[Peter Goldwing]

There are plenty of recapped tire parts on our roads. I think they are dangerous and should be illegal to use until a better technique is in place

Texas mother dies in freak crash when wheel smashes through windshield

A Texas mother of two died Thursday night when the front tire of a truck driving in front of her randomly separated and flew into her windshield, FOX 26 Houston reports.

www.foxnews.com

 

[AZgl1800]

I was riding my newly acquired '98SE home from Tampa, FL several years back on I-75.

I was closing in on a pickup pulling a tandem axle horse trailer.
as I approached about 30 degrees to the left of the trailer, the left front tire exploded and the entire cap flew over into my lane of travel.

Struck the bike hard on the right fork and scraped some emblems off the fairing.
I just held the bike straight ahead hard.... did not try to avoid it...

slowed down, and stopped to look at the damage.....
nothing serious that would effect the way it rides, so I went on towards home in Arizona.

 

[tamathumper]

Horrible tragedy.

Some of the comments below the article are eye-roll-inducing.

 

[Peter Goldwing]

sorry I thought it was a road alligator. My friend had one of his trailer go across two lanes across traffic and ended up in a ditch/ Luckily there were not many people on the road. Nowadays I use a tork wrench for my 4 wheel vehicles.The 2 wheeler get serviced at the shop

 

[Pwhoever]

This appears to have nothing to do with recapped tires or any tire exploding for that matter. From the story, a pickup truck traveling the opposite direction had its wheel, hub, and caliper break loose and hit the pickup truck traveling other direction, killing the mother.

But I do agree that trailer wheels can be dangerous. That's why I try to blast by trucks when traveling down the Interstates. And if in a group, I will slow down until bike ahead of me passes the truck and then blast by quickly.

 

[DaveO430]

I didn't know there was recapped tires anymore. I see a lot of exploded tire treads on the road but I doubt any are caps. I had 1 blow on my flatbed trailer last year but it was an old tire & a bridgestone but not a recap. A chunk of the tread hit the back of my cab.

 

[Peter Goldwing]

I have found this. It is on internet and Ab Lincoln said everything in there is true


Recapped tires

 

[Pure Texas]

I didn't know there was recapped tires anymore. I see a lot of exploded tire treads on the road but I doubt any are caps. I had 1 blow on my flatbed trailer last year but it was an old tire & a bridgestone but not a recap. A chunk of the tread hit the back of my cab.

A lot of trucking companies use recapp tires on the trailer and drive axel,there’s a law that requires VIRGIN tires on steer axel,Schinder uses recap on everything except steer tires,most flatbed people use real tires on all axels cause most are owners of the equipment

 

[Pure Texas]

This appears to have nothing to do with recapped tires or any tire exploding for that matter. From the story, a pickup truck traveling the opposite direction had its wheel, hub, and caliper break loose and hit the pickup truck traveling other direction, killing the mother.

But I do agree that trailer wheels can be dangerous. That's why I try to blast by trucks when traveling down the Interstates. And if in a group, I will slow down until bike ahead of me passes the truck and then blast by quickly.

That’s the way we as commercal drivers prefer drivers to pass us,get it done,we don’t want there to be an issue to harm anyone

 

[rayjoe]

My only experience with recaps was maybe 50 years ago. I bought a set of 4 from large chain store. The salesman said they would be fine on my little ford econline van.
Lost the tread on two of them with less than 150 miles on them. I returned them all and never bought recaps again!

Rayjoe

 

[cihilb]

When I was young (dinosaurs were puppies then), I used to buy recaps for my car. Working full time for $1.60 hour didn't leave me much cash for 1st run tires. Never had one lose tread. But then again, not a lot of high speed driving.
Big trucks do use them. Probably for cost savings.

 

[Pure Texas]

When I was young (dinosaurs were puppies then), I used to buy recaps for my car. Working full time for $1.60 hour didn't leave me much cash for 1st run tires. Never had one lose tread. But then again, not a lot of high speed driving.
Big trucks do use them. Probably for cost savings.

That’s exactly why they use them,most time they use their known carcasses so the know if the body is good,
NEW steer tires are 500$ and they charge for mounting,they are built different than drive tires and drive tires are less expensive.
most time it’s the cap( alligator) that fails and not a blowout

 

[AZgl1800]

Back in the late '60s, I would buy Recaps for my new '65 Plymouth Satellite....
youngster then, low budget paying job at $365/month but I wanted that car!!!

the car had a 383CI 330hp engine and a Hurst 4 on the floor shifter and Limited Slip diff.....
New tires disappeared as fast as the Recaps did, so I bought recaps.

Don't recall any of them slinging rubber off, but they sure did go down to the core fast.

 

[Craig Adams]

What a tragedy, I usually see such incidents in movies. That is so sad.

 

[johncrawford39]

A lot of trucking companies use recapp tires on the trailer and drive axel,there’s a law that requires VIRGIN tires on steer axel,Schinder uses recap on everything except steer tires,most flatbed people use real tires on all axels cause most are owners of the equipment

The law only requires Virgin steers on buses. That being said I don't know anyone running them on trucks. TPMS is the key. Once I installed that the whole way around my truck and trailer, I never blew another tire.

 

[Pure Texas]

Law says no semis will run recaps on steer,and reliable driver would NEVER use recap tires on steer axle

 

[cihilb]

Most of the tire snakes on the road are from recaps on semi's. I've passed many trucks and have heard quite few with thumping sounds coming from the trailer tires. I think that this is the cap coming loose.
Speed up and get around them.

 

[Pure Texas]

not always,the sound you hear is from a flat spot on a tire from sliding during hard braking but you are wise to get past quick.

 

[RedWinger]

Some of you kids will remember this machine in this story.

The lost art of tire truing | ClassicCars.com Journal

If your tires are getting changed in less than an hour, something’s not right

journal.classiccars.com

 

[cihilb]

Most tires will have either a red dot or yellow dot on the tires. These indicate the light spot of the tire.
On motorcycle rims and some alloy car rims, there also may be a dot on the rim. This is the heavy spot on the rim. Aligning the dots will bring the wheel and tire closer to balance. Less weights will be needed.