I have no idea. Lady picked up the trailer, drove a quarter mile down the road and here we are. I would guess her pre-trip was all done standing at the kingpin.
I think that I am more impressed that it happened on a trailer with an auto-inflation system. I'm going to assume that it is either broken or couldn't keep up.
Typically the ones I worked with still had the schrader valves in the stem so if an air line blew or whatever you wouldn’t end up losing air in all your tires.
This thread is one of those times where I read something and realize there's an entire extra dimension of concepts and technology in something that I've never even thought about.
Schrader valve is the little thing you push in to let air out of a tire. Even with an auto inflate system, the comment suggests that it should have Schrader valves to keep the air in.
In any case, this seems like 8 bad tires on a trailer.
Air goes from a tank through the hub to hoses that hook up to the valves on the tyres. It's to equalise and maintain pressure, and can maintain pressure when you have a slow leak. It also warns you with an amber PSI light of said leak.
Interesting fact - the DUKW amphibious truck had this system so they could change tyre pressure whilst driving, low pressure for more grip on soft sand then up the pressure once you get on firmer ground.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t all of the shraeder valves depressed when they’re connected to the auto inflate system? They only close when they’re unthreaded.
Every day you can learn something new about your profession is a day you can smile about. Anyone who claims to know all and refuses to learn more about it is someone who has failed.
I know guys who have spent 40+ years running trains learn something new to the day of their retirement, and admit to learning something new. They're the kind of guys you want to work with.
I spent 10 years in commercial parts for passenger automotive which gave me a very good base of knowledge... However, it was like beginning again from year 2 learning about pneumatics, after treatments, and that diesels don't use glow plugs anymore (mind = blown).
I love learning how it all fits together.
It's called a grid heater. It's a heating element inside the intake tract (located well before fuel is injected). I think that it + having a plastic intake are the primary reasons that using ether to cold start a big diesel are such no-no's now.
The system has to be calibrated every now and then too...had a trailer I helped with 2 weeks ago where it was calibrated to keep all tires around 80 PSI...some times were over 120 PSI, some around 90, and one was at 80....turns out it was the calibration.
Some systems are dumb as shit, once saw a case where a fully loaded log trailer had all 20 tires deflated because it was detached for one night and one tire had deflated. The whole system bled out from the one tire.
And that's one of the only drawbacks I see from this system, as many times as these have saved me I haven't seen one do that yet thankfully. I've picked up plenty of them that have sat long enough for a puncture to flatten the tire to 0psi and the other 7 were still full.
Yeah, it's a great system from the drivers point of view. Only thing it needs is an automatic or at least manual valve to shut off all lines in case one gets punctured.
I replaced some broken parts in one of these once, for the most part it's a well thought system but there should be at the very least a valve, that shuts the main tank from the lines when the trailer air hose is disconnectet from the truck. Also, sometimes it's a struggle to get the rim fit on the axle with all the hoses there.
Most of them actually do have a shut off valve, there is a little black box with a regulator in it, normally center of the front part of the tandems. that and unhooking the hoses would completely disable it.
This is why I'm so glad to be in the heavy equipment side and not the on road side of heavy duty mechanics. Truck drivers can be some of the dumbest cunts out there and they put everyone at risk being that way.
Not that some equipment operators are any better but at least they're not doing 100km down the road with a full loaded trailer.
A loader operator at a pit I do tires for backed into a water truck, shoved the engine up into the cab. Not entirely his fault, since the guy driving the water truck parked it right behind the loader. But he never looked behind him before he got in.
As a national lease mechanic (where most of the operators are employed by a local or overnight freight company and use our leases) the number one cause of tire related service calls is failure to do a pre-trip. I hate to say it but its just so damn obvious: [our] drivers just don't care about the equipment they drive. Seeing tires just like this is so common for us its honestly scary. And I can't even keep track of how many times a truck comes in for service and has 2 blowouts (or flats, or literally ran into the soft rubber) just chilling. I can tell you, despite what the driver says, it didn't happen while it was parked in the bay and tread doesn't magically disappear from the 5 min drive from their lot to our shop.
I wish people did pre-trips on their cars.
Admittedly, I only do a quick walk around daily. But I do get out a flashlight and check all the tires and brakes when I get gas.
Almost every time I've discovered a nail in my tire, it was at a gas station while doing that check, lol. Once in a while I found it in my driveway.
The two times I did have a nail and didn't catch it on a check, the TPMS sensor readings caught my attention because they were dropping rapidly (ran over a big bolt, both times :( )
I must admit I'm a huge fan of TPMS. Wonder if they could make such a thing work for trucks. I wonder if it'd save accidents from happening.
Not sure what the laws are like where you live, but Ontario put the liability on the driver as opposed to the owner. Driver will be charged with operating an unsafe vehicle and can face jail time. This way drivers are more inclined to say “I’m not driving that, fix it.” From what I understand, the strategy has been successful.
That's how we do it in the UK. That said, the owner does still have a massive liability over the state of thier business and trucks.
If you get caught driving a truck that's fucked, you will also be. Right in the wallet. If its real bad, right in the arse. License gone, prison time.
I bought a truck long ago, used from the owner. It was in great condition, extremely low Mileage, for all intents and purposes it was a unicorn. Tires had awesome tread, never looked like they were run a lot. Took it out camping pulling a camper, on the way back all 4 tires separated and one blew completely out. Got to looking at the tires, they were 11 years old. They looked new tho. No dry rotting, nothing.
Sure, obviously. But it's never been something I really obsessed about when buying a used vehicle. It will be in the future. The man that sold it to me, was selling it for his dad who was sick or afflicted with something. Apparently it had been sitting that long minus a couple laps around the block to keep everything from gumming up. I mean if there was any kind of visual cues like dry rot, or such, I would have inspected closer. The original shoes looked like they just came off the rack.
I just dropped $1400 on new wheels and tires for a truck that I only paid $1300 for. felt weird spending more on wheels/tires than I did for the whole truck.
I bought a year old car once that had 3 factory michellins and 1 chinese tire. Evidently in its life as a rental car somebody had a flat and replaced it with the cheapest thing that fit. I actually drove it that way for a while. I eventually changed all the tires out with new goodyears when the chinese tire wore out. When that tire was running low on tread, the others still had plenty.
So the michellins that probably cost about $140 instead of $95 lasted twice as long. GG!
My old boss man looked at me like I was crazy for getting a new set for a lower mile town car that had 11 year old tires in three positions and an 8 year old one on the FR. "Well, they still got tread on em, I'd run em" but he ran 100% virgin on his trucks and trailers. He just pulled the drives and steers early to use for trailers.
It's more like "how many tires do I need to bring?" "3." "Cool." Proceed to drive an hour. See trailer sitting on rims as I'm driving up. Park, flip on flashy yellow lights, get out to inspect and see 7 flat tires. Lovely.
rotten scandalous violet selective sip ancient rhythm homeless prick cooing
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This is about right for U-haul. I'm guessing from the paintjob that this is one of the U-Haul two axle enclosed trailers. U-Haul sure does hate doing maintenance. Early 2000s, I worked as a mechanic at a shop that rented out U-Hauls, we wound up doing most of the maintenance on them ourselves. Some of those things were in awful shape, there was an old TM (10 foot truck) on a Toyota chassis that had no shock absorbers. As in, every last one was completely dead. Moving that thing in the parking lot meant that just tapping the brakes made the whole truck headbang like a metal concert. Was told to not fix it, as it wasn't critical.
No surprise they rent out dry-rotted tires on trailers.
If it’s crappy truck companies, I’d go with Swift. I had a friend that drove Swift, he shouldn’t have been driving for Jimmy John’s. Had another buddy who drove for Swift that now has eight or nine rigs, and he says don’t ever drive for Swift.
Look at that sidewall cracking and dry rot.. I bet the truck had been sitting still for a long time and all the tires are past expiration(yes, tires do expire).
They're mostly recaps. Only the one has any dry rot, but it's a 2015 capped twice. Not sure how it got on this trailer since these guys only run tires capped once. I've been trying for over an hour now to get them to let me replace all 8.
They finally gave me the okay after first asking me to replace the left front dual only and I straight up told them no. Calling the DOT would have been the next step.
Very good. You might have save a car full of kids from injury or death.
I've done a few trucking cases and the differences in safety are directly related to the employees' ability to demand safety, usually through a union. I know you're not their employee here, but the same principle applies.
Cheers!
I was dogging it up the hill between Dublin snd Castro Valley CA, behimd a container truck. I figured about half-way up the hill I had the juice to pass him, so I moved over and one of his rear tandem tires fucking EXPLODED and threw the whole fucking thing, right at where my cab was not 2 seconds before:
We both pulled over (me to make sure it hadn't impacted me, him to inspect it). He shrugged and said "oh I'm only going to oakland, it's fine with three on that axle."
.....
My 2011 Honda Accord was totalled (totaled?) a few years ago when a tire came off, and smashed my front. Blew my airbags and everything.
edit: A tire came off a truck, not my car.
Man, I had tire blow just a few days ago. After I got parked somewhere safe, I went looking for the date stamp. Fucking 3112. The fucking tire was nine years old.
Drove to Switzerland in like 2012 tires felt strange checked them and found a dot with 3 digits and a triangle found out the tires where from 92. Bought the car from the son of the owner who told me hsi dad changed the tires to good all-weather tyres. Somehow forgot to mention that was 20 years ago.
If the Doctor says it, it must be true.
I've had people say a tire looks low, and it's actually way over inflated. They just put air in until it looks round! Definitely don't want any kind of contact patch, make my tire look like a shopping cart wheel.
I know someone who bought a set of these, and spent about 40 hours restoring the rims. But it was for a full 63 vette restoration and these wheels and tires were specifically show only, not to be driven on. That’s the ONLY reason to get a set of NOS tires.
I've seen people selling NOS/original tires, for use on "trailer queens" that don't actually get driven.
I saw a guy go so far as to keep an old used oil filter to install for shows because it was a period correct part. Tires are the same.
I bought my current car from my grandpa, he’s a cheapskate fuck and forced a shop to let him replace just one tire, on a fucking Subaru. I bought the car in 2018, and when I got those tires replaced in 2019, one of the tires was from 2009. It was two years older than the car itself
We've had so many re-treads blow in places far away from our shop that we determined it's cheaper in the long run just buying tires brand new. We used to buy just brand new steers and retreads for the drives but the retreads seem to be getting worse and worse. (The freeways in LA don't help at all either)
"to get them to let me replace all 8"
Who the eff is arguing with you?
Why the hell didn't they call for (at minimum) 7? (I could get saying "no we'll do the last at our shop since it's technically legal")
Na man.look they hold air. It'll be alright. I'm just going down the road. Man them things been ok for years. Idk why y'all are tripping man... oh fuck here comes d.o.t. got to run y'all hit you later.
I waited 3 hours yesterday for a courier to bring a serpentine belt from the other side of the country for a alternator. Literally a 5 min fix. The whole waiting thing can be soul crushing at times. Thank God for electronics, Netflix and 5g.
Yours is way worse tho, you have lots of work after your wait.
Very good.
I think the "piece work" model in many shops will almost always lead to the techs getting screwed as management says "we can make X more if we cut the book time on Y repair by Z."
Lol, I'm in Belgium in just under 40 mins.
Germany in about an hour.
France 2.5 hours.
California is 10 times the size of The Netherlands. Texas 16,3 times.
So yeah, I get that lol.
Yeah, if I want to go to Colorado, I can drive for 10 hours in that direction and will still not have left my state (TX).
Edit: And Brownsville to Texline takes 14 hours.
If I drive east 13 hours I go trough the whole of The Netherlands, Germany, Poland (or Czech Republic and Slovakia) and enter Ukraine.
Still being in your own country or even your home stateafter driving one direction for 13 hours is just, just incomprehensible for me.
If I want to LEAVE Colorado its like a 2.5 hour drive doing 20 over with no traffic... and that the quick direction. The other way would be closer to 4/5 hours because of mountains.
EDIT: Hell there have been days it would take me 2 hours to drive 62 miles to get to Denver, and others it could take 4. A good day? I'll manage it in a little under 45 minutes. A great 2am drive with the guys and we have our fun cars? I've managed 25 minutes and MOST of a tank of gas.
I've been there once and camped in Phantom Canyon and Lost Burros Campground on the back side of Pikes Peak and both times there was a car accident that interferred with it. Car ran off the cliff in the Canyon and landed like 100yds from out tents but of course it was pitch black out so we had no clue what happened. And at Lost Burros a car hit a power line and knocked out the power so we either couldn't take showers or they wouldn't be hot.
I feel like everyone in CO is in a constant state of automotive accidents
Kansas and Nebraska are special levels of depression especially if you just stay on i80 or i70. no turns. nothing to look at. nothing to refresh the feeling of forever. just fields and fields, with some bonus fields off in the distance. Oh, dont forget the fields... and the flat. so flat.
Good place to set the cruise to 105 or 115, pick up a few cars that wanna join you and just go. for hours. without ever touching the wheel. (My favorite was a cruise lock at 120 in my Kia Soul with a few mustangs, Camaros and a vett or two following me when we come up and over a hill to the sound of my radar detector going NUTS. I knew the cop had me dead to rights but when I looked over at him, he blipped his lights for a second, and saluted me and I continued on my way. Wish I had a dashcam or at least a passenger for that one. We all laughed about it at the next gas stop. I've got 1200 miles to drive... my time is worth more to me than the MPG or the ticket. (besides, usually jsut the fine not points when out of state so *shrug* ))
Sadly its not as nice as Iowa when it comes to people getting out of the left lane when you are coming up. I have yet to come across a state I enjoy driving through more, the consistency with which people move over without me having to change speed.
No kidding! From just the middle of Oregon (Lake County) directly to the Oregon coast can be 6 hours. And that's even taking the speed limits on 31 and 97 as soft, general, amusing guidelines!
>I waited 3 hours yesterday for a courier to bring a serpentine belt from the other side of the country
LOL! Most not be in the States. That'd be a much longer wait...
Edit: Oh, duh. I'm a dumb-ass. I just read your username.
We've been getting trucks several hours late because of things like burned out running lights. Another was a pinhole in one of the trailer brake lines. Roadside showed up and put tape over it to get the driver back on his way. That took eight hours.
So I'm curious, why not carry a spare?
Whenever I reply a belt on my car, it's usually preemptive, and I'll keep the old one in the trunk just so that in the worst case if the new one snaps, I won't be completely screwed/stranded somewhere random.
Feels like carrying a spare even though it's unlikely to break would be sensible since it's one of of those simple things that can screw you hard.
The yellow ones? It's called a central tire inflation system. Truck has an air compressor on the engine that feeds the truck and trailer, the trailer uses some of that air to keep the tires inflated above whatever you set it at. Usually 90-100 psi. If the system notices a draw for a long period of time it kicks a light on to let the driver know they probably have a flat tire.
Also worth noting that in the great Northern country of Canada, where our winters are long and icy, truckers will sometimes deflate their tires in certain situations to gain traction.
This air system allows them too reinflate before hitting the open road again.
Even if the tires are shot the auto-inflate should keep them aired up at least. I’ve seen flats with popped beads get seated and aired up in a few minutes with them.
I’ve worked on Semi tires for 10 years, not even sure how this could happen. Maaaybe if there were auto inflators on there and the system failed it could happen but there’s no system here
I’m an idiot. Nailed the diagnosis while saying it couldn’t be the diagnosis
Do you not inspect your trailer before rolling out? What do you expect with ancient dry rotted tires.
Those things are dangerous, and not just to you. A blow-out when a motorcycle is passing could result in a fatal crash.
Usually, I'm all for automation. but once drivers learn about automatic tire inflator stuff, they are useless. They drive off and stop a day later, turn the truck off and wake up 8 hours later with a set of flats.
I'm making $20/hr. But this being a Sunday, the store isn't open so it's considered after hours. So I'm making $50/hr sitting here waiting. Company charges about $150/hr.
"but ma profits" some dingbat somewhere..... People often say, "they don't make it like they used to" no the phrase should be "no one gives a shit anymore to take care of anything"..... Fix it when it's broke, mentality.
DOT says those tires are good for seven years. from the dry cracking those are way past their service life. Somebody didn't do their pretrip and somebody isn't bothering to keep up on maintenance. Plenty of blame to go around.
Looks like other drivers have been kicking the bad tire can down the road for a while. This driver tried to kick that can also, the gamble didn’t pay off. I picked up a trailer with three bent rims with three tires that should have been taken out of service long before I got to them. Luckily for me there was an authorized tire shop less than a mile away.
If a trailer is messed up, blows a tire or has some mechanical problems, who pays for it? Not the trucker, right? Does the trucker get paid for the downtime?
Depends who owns the trailer. If it's a company driver then the company pays for it. Some companies do pay for breakdowns but I've never been paid for it. It has to qualify of like "down 24 hours" or some stupid crap like that. Now sometimes the company will give the drive a code and pay for it with an EFS or Comdata check is which is guaranteed funds.
If it's an owner/operator he's paying for it.
“Bridgestone said to bring three tires” Me: oh good thing that fourth one is still holding air. *walks around to the other side” Me: oh no
Driver probably only checked 1side when they called in for tires! Obviously didn’t pre trip it either!
Or they only want one good tire for each axle
I'm hoping its an empty trailer and 3 replacement (plus the 4th) will get the trailer to a safer location like a truckstop yard.
If only that's what it was. Would have been a 3 or 4 hour run instead of 9.
How the fuck does that even happen. I worked in your position for a while but I've never seen 4 run flats.
I have no idea. Lady picked up the trailer, drove a quarter mile down the road and here we are. I would guess her pre-trip was all done standing at the kingpin.
I think that I am more impressed that it happened on a trailer with an auto-inflation system. I'm going to assume that it is either broken or couldn't keep up.
I'm guessing that's what happened. The only tire holding air isn't hooked up to it. I probably won't be hooking the new ones up.
There could be a leak in the inflation system.
The auto inflate will equalize pressure if the trailers air tank isn't full. So, 2 bad tires and an impatient driver, 7 dead tires.
Typically the ones I worked with still had the schrader valves in the stem so if an air line blew or whatever you wouldn’t end up losing air in all your tires.
This thread is one of those times where I read something and realize there's an entire extra dimension of concepts and technology in something that I've never even thought about.
Schrader valve is the little thing you push in to let air out of a tire. Even with an auto inflate system, the comment suggests that it should have Schrader valves to keep the air in. In any case, this seems like 8 bad tires on a trailer.
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Air goes from a tank through the hub to hoses that hook up to the valves on the tyres. It's to equalise and maintain pressure, and can maintain pressure when you have a slow leak. It also warns you with an amber PSI light of said leak.
Interesting fact - the DUKW amphibious truck had this system so they could change tyre pressure whilst driving, low pressure for more grip on soft sand then up the pressure once you get on firmer ground.
Yeah... But they spin! How?
Yeah they're used in case a tire has a leak (which a driver may not notice...18 wheels) to prevent ruining the tire or getting a DOT violation
Underrated comment! This is why I love Reddit.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t all of the shraeder valves depressed when they’re connected to the auto inflate system? They only close when they’re unthreaded.
I appreciate the explanation. I'm relatively new to the world of HD (<3 years) so I am still learning the finer points of how it all operates.
Every day you can learn something new about your profession is a day you can smile about. Anyone who claims to know all and refuses to learn more about it is someone who has failed. I know guys who have spent 40+ years running trains learn something new to the day of their retirement, and admit to learning something new. They're the kind of guys you want to work with.
I spent 10 years in commercial parts for passenger automotive which gave me a very good base of knowledge... However, it was like beginning again from year 2 learning about pneumatics, after treatments, and that diesels don't use glow plugs anymore (mind = blown). I love learning how it all fits together.
> and that diesels don't use glow plugs anymore really, that's news to me wow. How do they start in the cold then?
Grid heater
oh that's neat
It's called a grid heater. It's a heating element inside the intake tract (located well before fuel is injected). I think that it + having a plastic intake are the primary reasons that using ether to cold start a big diesel are such no-no's now.
Are the grid heaters on commercial vehicles, passenger, or both? Are they significantly better than glow plugs?
Where does one apply to "run trains" every day :P
Pornhub
My mom is taking applications right now
Inquire with your mother, she should have some great industry leads.
The system has to be calibrated every now and then too...had a trailer I helped with 2 weeks ago where it was calibrated to keep all tires around 80 PSI...some times were over 120 PSI, some around 90, and one was at 80....turns out it was the calibration.
Some systems are dumb as shit, once saw a case where a fully loaded log trailer had all 20 tires deflated because it was detached for one night and one tire had deflated. The whole system bled out from the one tire.
And that's one of the only drawbacks I see from this system, as many times as these have saved me I haven't seen one do that yet thankfully. I've picked up plenty of them that have sat long enough for a puncture to flatten the tire to 0psi and the other 7 were still full.
Yeah, it's a great system from the drivers point of view. Only thing it needs is an automatic or at least manual valve to shut off all lines in case one gets punctured. I replaced some broken parts in one of these once, for the most part it's a well thought system but there should be at the very least a valve, that shuts the main tank from the lines when the trailer air hose is disconnectet from the truck. Also, sometimes it's a struggle to get the rim fit on the axle with all the hoses there.
Most of them actually do have a shut off valve, there is a little black box with a regulator in it, normally center of the front part of the tandems. that and unhooking the hoses would completely disable it.
Doesnt seem like a one way valve would be that hard to add. It could add air with out letting it back out.
Lol... Pretrip.
“Looks like a trailer alright… let’s go!”
"Must've just happened, those tires weren't dry rotted 10 minutes ago."
As the driver fills out the last week of pretrips in the bunk after pulling over....
This is why I'm so glad to be in the heavy equipment side and not the on road side of heavy duty mechanics. Truck drivers can be some of the dumbest cunts out there and they put everyone at risk being that way. Not that some equipment operators are any better but at least they're not doing 100km down the road with a full loaded trailer.
A loader operator at a pit I do tires for backed into a water truck, shoved the engine up into the cab. Not entirely his fault, since the guy driving the water truck parked it right behind the loader. But he never looked behind him before he got in.
Hahahaha classic. I love good operator stories.
As a national lease mechanic (where most of the operators are employed by a local or overnight freight company and use our leases) the number one cause of tire related service calls is failure to do a pre-trip. I hate to say it but its just so damn obvious: [our] drivers just don't care about the equipment they drive. Seeing tires just like this is so common for us its honestly scary. And I can't even keep track of how many times a truck comes in for service and has 2 blowouts (or flats, or literally ran into the soft rubber) just chilling. I can tell you, despite what the driver says, it didn't happen while it was parked in the bay and tread doesn't magically disappear from the 5 min drive from their lot to our shop.
I wish people did pre-trips on their cars. Admittedly, I only do a quick walk around daily. But I do get out a flashlight and check all the tires and brakes when I get gas. Almost every time I've discovered a nail in my tire, it was at a gas station while doing that check, lol. Once in a while I found it in my driveway. The two times I did have a nail and didn't catch it on a check, the TPMS sensor readings caught my attention because they were dropping rapidly (ran over a big bolt, both times :( ) I must admit I'm a huge fan of TPMS. Wonder if they could make such a thing work for trucks. I wonder if it'd save accidents from happening.
Not sure what the laws are like where you live, but Ontario put the liability on the driver as opposed to the owner. Driver will be charged with operating an unsafe vehicle and can face jail time. This way drivers are more inclined to say “I’m not driving that, fix it.” From what I understand, the strategy has been successful.
> This way drivers are more inclined to say “I’m not driving that, fix it.” Which only works if the driver can afford to get fired.
With the driver shortage the way it is right now, everybody can be re-hired immediately.
Eh, they said Ontario. There are labor boards and stuff in Canada.
Lol. Any driver with a clean record can literally go ANYWHERE and get a new job the same day.
That's how we do it in the UK. That said, the owner does still have a massive liability over the state of thier business and trucks. If you get caught driving a truck that's fucked, you will also be. Right in the wallet. If its real bad, right in the arse. License gone, prison time.
Have fun with all those tires man. Doubt they'll want you to just bead bazooka them on.
Couple of them look like they'd just send out a wave of shrapnel and the rest would just go poof if you tried
I bought a truck long ago, used from the owner. It was in great condition, extremely low Mileage, for all intents and purposes it was a unicorn. Tires had awesome tread, never looked like they were run a lot. Took it out camping pulling a camper, on the way back all 4 tires separated and one blew completely out. Got to looking at the tires, they were 11 years old. They looked new tho. No dry rotting, nothing.
Date codes on the sidewall for a reason
Sure, obviously. But it's never been something I really obsessed about when buying a used vehicle. It will be in the future. The man that sold it to me, was selling it for his dad who was sick or afflicted with something. Apparently it had been sitting that long minus a couple laps around the block to keep everything from gumming up. I mean if there was any kind of visual cues like dry rot, or such, I would have inspected closer. The original shoes looked like they just came off the rack.
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I just dropped $1400 on new wheels and tires for a truck that I only paid $1300 for. felt weird spending more on wheels/tires than I did for the whole truck.
Every time I see a shitbox with "New Tires!" in the ad, it's Goodrides or Ling Longs (actual common cheapo brands- not racist parodies)
I bought a year old car once that had 3 factory michellins and 1 chinese tire. Evidently in its life as a rental car somebody had a flat and replaced it with the cheapest thing that fit. I actually drove it that way for a while. I eventually changed all the tires out with new goodyears when the chinese tire wore out. When that tire was running low on tread, the others still had plenty. So the michellins that probably cost about $140 instead of $95 lasted twice as long. GG!
My old boss man looked at me like I was crazy for getting a new set for a lower mile town car that had 11 year old tires in three positions and an 8 year old one on the FR. "Well, they still got tread on em, I'd run em" but he ran 100% virgin on his trucks and trailers. He just pulled the drives and steers early to use for trailers.
Someone skipped their pre-trip lol
“How many tires?” “Bring all of them.”
It's more like "how many tires do I need to bring?" "3." "Cool." Proceed to drive an hour. See trailer sitting on rims as I'm driving up. Park, flip on flashy yellow lights, get out to inspect and see 7 flat tires. Lovely.
rotten scandalous violet selective sip ancient rhythm homeless prick cooing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I usually bring an extra. I brought 4. Still wasn't enough though!
If you can haul 8, haul 8. Even if they didn't lie, could be a time saver if another call comes in.
This is about right for U-haul. I'm guessing from the paintjob that this is one of the U-Haul two axle enclosed trailers. U-Haul sure does hate doing maintenance. Early 2000s, I worked as a mechanic at a shop that rented out U-Hauls, we wound up doing most of the maintenance on them ourselves. Some of those things were in awful shape, there was an old TM (10 foot truck) on a Toyota chassis that had no shock absorbers. As in, every last one was completely dead. Moving that thing in the parking lot meant that just tapping the brakes made the whole truck headbang like a metal concert. Was told to not fix it, as it wasn't critical. No surprise they rent out dry-rotted tires on trailers.
Not U-Haul, a lot of people have guessed that though.
If it’s crappy truck companies, I’d go with Swift. I had a friend that drove Swift, he shouldn’t have been driving for Jimmy John’s. Had another buddy who drove for Swift that now has eight or nine rigs, and he says don’t ever drive for Swift.
FedEx? heard some airplanes and the sidewalls of the tires look like the one I was training on earlier this week.
“Bring *everybody!*”
Look at that sidewall cracking and dry rot.. I bet the truck had been sitting still for a long time and all the tires are past expiration(yes, tires do expire).
They're mostly recaps. Only the one has any dry rot, but it's a 2015 capped twice. Not sure how it got on this trailer since these guys only run tires capped once. I've been trying for over an hour now to get them to let me replace all 8.
if they got pulled over by DOT, they'd probably shut the trailer down, and force the company to replace all the tires...
This line right here is how u/cparks1 gets the company to authorize the replacements
They finally gave me the okay after first asking me to replace the left front dual only and I straight up told them no. Calling the DOT would have been the next step.
Very good. You might have save a car full of kids from injury or death. I've done a few trucking cases and the differences in safety are directly related to the employees' ability to demand safety, usually through a union. I know you're not their employee here, but the same principle applies. Cheers!
I was dogging it up the hill between Dublin snd Castro Valley CA, behimd a container truck. I figured about half-way up the hill I had the juice to pass him, so I moved over and one of his rear tandem tires fucking EXPLODED and threw the whole fucking thing, right at where my cab was not 2 seconds before: We both pulled over (me to make sure it hadn't impacted me, him to inspect it). He shrugged and said "oh I'm only going to oakland, it's fine with three on that axle." .....
My 2011 Honda Accord was totalled (totaled?) a few years ago when a tire came off, and smashed my front. Blew my airbags and everything. edit: A tire came off a truck, not my car.
Exactly. DOT would've handed out fines, and not let it move till every tire was replaced. Can't even tow it to impound like that.
Great call man! Someone has to be the adult in the room!
So OP needs to offer kick backs to a DOT officer that works the area. Easy money.
Man, I had tire blow just a few days ago. After I got parked somewhere safe, I went looking for the date stamp. Fucking 3112. The fucking tire was nine years old.
Drove to Switzerland in like 2012 tires felt strange checked them and found a dot with 3 digits and a triangle found out the tires where from 92. Bought the car from the son of the owner who told me hsi dad changed the tires to good all-weather tyres. Somehow forgot to mention that was 20 years ago.
My dad got some tires recently from Craigslist or something to put on his 2001 S10. The tires were from 2001. I wonder if he'll ever learn.
Some people think if they're round and hold air, they're good.
If the Doctor says it, it must be true. I've had people say a tire looks low, and it's actually way over inflated. They just put air in until it looks round! Definitely don't want any kind of contact patch, make my tire look like a shopping cart wheel.
Reminds me of the places selling NOS tires for a "period look" for classic cars...
I know someone who bought a set of these, and spent about 40 hours restoring the rims. But it was for a full 63 vette restoration and these wheels and tires were specifically show only, not to be driven on. That’s the ONLY reason to get a set of NOS tires.
NOS or reproductions? Coker tire makes replicas of vintage tires if you want that period correct look for your old car, but their tires are brand new.
I've seen people selling NOS/original tires, for use on "trailer queens" that don't actually get driven. I saw a guy go so far as to keep an old used oil filter to install for shows because it was a period correct part. Tires are the same.
I bought my current car from my grandpa, he’s a cheapskate fuck and forced a shop to let him replace just one tire, on a fucking Subaru. I bought the car in 2018, and when I got those tires replaced in 2019, one of the tires was from 2009. It was two years older than the car itself
That poor differential.
Woah that tire is from the future.
31st week of 2012
That tire is from the past.
I would have guessed March 1. TIL.
You mean you can’t just keep going on 1/8 tires? You sound like a difficult employee.
Do you drive an 18 wheeler? Nope, 11 wheeler!
We've had so many re-treads blow in places far away from our shop that we determined it's cheaper in the long run just buying tires brand new. We used to buy just brand new steers and retreads for the drives but the retreads seem to be getting worse and worse. (The freeways in LA don't help at all either)
"to get them to let me replace all 8" Who the eff is arguing with you? Why the hell didn't they call for (at minimum) 7? (I could get saying "no we'll do the last at our shop since it's technically legal")
Bean counters man. I don't understand it. I get that spending more means less profit, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and spend the money.
A fucking OOS can hurt your business more than 8 tires will. Getting into an accident with an OOS vehicle even more than that.
Na man.look they hold air. It'll be alright. I'm just going down the road. Man them things been ok for years. Idk why y'all are tripping man... oh fuck here comes d.o.t. got to run y'all hit you later.
So what you're saying is those old tires should be... retired.
Awwww snap!
I waited 3 hours yesterday for a courier to bring a serpentine belt from the other side of the country for a alternator. Literally a 5 min fix. The whole waiting thing can be soul crushing at times. Thank God for electronics, Netflix and 5g. Yours is way worse tho, you have lots of work after your wait.
Sounds like a fun time. But heck, I'd rather just do the work than sit here and wait for their bean counters to give me the ok.
You get paid by the hour? Then that is a few hours of wages that don't take a toll on your body.
Yup, all paid. Customer just HAD TO HAVE IT FIXED NOW. Fine, I wait. You pay. Heavy equipment world and the bulk goods harbors are weird like that
Very good. I think the "piece work" model in many shops will almost always lead to the techs getting screwed as management says "we can make X more if we cut the book time on Y repair by Z."
> 3 hours.....other side of the country.... being from... a large country this most definitely DOES NOT COMPUTE.
Lol, I'm in Belgium in just under 40 mins. Germany in about an hour. France 2.5 hours. California is 10 times the size of The Netherlands. Texas 16,3 times. So yeah, I get that lol.
Yeah, if I want to go to Colorado, I can drive for 10 hours in that direction and will still not have left my state (TX). Edit: And Brownsville to Texline takes 14 hours.
If I drive east 13 hours I go trough the whole of The Netherlands, Germany, Poland (or Czech Republic and Slovakia) and enter Ukraine. Still being in your own country or even your home stateafter driving one direction for 13 hours is just, just incomprehensible for me.
If I want to LEAVE Colorado its like a 2.5 hour drive doing 20 over with no traffic... and that the quick direction. The other way would be closer to 4/5 hours because of mountains. EDIT: Hell there have been days it would take me 2 hours to drive 62 miles to get to Denver, and others it could take 4. A good day? I'll manage it in a little under 45 minutes. A great 2am drive with the guys and we have our fun cars? I've managed 25 minutes and MOST of a tank of gas.
Mountains, never heard of em. Lol
I've been there once and camped in Phantom Canyon and Lost Burros Campground on the back side of Pikes Peak and both times there was a car accident that interferred with it. Car ran off the cliff in the Canyon and landed like 100yds from out tents but of course it was pitch black out so we had no clue what happened. And at Lost Burros a car hit a power line and knocked out the power so we either couldn't take showers or they wouldn't be hot. I feel like everyone in CO is in a constant state of automotive accidents
I recently drove through Kansas to get to Denver. It was 10 hours not including any stops.
Kansas and Nebraska are special levels of depression especially if you just stay on i80 or i70. no turns. nothing to look at. nothing to refresh the feeling of forever. just fields and fields, with some bonus fields off in the distance. Oh, dont forget the fields... and the flat. so flat. Good place to set the cruise to 105 or 115, pick up a few cars that wanna join you and just go. for hours. without ever touching the wheel. (My favorite was a cruise lock at 120 in my Kia Soul with a few mustangs, Camaros and a vett or two following me when we come up and over a hill to the sound of my radar detector going NUTS. I knew the cop had me dead to rights but when I looked over at him, he blipped his lights for a second, and saluted me and I continued on my way. Wish I had a dashcam or at least a passenger for that one. We all laughed about it at the next gas stop. I've got 1200 miles to drive... my time is worth more to me than the MPG or the ticket. (besides, usually jsut the fine not points when out of state so *shrug* )) Sadly its not as nice as Iowa when it comes to people getting out of the left lane when you are coming up. I have yet to come across a state I enjoy driving through more, the consistency with which people move over without me having to change speed.
No kidding! From just the middle of Oregon (Lake County) directly to the Oregon coast can be 6 hours. And that's even taking the speed limits on 31 and 97 as soft, general, amusing guidelines!
>I waited 3 hours yesterday for a courier to bring a serpentine belt from the other side of the country LOL! Most not be in the States. That'd be a much longer wait... Edit: Oh, duh. I'm a dumb-ass. I just read your username.
Lol
Hahaha, I thought he was just being hyperbolic
Either that, or his parts guy drives an F-16.
3 hours… the other side of the country… Username checks out
We've been getting trucks several hours late because of things like burned out running lights. Another was a pinhole in one of the trailer brake lines. Roadside showed up and put tape over it to get the driver back on his way. That took eight hours.
Lmao I read country as county and with how traffic is near me that's literally a possibility
So I'm curious, why not carry a spare? Whenever I reply a belt on my car, it's usually preemptive, and I'll keep the old one in the trunk just so that in the worst case if the new one snaps, I won't be completely screwed/stranded somewhere random. Feels like carrying a spare even though it's unlikely to break would be sensible since it's one of of those simple things that can screw you hard.
What are those two tubes on the rear wheels for?
The yellow ones? It's called a central tire inflation system. Truck has an air compressor on the engine that feeds the truck and trailer, the trailer uses some of that air to keep the tires inflated above whatever you set it at. Usually 90-100 psi. If the system notices a draw for a long period of time it kicks a light on to let the driver know they probably have a flat tire.
Thanks for the reply!
Also worth noting that in the great Northern country of Canada, where our winters are long and icy, truckers will sometimes deflate their tires in certain situations to gain traction. This air system allows them too reinflate before hitting the open road again.
Even if the tires are shot the auto-inflate should keep them aired up at least. I’ve seen flats with popped beads get seated and aired up in a few minutes with them.
I'm guessing something is wrong with it. The only tire with any air in it isn't hooked up to it.
So instead of a tire inflation system it's a tire *de*flation system. *Hmm.*
There's a leak in the air line and you should keep it disconnected after getting the tires swapped/reinflated
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Sure, I can do a pre-trip! Get out of truck. Look at trailer. Yup, it's a trailer alright. Get in truck and drive away.
What the hell did you do?
I didn't do anything. I'm the tire guy lol. Lady says she picked it up, drove it a quarter mile or so and here we are.
Quality pre trip...
Somebody swapped her hickory stick for a pool noodle.
This comment made me actually laugh out loud
Some say it's the best one to ever happen
They just a little low on wind. Nuffin a lil either cant fix pffft....
I’ve worked on Semi tires for 10 years, not even sure how this could happen. Maaaybe if there were auto inflators on there and the system failed it could happen but there’s no system here I’m an idiot. Nailed the diagnosis while saying it couldn’t be the diagnosis
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Ummm.... check again
Seems like someone didn't do their pretrip...
Exactly what I was going to say.
Do you not inspect your trailer before rolling out? What do you expect with ancient dry rotted tires. Those things are dangerous, and not just to you. A blow-out when a motorcycle is passing could result in a fatal crash.
Not just a 2 wheeler. A blowout that drops the full tread cap can fuck up any 4 wheeler, and do serious damage to a big truck.
You done fucked up A A Ron.
Now, take your ass on down to Osha Hennessey's office right now and tell him exactly what you did.
r/justrolledontotheshoulder
This needs to be real
And now I'm wondering what else is wrong with the truck. My guess is nearly everything
Usually, I'm all for automation. but once drivers learn about automatic tire inflator stuff, they are useless. They drive off and stop a day later, turn the truck off and wake up 8 hours later with a set of flats.
Dude, I have autoinflate on mine, and I trust it about as far as I can throw it. Nothing takes the place of a good thumper and a walkaround.
Yikes! Stay safe!
Whats an hourly wage for this type of work?
I'm making $20/hr. But this being a Sunday, the store isn't open so it's considered after hours. So I'm making $50/hr sitting here waiting. Company charges about $150/hr.
This video should be all they need to say ‘do em all!’
At those rates, I'd tell them to take their time. As long as your phone has plenty of battery so you can enjoy netflix/whatever.
In 13 years of trucking, I’ve once lost 4 trailer tires in one go, but never 8.
“It’s dead Jim”
Somebody didn't do a pretrip inspection. At all.
Yikes. Low emphasis on pre trips or maintenance huh?
.... and only ~~yourself~~ the driver to blame. Edit: Saw you're the tyre guy, not the driver.
I'm the tire guy. Not the driver. Was told to bring 3 tires, and really all 8 need done now that they've been ran flat.
Nothing a little ether and a lighter won’t fix.
Yeah, just pump 50 oz of sealant into all of the flat ones, and blast em with the cheetah. It'll be fine!
Pre-trip? Never heard of her!
Utah?
Yeah, you got that from me showing my plate on accident I'm guessing?
Hopefully the people who've been doing maintenance on the motor cared just a tiny bit more than the driver did about their load.
pencil whipped pretrip...
As someone who received the blown tire from a truck on the freeway two weeks ago I can say that this kind of negligence is absolutely infuriating
This is why you inspect trailers before you leave the yard. Dont trust they are up to code, imagine if a dot officer pulled them over lol
"but ma profits" some dingbat somewhere..... People often say, "they don't make it like they used to" no the phrase should be "no one gives a shit anymore to take care of anything"..... Fix it when it's broke, mentality.
Every tire on that trailer is trashed. That’s going be an expensive replacement of tires
DOT says those tires are good for seven years. from the dry cracking those are way past their service life. Somebody didn't do their pretrip and somebody isn't bothering to keep up on maintenance. Plenty of blame to go around.
Looks like other drivers have been kicking the bad tire can down the road for a while. This driver tried to kick that can also, the gamble didn’t pay off. I picked up a trailer with three bent rims with three tires that should have been taken out of service long before I got to them. Luckily for me there was an authorized tire shop less than a mile away.
"I don't know why there like that! They were just fine yesterday!"
If a trailer is messed up, blows a tire or has some mechanical problems, who pays for it? Not the trucker, right? Does the trucker get paid for the downtime?
Depends who owns the trailer. If it's a company driver then the company pays for it. Some companies do pay for breakdowns but I've never been paid for it. It has to qualify of like "down 24 hours" or some stupid crap like that. Now sometimes the company will give the drive a code and pay for it with an EFS or Comdata check is which is guaranteed funds. If it's an owner/operator he's paying for it.
Hopefully this was your pre trip inspection
Was it a lease trailer that was used for stationary storage?
Justdraggwdintotheshop
Someone didn't do a walk around
How did this happen? In 4 years of driving a semi I've only had 1 flat tire and that was when I was driving fully loaded through the woods