What happens when a truck tire blowout occurs?
A burst tire while driving at high speed can have tragic consequences. It is important to familiarize with ways to avoid the sudden burst and how to react when the unexpected happens.
A semi-trailer tire blowout can be dangerous regardless of the axis involved. When it happens to the front tire, the impact is felt as a strong jerk and a movement of the steering wheel towards the burst tire. A tire located at the back can be felt through the back of the seat. The rear of the vehicle will suddenly slip or begin to slide.
The bursting of a tire on a steering axle of a van, a camper, a bus or a truck with a semi-trailer always leads to the loss of control of the vehicle. A large tire profile accentuates the roll and the weight of the vehicle makes it turn to the side.
When this happens at high speed, the blow out can cause a serious accident. It is only by adopting a good position behind the steering wheel and holding it with both hands that one can maintain control of the vehicle after a tire burst.
Practice
It is advisable to practice safe driving techniques that allow you to know the reactions needed when the rear of the vehicle skids or the front behaves differently in turns. When a tire bursts. you must have good reflexes.
Keep calm – the majority of vehicles remain controllable even at high speed (especially if the automobile is equipped with low-profile tires). However, this only works if you do not make sudden movements with the steering wheel. Use your accelerator pedal in a delicate way – if you remove your foot quickly, the vehicle can skid.
Do not press your brake pedal, which is a common mistake because automatically the driver feels the need to stop the truck. Doing so only increases the force pulling our vehicle to the side. When you have restored control over your car, let it lose speed gradually: you can start braking when the speed is not higher than 25 to 30 miles per hour (mph) or (40-50 km/h).
After the bursting of a front tire, you can use the handbrake in a very delicate way (provided that it only acts on the rear wheels!) – this makes it possible to use the rear wheels to reduce the load acting on the front axle.
What happens when a semi-trailer tire blows out?:
Regain control
If you really cannot control your truck, accelerate even more strongly if your vehicle is not dynamic. The difficulty of this maneuver is to overcome mental resistance because, in every situation of danger, drivers have a natural tendency to attempt stopping the vehicle as soon as possible.
Acceleration balances lateral forces that act on the truck and reduces the effort required to control the steering wheel. The ideal solution is to accelerate immediately after the tire burst. After a phase of acceleration and stabilization, gradually release your accelerator pedal.
A steering wheel that reacts suddenly may be impossible to control with one hand even for a short time – at a significant speed, such a situation can make you lose control. A blister on the side of the tire may cause it to burst on the road.
There are several possible reasons for the bursting of a tire, but such a situation can happen especially with a misused or unusually used tire. The most common reasons for a tire burst include:
– Insufficient pressure (3/4 of the cases)
– Running over a hard or pointed object (eg a stone, a brick, a metal bar, a bottle)
– Overloading
– Air pressure that is higher than the parameters defined by the tire manufacturer,
– Excessive wear or aging of the tire
– A manufacturing defect of the tire (which appears most often during the first thousand miles of the use of the tire)
– A defect in the braking system that causes the wheel to overheat
