Posted by PJH on September 28, 2011 at 21:05:53 from (50.40.216.244):
In Reply to: A flap about mudflaps posted by Ia Leo on September 28, 2011 at 17:36:34:
I worked road construction for 33 years and flaps are definately required in Illinois. I only remember two instances of objects being thrown from between the duals with missing mudflaps. One instance resulted in a broken windshield in a pickup that I was riding in as a passenger. The driver/owner of the pickup caught the truck driver at the next stop sign, and a fight ensued. After a few minutes of good licks being traded, the truck driver pulled out a wallet and handed over two 100 dollar bills for the windshield damage, and the fight was over. I was NOT involved in the fight, and figured there'd be gunplay before it was settled. I'm glad I was wrong. The other instance involved a truck hauling concrete rubble from our jobsite, and was resolved with a simple phone call, and no bloodshed.
Asphalt trucks occasionally lose a flap, but generally they back into the rollers on the front of the paver and as the paver pushes them forward, the flaps roll up and onto the top of the tire, just like the action of a wringer on an old washing machine. When the truck is empty, they leapfrog out of the way, raise the bed up, clean the gate pins, pull the flaps back in position, drop the bed and go for another load. If the flap doesn't go to the top of the tire, it can instead get behind the paver roller and get pulled loose. A good dump man will see it and pull it out before it's torn loose. It's more apt to happen on the right side of the truck, away from the dump man's field of vision. Some trucks have hooks to hang the end of the flap from, but they are rarely used or needed on an asphalt spread.
The trucks that more prone to lose the flaps are the ones that are backing into piles. The flap gets trapped against the pile and tears loose from the bracket. The dangerous ones are the rubble haulers. Hauling rubble gives lots of opportunity to lose a flap, and also lodge a piece of concrete between the duals. A fist sized chunk of concrete can do a lot of damage at highway speed.
You don't see many missing flaps in this area.
Dropping back from a truck with a missing flap is a wise idea.
By the way - my single wheel 3/4 ton flatbed pickup is required to have mudflaps in Illinois.
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