Trucks...

[Deny-It]

Hey guys, had a bit of an experience the other day and thought I might share.

The story goes, I was on my way to work driving down the Roe Hwy when I got boxed up by a couple of trucks. You know what I mean, I was in the left lane with a truck in front of me, then there was a container truck on his tail but in the right lane and plenty of traffic behind us. So I was right beside the container trucks left rear tire and 'FUGGEN BANG!'. I shat pretty hard but didn't panic, dabbed brakes to give the traffic up my clacker a heads up and then slowed as fast as possible.

As you can imagine the tire starts to destroy pretty quick with sparks and chunks of rubber launching out everywhere. I managed to only cop lots of small stuff with maybe 1 or 2 dinner plate size chunks bouncing of my car before I could get a decent distance back from it all. What a way to start the day.

Now, when Im on my bike I don't make a habit of hanging around trucks. Id like to think I wouldn't have been in the same spot. But having something like this happen really reinforces the fact that, had I been riding that day in the same situation, i would have been picking tread out of my teeth for sure, plus maybe stacked it and done 100kph E-braking using my helmet as brakes.

Hope you guys get a little reminder of the dangers of trucks and if you have any similar stories please share.

Cheers

[Cbr1k]

Yeah look at the mythbusters episode to see what a trucks tyre can do to a rider if he is directly behind it.

[SLider675]

Hey mate i hear you i had a similar experience on my way home from work in january when i was working in perth.

It was just as Graham Farmer FWY turns into orrong rd and the traffic was banked up heaps and i was following a truck in the right lane with plenty of room between us but the distance was closing and the left lanes were going quicker so i changed lanes and went way left and as i got over the other side i heard tyre squeals from where i had been or would have been had i not changed lanes and i watched the truck lock all its wheels up and tap the car in front if him with a ute up the trucks bum.

From that day on i have avoided trucks like the black plague haha

[BigTim]

Retreads are pretty common on trucks, and you only have to take a drive down the Reid/Tonkin and look on the shoulders to see how often the whole lot peels away.
Move through traffic and don't sit behind or next to trucks.

[kenty]

Retreads are pretty common on trucks, and you only have to take a drive down the Reid/Tonkin and look on the shoulders to see how often the whole lot peels away.
Move through traffic and don't sit behind or next to trucks.

curious wouldnt it be safer if a tyre blows to be the side of it, because of the reinforced sides, rather than being behind it considering you would be dealing with centrifugal force flinging the tyre through your face ???

[kenty]

btw im just thinking of worst case scenario like as if it were unavoidable

[BigTim]

It's safer to be nowhere near it. But parts of tyre will exit any damn way they please, including out the sides.

[Deny-It]

Got a couple more.

Ive been the last car in a jam on the freeway only to hear tires peeling behind me then beside me as a Double overtook me in the emergency lane. Big kudos to the truckie for not driving over me.

Ive also seen a Semi on the freeway again, throw a tail shaft. Few sparks underneath then a decent sized bit of tubing taking off across the lanes.

Better mention Im not having a shot at trucks on the road. Just saying that they are big machines that get a lot of road time, take longer to stop and when they fail mechanically it can be bad.

[RAVENGSXR]

Being a truck driver myself i have to agree with whats been said ^^^ if your on your bike get past them quick and get over your lane as far as you can SAFELY .
I have had my share of blowouts and can say that no two are the same , shit goes everywhere . The nastiest is when the "cap" starts to peel ( crappy retreading process ) but not all the way at first , you have about 1 meter of rubber flapping around taking everything in its path as the wheel rotates before it lets go !!

[Beerad]

watch this and u wont want to be near or around a truck tyre when it goes off!!!!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6Y6m8vmdI]YouTube - man on tyre tyre explosion[/ame]

[MattyA]

yeah at least one of out trucks at work has a tyre failure every week. usualy caused by the re-caps coming apart. also more common in summer time when they heat up more.

[chew]

Approximately one million years ago when I was young and even more foolish than I now am, I was on a long trip on the bike and sat in the slipstream of a truck on the Null and bored, thought it was pretty cool as the wind noise was reduced, revs had dropped etc. I was there for about 2-3 mins when I had the vision of a block of wood, rock, roo, cow, tyre flicking out from under the truck. This vision has cemented my attitude of giv em lots of room and avoid being close to them!!!

[Rocket]

Approximately one million years ago when I was young and even more foolish than I now am, I was on a long trip on the bike and sat in the slipstream of a truck on the Null and bored, thought it was pretty cool as the wind noise was reduced, revs had dropped etc. I was there for about 2-3 mins when I had the vision of a block of wood, rock, roo, cow, tyre flicking out from under the truck. This vision has cemented my attitude of giv em lots of room and avoid being close to them!!!

I've been on both ends of the stick. I've been slip streaming a truck @ $1.30 (that's truckie talk you know!) near Southern Cross that put all the LH wheels into the dirt and fucking hammered me with shit and rocks !

I've also been driving trucks and had complete front tyres leave the rim and take off into the bush at 90kph, never to be seen again as well as disintergrating tyres.

Staying clear of trucks is a reasonable idea.

[chief wiggum]

not exactly the same thing, but reminded me of this:

triple treat's crash
I was traveling South on Tonkin headn home after work and in the inside lane and moved across to the middle lane preparing to look if it is clear to move into the outside lane so I could then turn off to the G.E.Hwy exit. There was a big pack of traffic around me and that was why I was in the inside lane still. It was difficult to find a space to get across and I am normally in the outside lane well and truly by now.
I was traveling at 100km/h and about 4 – 5 metres behind a car and cars all around me quite close as I was about to look left to see if it was clear to change lanes when I noticed an object I quickly identified as a load binder with a length of chain about a metre long attached to it came straight at me from underneath the car in front of me.
There was nothing I could do, it was too quick. I just held on and the bike launched in the air with an almighty bang. It came down slightly on an angle and I had no steering, it swayed twice and then summer saulted the bike and me over forwards. I let go of the bike and slid, flipped, slid, flipped and slid some more. Every car was locked up around me and I could hear all the tyres squealing, I was sure I was going to be run over, but somehow every car missed each other and me.
The bike slid a further 50 metres down the road and as you can see doesn’t look to good.
As I look back, I am sure if my road positioning was better I may have avoided what happened but that’s the luck of the draw,

[Veefore]

I think Retro had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago.

I always remember my dad telling me a story of a tyre place in Welshpool that had an imprint in the ceiling of one of the workers who was leaning over a truck tyre filling it when it blew due to a faulty pressure gauge.

[JAFA]

100+ psi makes for a BIG mess when things decide to let go.