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Worst flat tire I've have had

3

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
I have had a few flat's in my lifetime. get out the jack and go to work. I was going down the freeway today. I felt a thump thump. I thought it was the road. Then someone pulls up, and points to my trailer. I pulled off in a good location. Tire was flat all right. It was shredded. I got the trailer up. All lug nuts actually came off good. The rim would not come off of the hub. The rubber had wound around the back of the backing plate. No matter how hard I pulled or hammered it wasn't budging. I found a knife in my too box. I cut the rubber flap from what was left of the tire. after a couple cuts with a not so sharp knife, I had the rim off. The rest of the tire still wound around the backing plate. I just thought about the brake wiring. Maybe not so good. Stan
 
Many years ago, back when factory Firestone tires were going bad on Fords...

Friend of mine was going down the freeway, a rear tire came apart on his F150. The cords wrapped around the inside, kinked the park brake cable backward, locking up both rear wheels.

Ended up fish-tailing into the center divider wall, totaled the truck. He was shook up but uninjured.
 
I think I can top that! 250 bushel gravity box full of beans. Blow front right tire going down shoulder of U.S. hyway 14. Unhook tractor, go home, get spare and jack but forget block to keep jack from sinking in soft July blacktop. Use jack anyway. Jack sinks on one side and wagon slips off jack. Comes down so hard that the wooden stringer breaks on that side of wagon causing load to tip so far that wagon tips over on slope of ditch. 250 bushels of beans spread out on bottom of ditch during 5:00 traffic.
 

Couple years ago hauling an all terrain forklift and tractor out of California...I-5 going north near Stockton and I blow a LH trailer tire during rush hour. 90 degrees out...chasing my cap down the freeway after a semi passed me so close I thought he hit me. Trailer needs two jacks to get the tire off, one to jack up the frame and another to jack up the axle to get it high enough to get the good tire back on. No fun, but at least the 10 ply let go with enough force that there was nothing left to wrap around the axle. Next day on the home stretch in WA a tire on the right side let go...me thinks I was a bit overloaded....
 
I was on my way to go offshore at three in the morning. Going through New Orleans when the right rear tire on the pickup tire blew. Didn't think it would be too bad to change when there was no traffic. Kneeled town to take the wheel off and found out that I was kneeling on a fire ant nest. Did the quick fire dance and pulled ahead to change tire. Only had a few bites.
 
I haven't had any real bad ones, but a buddy of mine brought a Chevy K3500 single rear wheel pickup to my shop once. The left rear tire had blown while he was pulling a fifth wheel camper. I had to replace/repair half of the left box side, the way it was torn up.
 
I had an old guy show up at my farm shop with an old Chevy pickup. Said he couldn't get the right rear wheel off and wondered if I would help him. When I looked at it, there were NO lug nuts on the wheel. He had driven it two miles from his house in town with all of the nuts removed and laying in the truck bed. I heated the center circle and it slipped right off. Kinda neat - he wondered what he owed me, and I asked him if he remembered all the times he raised my old car up on his lift when he had a service station in town and I was a broke teenager. No - he didn't remember that, but I did and sent him home with no charge.
 
Few years ago I was going home from a shredding job, had tractor & shredder on trailer. Both rear tires on the trailer blew at almost the same time. Both tires flew apart and bent the fenders down and knocked off the license plate. Bent the fenders back up and limped to the tire store.
 
I bought a new 1974 Buick Electra 225 Limited hardtop that was factory-equipped with Firestone 500 radials. Before the dealer finally installed a new set of Michelins under warranty, those Firestone 500's managed to blow out twice, each time on the rear, and each time taking the fender skirt and rocker panel molding with it.
 
I had something similar happen on the way home from hunting last Nov. on my 24' travel trailer. Heard the thump thump and had someone point. I had to pull off alongside a guard rail on I-75 in the rain. Walked around the passenger side to find the rear axle on the ground and the tire and rim gone. All five studs sheared off. I found out the only place in Birch Run MI that stocked lugs and studs for that trailer (Dutchman) was tractor supply. Luckily, I was was able to find my tire and wheel a mile and a half back in the ditch. Only took me 3 hours to get back on the road again.
 
my worst was on a 1957 kenworth dump truck, front flat so its not going anywhere, im 85 miles from home and 40 of those are off road, finally got a ride back, next day took a pickup and empty trailer and a new tire and tube, [ split rim wheels back then] it takes 5 hours each way to where the truck is, the lug nuts wont come off, and i mean they wont come off! the old thing has been together so many years i guess its rusted into 1 piece! so we carefully changed the tire with the rim still on the truck, which isnt easy on a tilt hood, and the 57 is a butterfly hood! meaning the front fender is not moving, after fighting ww111, we got it done, hooked the trailer to the dump truck, put the pickup on it, and came home, never worked so hard in my life!
 
The worst flat tire I've had was during a trip moving up here - maybe 15 years ago? Had the 16' tandem-axle lowboy loaded down. Had to go through Winger, MN which, at that time, had a VERY bad dip in the highway. I think that's what caused the problem, but we got all the way to Thief River Falls when we finally had a flat, plus a lot of "other" noise. Come to find out the bearing in that wheel was shot. Here it was nearly 7pm and we pulled into a place that just happened to be some sort of mechanic.

He didn't have new bearings that size and the auto parts stores were closed, so this guy actually took a set of bearings off of "HIS" personal trailer to get us up and running again! Like, WHO DOES THAT?!?!?

We tried to find him not too long after that, but his business was closed. We heard from another mechanic down the street that he thought the guy passed away suddenly. I hope he knows how much we still appreciate his amazing kindness!!
 
Sometimes it"s called "MN Nice". First combine I bought with a cousin, 140 miles south of us. Drove it home, with the 2 row CH in my pickup. We were both dairy farmers...I had a milker that nite, he did not. He was a ways ahead of me on the highway when the fuel pump went bad on my pickup. Rolled into a farmer"s yard, 100 miles from home. Explained the situation, farmer says take my pickup, catch up with him, and bring the truck back tomorrow. I filled his tank but he wouldn"t take a dime...said he used to milk cows, too!
 
Yes, have met a lot of totally amazing people over the years. Have also met a few jerks. Hopefully I will be remembered by some as I remember that mechanic who helped us out that night.
 
(quoted from post at 08:47:29 03/20/17)
Good on ya! 'What goes around, comes around!' :)
Click to expand...

That 'reply' was related to the post by [b:fd93dd0fff]'PJH'[/b:fd93dd0fff]! 8)
 
Working one college summer for a seed corn company, heading from Ubly, MI after planting a test plot, pulling a borrowed triple axle flat bed loaded with a JD 3020 and custom plot planter. We were entering the highway in Saginaw by the Steering Gear plant, big sweeping cloverleaf-type on ramp, and I see one of the trailer wheels step out and start to pass us on the inside line. Being a farmer-run operation, we had cobbled the whole setup together, and brought almost no tools, etc. I was mechanically inclined, but not at all experienced with transporting equipment to know any better. Looks like it took out the bearing and the whole hub came off. Boss says "it aint draggin, let's just go slow", so we head back to Jackson with five tires on the ground and one in the truck.

Same operation that had me pulling a brand-new weigh cart, and had the new ball come undone from the hitch insert. Trying to stop a top-heavy load like that, that is barely hanging on to the bumper with the two safety chains, from the left lane of the Ohio turnpike at 5 pm, think I had some seat cover stuck in the crack that day...

OR, pulling the Gleaner E test plot combine on a lowboy behind a F700 box truck...

OR....
 

Was heading over to Des Moines, IA for a show, on I-70, and barely got to Dayton and a trailer tire blows out, of course on the traffic side. Got that changed but was worried about the other three tires (the spare was new, to replace the one that got stolen when we stopped for dinner coming back from that show in Indy). Discovered that WalMart was one of the few places that had tires for that trailer, replaced all four in Des Moines. Next year, heading down to Louisville for the NAILE show, trailer loaded up again with llamas. Saw something in the road and swerved the truck to miss it but hit it with the front trailer tire and slashed the side wall, yes, one of the new tires with barely a couple thousand miles on it. Luckily there was a truck stop just ahead and limped in there to change it. Put the spare on and replaced the slashed tire in Louisville.

Hate to run any distance without a spare after these two incidents.
 
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