Near Miss!!!

[bullroc3]

Last Thursday, Judy and I made the trip to Syracuse Camping World to have some items repaired, replaced, and adjusted. We finally got the scratched microwave replaced along with a rusting scare light and a missing decal. They did adjust the slide toppers as I requested 11 months ago.

Just south of Syracuse on Interstate 81, we were passed by a tractor trailer. I noticed that the rear right hand mudflap was wrapped over the top of the rear duals on the trailer and the inside rear tire was gone except for a sidewall. He zoomed by and was out of harms way quickly. I thought "Don't want to be too close to him!!". We proceeded to wind our way through Syracuse and jumped on the ramp leading to Interstate 690 and Camping World. After getting on 690, guess who was in front of us!! Yep the same truck. We followed him for about a quarter mile and this little voice said that I better get out from behind him. We were both in the center lane so I moved to the right hand lane to pass him. Just as I got up along side of him, about door to door, BOOM!!!!!! Loudest bang ever!!!. Judy jumped and I looked in my side mirror to see smoke and chunks of rubber occupying the space that we had just vacated 30 seconds before. It scared the life out of us. Yep, he blew out one or more of his tires. I pulled over just down the road to check for damage and to my amazement, NOTHING!!!! Thank you Lord!!!! That would have surely put a crimp in our plans for the summer.

Judy's advice to all - NEVER FOLLOW A TRACTOR TRAILER WITH A MISSING TIRE!!

[H. John Kohl]

Gald you are safe and no damage. Yes situation awareness is a great thing.
Safe travels.

[capn chris]

Very smart of you. Glad all was OK. That's scary!

[DQDick]

Good to hear it worked out well. Very scary situation.

[boat391]

As a truck driver all I have to say is thank goodness you paid attention to your situation most people don't even look. Some times we can lose a tire that far back without knowing it but for the most part I know when I loose a tire. And if I have to go a ways to get off to a safe place I go to the right hand lane and slow down. Chunks off flat tires can travel a long ways.
A blow out can be a very violet action as the tire get extremely hot just before letting go and grows to a unbelievable size then the explosion happens with great force. If it is a outside tire and you are next to it it can rattle you. My pet peeve is people that won't get the pass done as soon as they get along side they seem to slow down and I think about a tire blowing out or many other things that can happen. I hope this help other understand our situation as drivers and to be watchfull of your surroundings . Thank goodness you paid attention.

[JandC]

Paying attention, like you did, while pulling these larger units can save you a lot of problems. Congratulations on being a smart and safe driver.

[Bill-N-Donna]

Glad everything went as smooth as it did!
Things could have escalated quickly for the worse.

[1retired06]

Pays to watch!

[richfaa]

Very scary indeed.

[scott-pati]

Great heads up! Glad your safe!

[rames14]

Thank goodness, it is good news that you didn't have any damage.

[Artemus Gordon]

Glad you mentioned that incident, and glad your ok! Today coming up I 5 from San Francisco we noticed two trucks with blown tires on side of road. Large debris fields on highway. Was a little hard to avoid while towing the trailer. I stopped at a rest area near Williams Ca to inspect my rig. A truck driver who was following me, parked nearby at the same rest stop. Came over to give me his take on the problem. He told me to get use to the tire pieces on road. Said drivers are trying to save money, and describe how many independents are just running tires too long! I wonder how much truth there is in that statement?

[trlrboy]

quote:Originally posted by bullroc3

....Just south of Syracuse on Interstate 81, we were passed by a tractor trailer. I noticed that the rear right hand mudflap was wrapped over the top of the rear duals on the trailer and the inside rear tire was gone except for a sidewall. He zoomed by and was out of harms way quickly. I thought "Don't want to be too close to him!!". We proceeded to wind our way through Syracuse and jumped on the ramp leading to Interstate 690 and Camping World. After getting on 690, guess who was in front of us!! Yep the same truck. We followed him for about a quarter mile and this little voice said that I better get out from behind him. We were both in the center lane so I moved to the right hand lane to pass him. Just as I got up along side of him, about door to door, BOOM!!!!!! ....

Might have been better for you if you passed on the left like you are supposed to. Glad things work out for you though.

[Jay Bird]

Glad everything was ok. I can relate.

[bullroc3]

The left lane was not an option due to passing traffic!!!!!!!

[Tom S.]

quote:Originally posted by trlrboy

Might have been better for you if you passed on the left like you are supposed to. Glad things work out for you though.

Many states require semi's and RV's to use the right two lanes. Not that a lot of truckers pay attention to it, especially around Chicago.

[boat391]

Just another heads up about big rig tires all the Trucks are coming off running cold winter roads to spring and in some cases summer type weather some older capped tires will fail after running in the cold and going right to hot weather. This time of the year is the time you will the most blow outs on big trucks the tires look fine but they just can't take the cold to hot change over. We go through a bunch of tires this time of the year and they all have good tread and look fine so there is no way to predict with one will fail the ones that look like they should fail run forever and others go boom . Just a heads up as to what's happening out there from a truckers point of view and almost 40 years of doing this.