after having 3 they still make me jump nearly through the roof, the bang sounds like the trailers fallen off, then the truck shakes like hell and once you composed yourself all you can see behind is rubber and dust going everywhere behind you and the cars diving for the outside lane. yet the fitter who came out to me tonight said theyd had one today where a driver had dragged one 5 miles down the motorway, gouging all the tarmac,he said the wheel rim ,hub etc were just wrecked. but the driver said he hadnt realised there was anything wrong , the fitter said surely you saw the sparks, he said no
now has any one had that where they havent realised theyve had a blowout or was the fitter spinning me a tail, from the three ive had and the one tonight i just can believe you dont know
the 2nd question is how bads it if one of your steering axle tyres on the unit go, ive only had trailer ones go, bad enough ta
I had a Near side Front go on me last Thursday Morning on the A1 just North of Durham Services as I headed down the bank.
A Lump of metal fell from a car in front, I couldnt swerve into the Outside lane because of traffic passing, and just started to head onto the hard should when Bang !!!
Control of the vehicle was not affected, it litterally dropped onto the rim instantly, just a ruddy big Bang and a sudden lean to the left 
The time before that was about 7 years ago on the M11 Southbound just before the North Circular, Just a Bang and a sudden lean, control was okay without any problems at all.
Both Tyres were N/S Front and both Vehicles were Scanias
This picture is on theRattler thread .
Vilar Formosa. Got the blow out on a sharp rock on the Portuguese side before there was a motorway. The Border closed in 15 minutes for the night & opened again in 9 hours. I got the blow out 300 m. before the Spanish side & kept on going. Slept the night & changed the wheel next morning. In the morning on both sides of the border were hundreds of truck waiting to get through. /// It sounded like they were rock blasting close to my truck…///
I’ve had a trailer blowout and not realised until someone flashed and pointed at it. Nearside middle on a triaxle trailer, coming 'round the sweeping right hand bend as you go north from J44 of the A1/M1 link road. I’d loaded at Allied Glass in Stourton so hadn’t got much speed up, plus the side of the trailer concerned was in my blind spot because of the bend. Turned out that a previous puncture repair had quite dramatically failed. The trailer didn’t “drop” because there were still tyres either side to hold it up.
It’s actually quite common for people not to realise when the blowout’s on a skeletal trailer, especially a slider. The box is a lot higher (so further from the wheel) than a regular trailer floor making it less likely to be hit by tyre debris (the bit which causes you to “feel” the bang), and in the case of a modern slider, the back half of the chassis is to all intents and purposes a separate vehicle in it’s own right, reducing the “feel” another stage again. If, as in the case above, the blowout is on a centre axle - so no lurch to one side - and out of your view when it goes…well, you get the picture.
That said, I’ve had more “violent” blowouts on both units and skellies, and there’s no way I could’ve missed them.
On the subject of steer axle blowouts, have a look at this - it explains the best way to deal with them safely, and why it’s actually a tad dangerous to sit on your limiter…Excuse the American terminology, the message applies here just the same. 
lucy that videos well worth watching, its certainly set my mind at rest a bit and yes i dont think ill be runnimg on the limiter any more . ta
well after working on tippers for 3 years and using the crappest tyres money can buy, im fairly good at dealing with blow-outs now, it isnt to bad on an 8 wheeler even on a front axle,as you have the second steer axle holding you up to a certain degree, there was only a couple of times it bothered me,once when i had a front drivers side go and there was a car with a baby in right next to me when it blew,the woman driving ■■■■ herself and started swerving all over the place trying to avoid the lumps of tyre flying off, and the second time was when i had to drive 30 miles with the tread of the tyre flapping around in the wind where it had peeled off the tyre,the tyre had not blown so the gaffer said “oh you will have to get back to the yard im to busy to bring a wheel out” then them famous words “oh you will be alright”
cant comment on having a blow out on an artic cus ive never had one,maybe thats because now im working for a company that can see buying the cheapest tyres is false economy,and you get what you pay for
Strange this, I have always wondered about blowouts as I’ve never had one. On monday on the M62 I saw one on the opposite carriageway and it looked horrendous. It was a nearside trailer tyre that went and the trailer lurched over so far I thought it was going over. Smoke and bits of tyre everywhere. Credit to the driver who kept it under control i later came back that way and it was parked up on the hard shoulder.
Nice to hear it’s not so bad on a skellie, cause I’ve had a couple of problems with tyres lately.
Worst I had was on a wagon & drag loaded with peaches. The drag had just 4 donuts,one on each corner. N/S front went on the dangler. That thing nearly fell over. It was 2 in the morning on a French AutoRoute. It left the whole tread of the tyre across the road about 1km back. Luckily someone reported it & a service truck went out to collect it. Couldn`t begin to change the wheel for at least 30 mins or more. The nuts had got so hot it was impossible to budge them…
Worst I ever had was just shy of the Belgian border out of Dunkirk. Fully freighted with paper rolls a huge bang, it blew the mudguard clean off, blew the airbag to bits, totally screwed the rim and then the debris blew the rear axle tyre as well. 4 in the morning and fireworks like it was the millenium. Worst of all it was |Friday and I was weekended in Antwerp cos securicor had to send a fitter from UK, Happy days
I’ve had a few in the last year.All drive tyres and all fully loaded .Since we have 6x4s(?) it’s not to bad except for the noise.The last one was an inside tyre that managed to bend the shock and cut the airbag open,which was a moment I don’t want to repeat.
A few years ago I had a offside mid-lift go on a Scania 113 belting down windy hill in the middle lane while overtaking (was on bonus on containers ). When the tyre blew it also took the valves off the air-tanks so everything just locked up and I slewed onto the hard shoulder. Definate change of underwear time Never knew where the car went that I was passing!
Another time coming south from the M5 onto the M4 I ran over a piece of scrap metal on road which took out nearside drive and the 1st axle on trailer and I hardly noticed it 
Not had a blow-out (famous last words) 
, but had a couple of suspension bags explode on a trailer. The first one I heard. Pulled over the Motorway, checked the tyres, and then checked the air bags. 
The other was at the Asda Dartford depot. The one where I presume they built on reclaimed land and the yard subsequently settled by about 8 inches. On the bays, you have to lift the trailer suspension fully.
I’d been on the bay for about half a minute when there was this almighty explosion. Dust and rubbish flying everywhere, to the extent that people came running out of the warehouse. (RDC employees running. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe. )
As I’m nonchalantly examining the damage I’m challenged with, “How long will it stay up?”
“It could go down at any time.” I responded.
Within ten minutes. 26 pallets off and a green light.
However, it still took the usual two hours to get the paperwork back.
Interesting video, Lucy, I’ve never had a blowout, only had one tyre go flat on me, that was on a middle axle of a 3 axle trailer, I didn’t even know it had gone until another road user waved at me. 
That video raises a couple of issues.
I’ve told that the suspension in european vehicles is better than that on the other side of the pond and wonder if that makes any difference?
Also, most of the stories here mention much more dramatic failures than in that video. The American tyre goes down quickly, but the tyre stays in one piece. Most of what’s been told here mentions the tyre disintegrating instantly. Surely controlling that is a different matter to “put yow foot own the gas”?
Any thoughts of the best course of action with a front wheel drive van? Would it still be the same? I would say as a gut instinct that nothing sudden and easing off the accelerator would be best. Anyone any other thoughts?
mart i thought it said in video it applied to all vehicles, so id say you do the same . i must admit though paul e has a point none of mine have gone down like the video theyve blown the tyre and mudgaurds etc to bits, im hoping its going to be like a skid your natural reactions take over .
I’ve been driving my old bus and had a rear tyre go. Not a pleasant experience , as the loud bang and the dust cloud in the back of the bus made everybody think the end had come 
. This was on the M27 near Portsmouth, luckily we were near an exit and changed the wheel in Tesco’s car park.
Over the years we have lost several tyres (but only one front tyre thankfully) and have now learnt the benefits of putting tyres on with names we have heard of, and can pronounce Paying out the extra cash per tyre certainly pays in the long run, although we are now running on Moroccan Goodyears and Brazilian Pirellis. Go figure…
Calv
ady:
mart i thought it said in video it applied to all vehicles, so id say you do the same . i must admit though paul e has a point none of mine have gone down like the video theyve blown the tyre and mudgaurds etc to bits, im hoping its going to be like a skid your natural reactions take over .
When mine went a week gone thursday it was ruined but pretty well intact, overall.
The tyre was pretty similar to the video though despite the hole being in the main tread instead of the side wall.
I had a non-destructive blowout yesterday on my trailer, N/S axle 1, fortunately I was in heavy traffic, only doing about 30mph, initially, I thought I had hit something, or something had hit me.
Hit the 4 ways, and a gap appeared on my left straightaway, and was able to get from lane 2 to the hard shoulder in a short distance.
It appeared to the tyre fitter, that there had been damage to the centre of the tread, all the way through to the metal in the carcass, and the air had leaked through to the tread layer and forced it’s way to the side, blowing a hole between the carcass and the tread.
I just hope it scared the zb out of the grey haired old lady that had been messing me about earlier.
Just a thought…bear in mind that in the training video above the blowout had to be simulated, so there was a limit to the violence with which it could be shown to go “bang” - especially as it was made in the ever lawsuit-conscious (sp) US of A.
The guy who runs that site, and the training roadshow that goes with it, is called RJ Taylor. He’s enormously respected by drivers and law enforcement agencies alike over there, in fact I’d even go so far as to say he’s a celebrity within the industry. He’s also a veteran driver of over 40 years experience - running Ol’Blue was supposed to be a retirement hobby for both him and the truck, which he used to pull freight with through all 52 states plus a few more Canadian ones as an Owner Operator.
He also happens to be a very good friend of mine and Rikki’s, and we had the very conversation re: violence of blowout that plays out above. Apparently it was all down to what they were allowed to show by their legal guys and trust me, RJ can rant for hours about compensation culture and his legal guys (and how much they charge to keep him from getting sued) … But the principle demonstrated is sound whatever the speed, weight, and violence of the blowout. And trust me, RJ knows his stuff.
(In case you’re wondering what a guy of his status is doing hanging about with nobodies like me and Rikki, it’s because he’s not a celeb to us, in fact Rikki didn’t know who he was when he first met him 7 years ago…consequently we treat him just like any other driver, and he likes that. He gets seriously sick of the fawning sycophants he gets everywhere else, especially at big events like MATS, which is where we “hook up”. In other words, he hangs out with us precisely because we’re nobodies. 
.)