Ever have a tire explode while your filling it?

I'll be thinking about this next time I fill up my tires!

 

A workmate of my friend died when a semi-truck wheel´s ring blew his head off. No cage and the tire mounted wrong.

 

An airman at Hill AFB in Utah lost his head taking a two part aircraft wheel apart that still had 5 lbs in it. When the last bolt came out the rim blew apart , took his head off & the wheel went thru the hanger roof. ONLY 5 Pounds!!! He had been told to get ALL the air out but didn't listen.

 

A friend of mine had a late model Caddy just sitting in the driveway and the tire blew on it's own, his wife was home and heard it and thought a bomb had gone off somewhere, but didn't realize it was the tire on the car.

WHen my friend got home he noticed that the car had a flat and then when he looked closer he discovered that the tire had blown and distroyed the inner wheel well and the force actually bent the hood hinge and bent the corner of the hood up.

Yes Bugman, I always am a little parinoid when filling a tire.

 

Last summer we were sitting inside watching TV at my sisters house and heard this almighty loud BOOM....ran outside expecting a car backfiring down the street or something and looked at the back of her SUV and the spare tire that was mounted to the back door had blown up!! It still had the vinyl tire cover over it and at the bottom the tire had blown right out and through the cover !! Some weird random*********, as the tire had been on the same rim untouched like that for years!! weird...

 

we put starter fluid in the tires that won't seat on the bead,then light it and it insantly inflates then goes out due to lack of oxygen. do not have fear!!! we're all gonna die, just a matter of how and when!

 

hahaha I did that too! Gave the 'old guys' at the station a laugh!

 

Never had one blow up...but they do and can be dangerous. I do remember a news article out here in NJ many years ago...father and son were filling up a truck tire. It was one of those split rim jobs (laying on the ground) and it blew...killed them both.
My Dad used to see some of the mechanics seat a truck tire bead with the old "ether" trick...now that's scary.
-Scott

 

when I was in the AF there was a B-52 tire that blew in a cage. those tires on a split rim held over 200 psi. lots of damage,cage contained most. WE all had to parade past it and get a lesson .i was in my shop and needed to spray bomb something, sat can on heater, forgot about it, then remembered, picked it up, shook it and wham. imprinted bottom of can in my belly, with a blister. scared me!!.

 

That's a crazy story!

The can just popped when you set it down? Scary.

I popped a bicycle tire about two years ago. I was at work and the tire had flatted. I changed the tube and then used a CO2 cartridge pump to fill it. The cartridge is SUPPOSED to be the right size to fill the tire, and I've used them before, but this one inflated the tire so quickly -- POP!

I had been holding the wheel between my legs. It sacred me so badly, I shot backwards and rolled along the ground.

I teach at Drexel University and some of my students were sitting on the front steps of the building. At least they got a good laugh at my expense!

--

I stand to the side when filling any car tire. Paranoid? Maybe, but I think it's a smart thing to do.

 

Talked to someone at the nationals this year that had his air compressor blow up. Fortunately he was in his house. The blast destroyed his complete shop and severly damaged two hot rods. Cause was a rusty tank...never drained the moisture out....

Tires or tanks, compressed air is dangerous.

 

I wish dog piss would make a tire explode.

 

I saw a guy at a gas station overfill his tire and it exploded- heard it all the way across the parking lot , saw the guy jump ten feet back, dust everywhere. It was on a lowrider so the guy probably had too narrow a tire for the rim though, you know the style, the overly rounded, no side bulge style


I used to have a deuce and always wrapped those widow makers in chain and stuck them under the truck with the 20 foot extension line. Man, I got four flat tires while I owned that thing, not a fun tire to change!

 

Being in the truck tire business for 3 years, I have experienced or heard of all kinds of horror stories with tires.

ANY tire that is run underinflated (not flat) is subject to failure when it is reinflated to operating pressure, either from a belt/tread separation or from fatigued body plys. Radial tires are especially susceptible to what's known as a "zipper tear" in the sidewall from the flexing of the plys to a point of fatigue, then when they are stressed back during inflation, the tensile strength is exceeded and the sidewall lets go, looking like it was cut with a knife or has a "zipper" circumferentially.

A typical truck tire has over 3000 lbs of kinetic energy waiting to be released. We have a couple a month let go; in a cage, of course. The concussion from the air blast alone can be fatal.

Any time any tire is inflated you should at least be standing away from it,
and be wearing eye protection.

Wait until you experience a large earthmover tire "blow". Serious noise and damage. I'll try to find the pic for later.

Be careful out there!

 

I know a guy who had a regular pickup tire blow up in his face. Damn near killed the guy, shattered his jaw, knocked out most of his teeth,*****ed him up real bad, was in the hospital for weeks. The tire was off the truck on the cement floor in my uncle's shop which had 20' ceilings. The tire blew off the rim and hit the ceiling. He walked into the office where my mom was at and she thought someone had dumped a gallon of red paint on his head...she still can remember it 20+ years later. The odd thing is we used to do semi tires all day long and always used a cage to fill them but none of us ever thought a truck or car tire would do that. Safety first fellas....stand off to the side when you fill your tires.

Bill

 

as a kid working in a tire store i had too rim up a sempret brand radial on an early 60s chevy rim. if you know those rims they are a****** too roll over the top lip..tryed every thing but***** tire rusty rim gauge said 45, thats about when it let go, big noise and sent my head into the bumper of the car on the lift, then out for the count..everyone came running including the owner who asked if i was alwight, them started too****** how i ruined a tire and lost him a sale......... after hearing that every friday when he left early he made me his tire sales partner, but he didnt know it and all my friends were happy for it

 

I didn't read all posts yet, but my friend had a co-worker killed by a big truck tire (split rim or split ring maybe?), I can happen.

 

Lost a ex schoolfriend 2 yrs outa school in his uncles tyre shop, inflating a split rim truck tyre without a cage, was told he looked like he laid on a grenade, and the ring flew off and took part of his head with it, so be carefull when inflating any tyre, but especially split rims, leave them to professionals.

 

Ditto on the split rims. Saw one make a sun roof in an old garage I worked at in the old days. The old fart I was working for had seen people hurt bad with split rims. I mounted hundreds of reg bias and radials and never had a problem.

 

My old man has a similar story about working at the local Chevy chop in phillip,SD as a kid. Ring shot through a plywood and sheet metal roof. He will not own anything with those kinds of wheels.

 

I was 14 and pumping up a tire on my Great Grandpa's MM ZA tractor that had been flat for a looooong time. It pumped up, and BOOM! Exploded and gave me a faceful of dirt and tire shrapnel and I couldn't hear very well. I was a******* mess, and belive me, my great grandmother and mother were NOT amused.

 

I had one blow up on me. One of them junk Goodyear Tiempos. I'll never use another. I mounted it onto a rim to use for a roller. I just started to fill it, I know I did not have much air in it when the side wall gave out. It knocked me down, the percussion of the explosion bursted the blood vessels in my arms and throat. It hurt my ear drums for at least two days. The service manager had to look for my glasses that fell off. It has taken a long time for me to overcome the fear of it. Sometimes I cringe just from the sound of the bead seating. I used to just put 20 lbs in them and have somebody else fill the rest. I sometimes think I should wear ear muffs and face protection when airing up used tires. I still have a very small piece of rubber between the two layers of skin in my neck/throat.
Batteries can have just as bad of a noise.

Jon

 

Yeah, I STILL get nervous putting air in ANY tire!

I was in a tire shop having some new tires mounted on my daily driver.
In the next stall a fellow was mounting new tires on a highway hauler.
He had one of the wheels (two piece) and the tire****embly IN a CAGE at the front of the shop and was starting to put the air to it.

I overheard him saying something about, "Damn bead won't seat." And he kept putting more air in. (straight from the compressor; un-regulated - line pressure around 100 lbs./sq. in.)

When the rim let go; (he hadn't installed the lock ring correctly) the concusion knocked me off my feet, (and I was at least 20 feet away) he lost a hand and blood got splashed on me.

When the ambulance arrived, the medics kept asking me if I was OK. (because of the blood)

I couldn't hear what they were saying, and it wasn't until later in hospital that I found out that the blast had ruptured my left ear drum.

I now own a gauge/filler combination (a very GOOD, ACCURATE one!) that lets me put air in my tires while standing WELL OFF TO THE SIDE!!

 

Once when I was a kid, I had a slow leak in my bicycle tire. i was about 1-1/2 miles from home and I tried to fill it just enough to make it home and BOOM! scared the***** outta me...

Once in Shop class the teacher was showing everyone how to use the tire machine and he put a hot dog at the edge of the rim to represent someones finger, and the tire popped as it filled up and the hotdog splattered all over.

 

I haven't exploded a car tire before, but I have used the ether trick. When the tire isn't anchored somehow it becomes one hell of a projectile. It could have been that we emptied probably half a can of ether into a G50-14 and then lit the gasoline trail to the tire. We weren't going to be anywhere near that tire when it ignited. It was kinda cool to see it get airborne.

 

I remember this from when I was a little kid. Airplane drivers who still give their planes a once over before fight say to only aproach tires from the front never from the sides. If it blows, it'll go out the side wall and not the treads. Imagine a plane that weighs about 400,000lbs. siting on only 8 tires! The Navy had a problem with it's new F4 Phantom fighter. They kept poping tires on carrier landings. The mechanics kept uping the pressure. They eventually had something like 150 psi. in them. When one would let go, it would rip them whole damn wing off! Be careful.

 

I just sold the old 47 COE and as part of the deal I bought new tires and I was going to have them mounted. Well these are split rim style with the locking ring on the out side edge. I must a went to a dozen places here in San Diego and every single place said "I won't touch these widomakers" luckly enough I found an ol school tire shop that would and could do the job. After this experiance I'll never own a car that has that style split rim...what a*****en nightmare!

 

I never had one pop, but I am extremely paranoid about them. I always stand over a fender, and reach down to air up. I really, really don't trust tires! BTW, watch those pressures during season changes... I checked my tires on a really hot day, they were at 45lbs! I let them down to 30lb. Gonna check them again when it's cooler. Watch those pressures!

 

Ironically, I'm not very concerned about the ones I've ground because I know they're fairly new tires. It's the unknowns on my other cars, or cars I get at work that concern me the most. Glad to know I'm not the only one who's tire paranoid. I think I'm going to invest in one of those offset air chucks, although that doesn't do much good when checking/filling my tires at a gas station.

 

Its not just your paranoia, I have the same fear everytime I add air to my tires. I have seen on tv when they used a dummy and tried airing a tire that exploded and threw him about 20 yards.