch_12078]

If anyone has trouble getting to sleep at night and needs some reading help, here's a link to a 2008 NHTSA commissioned study into the reliability of retread versus new truck tires. To cut to the chase, the conclusion was no significant difference.

Commercial Medium Tire Debris Study

[ACZL]

From what I gather, retread failures are primarily due to under inflation. Glad OP didn't get hurt and yes, "gators" can do a lot of damage. Sorta-kinda like when you are passing a semi. Don't sit there and loyygag cuz if you do and a tire goes on the semi, lots of nasty things will more than likely happen. Wife's family takes their sweet azz time when passing a semi and wife used to, till I told her otherwise. Now she semi cleans out fuel injection system when passing trucks.

[valhalla360]

Used to work for a state DOT, the region office did an annual picnic. As a joke the maintenance guys would do a "gator roundup". Basically they would save the biggest hunk of tire they picked up in the last month to see who had the biggest. It wasn't unusual to be more than 40lb.

Now imagine a 40lb object hitting you at 60mph. Yeah, it can do a lot of damage.

PS: Retreads were an issue 40yr ago. In the modern world, it's not a big difference compared to new tires. There's a reason truckers are expected to check their tires each morning before heading out.

[stickdog]

You were a couple hundred feet too close for emergency stop. Remember it is the safe drivers that keep your insurance rates down.

[Beverley_Ken]

"You were a couple hundred feet too close for emergency stop" Not necessarily, the truck could have been in a different lane and threw the gator into another driving lane. I have seen worse, the gator being thrown up and taking out the windshield of a car.

Ken

[midnightsadie]

buddy hit a gator one time,running down a lake in florida. ruined a real nice boat.

[gbopp]

Pennsylvania gators can get nasty.