So this past Friday, I was driving back from getting Dairy Queen strawberry shake and was on a back road heading home. A guy towing a Bobcat brand backhoe on a double axle with duallys with a Dodge 5500 Cummins, pulls in front of me. There was plenty of room when he did it and actually got up to speed in a timely fashion...385hp and 865ft/lbs of torque will do that. Anyway almost immediately after he gets in front of me, his right rear trailer brake had locked up and was smoking badly. Now I tried to keep up with him and mind you it had been pouring down rain like crazy, so the road was still wet...but he insisted doing 60mph in a 55 on a two lane road that has seen plenty of deer crossing it. I tried flashing my lights and honked at him...but I couldn't get his attention worth a crap.
Well about 5 minutes had passed and there was enough heat built up that the outer dually blew up. Now I've heard pickup truck tires explode on the freeway when they are going 70mph and it sounds like a 12ga 3.5" Magnum going off, this trailer tire sounded like a sub-sonic 9mm without a suppressor on when it blew up. I was maybe 45 yards back when it happened. The dude didn't even flinch. If it was that loud to me and I had the AC on mid speed from the vent plus being that far back, then I swear that guy must've been as deaf as a post. When any tire bursts you pull over asap. It's only a matter of time before the rubber rips off the rim and your sparking up, down the road. Might not be the case with a dually set up, but regardless it's a bit of a hazard.
He continued on about another 5 miles and turned off. I did what I could to get his attention to no avail. I'm trying to figure out is why didn't the inner tire blow up, before the outer did? I mean the heat of the brakes is much closer to the inner dually so you'd think that would be the first to go...unless the outer was down to very little tread left and it was just dragging through the remaining tread, through the steel belt and BANG!
Not sure where that stacks up to this owner of a BMW who ran their brake pads down to nothing, ran them past the sheet metal backplate, then used the pistons to stop, then the pistons broke through the rotor. I mean...what the actual is wrong with some people? Your brakes squeal and grind for a reason, it's telling you to replace them NOW, not 3 weeks from now, but right freakin now.
Man I'm glad I don't work at that tire shop anymore. I'm average intelligence and mostly mechanically inclined...but holy crap, some people make me feel like Stephen Hawking. Better stop before i give myself an aneurysm, trying to figure some people out.
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