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****ing loose truck tires on the highway...

rogersmj

rogersmj

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 10, 2006
2,169
36
Indianapolis, IN
Stupid Greyhound bus cut me off this morning and then hit a large loose truck tire fragment, flinging it into my car at 70mph. I've had close calls with these tire chunks before, I always knew one would get me.

http://photos.rogersmj.com/Car Damage/

I know it's not that big, but I just needed to vent. Really irritates me...I keep my car in perfect shape, and this is going to bug the hell out of me until I get it fixed. Getting an estimate after work today, I don't expect it to be good...at least four body panels are damaged (bumper, hood, front quarter panel, driver's door). Not sure if I want to involve insurance yet or not...I'll decide after the estimate.

At least it didn't go high enough to hit the windshield...I've seen that happen to someone else, it wasn't pretty.
 
The black marks makes it look worse than it probably is. Still not good though, unfortuate but life.

About 8 months ago a large stone was kicked up and hit my windscreen just at the top which caused a small glass fragment to dig into my face. So lucky it didn't go in my eye.
 
Bummer. I've managed to avoid those despite a lot of highway driving. They really are a hazard but I'm not sure anything really can be done about them. Truckers don't even know they come off (I assume). I've seen cops stop to pull them off the road, but they can't get them all.
 
Yup when I've travelled up and down the UK motorways, I often see fragmented truck tyres lying by the road side.

I don't understand this :confused: is it considered a normal part of driving a truck to have your tyres fall apart on you every now and then?

If this happened to a car, there'd be deaths, criminal investigations, court cases, recalls, and general recriminations.
 
Yeah I know most of the "damage" is really (hopefully) just black marks from the tire...but from what I can see, there's also significant bending of the piece between the headlight and the hood, the hood itself has a crease-style dent in it, the bumper is hanging off a bit, and either the quarter panel or the driver's door is slightly bent because those two panels don't meet up like they're supposed to. Hopefully the body shop can work some magic.
 
MrRogers I feel your pain! I had a close call last year with a rusted section of what I think was an exhaust pipe (either that or a very dirty branch). The van in front of me kicked it up and as I approached, all I could do was wince as it hit my windshield. It left quite a dramatic horizontal crack in the windshield as it was more than a foot long and dead centre with the steering wheel. As it bounced off my car it managed to dent the left A-pillar of the car so I had to get that fixed too... all in all it cost me about $600 to fix and since my Insurance deductible is $500 I didn't bother to file for it.
 
Just the other week I saw a Honda Civic (early 2000s) take a muffler to the front right headlight all the way back taking out both right side tires at about 65 mph.

Luckily the road was fairly empty and had an extra wide shoulder. Cars behind did a good job staying out of the mess as well.
 
Looks like theres a lot of bent metal/plastic.

I once had a trash can flung at me (hit the hood of my car).
 
Your insurance company might pay for the repair and not raise your rates. A rock fell from a coal truck and cracked my sisters windshield on her SUV and her insurance replaced it and her rates remained the same.
 
what is it with all the blown out tires and lost mufflers on US highways. I don't see that in Germany to that extent. Are US tires more prone to fail?:confused:

it's dangerous so I'm happy you're fine and I hope it's not going to be too expensive.
 
andiwm2003 said:
what is it with all the blown out tires and lost mufflers on US highways. I don't see that in Germany to that extent. Are US tires more prone to fail?:confused:

it's dangerous so I'm happy you're fine and I hope it's not going to be too expensive.
Click to expand...

Trucking companies use Retreaded tires usually for their trailers- it's just more economical to do this because of the number of miles they travel, plus if one shreds like that, they are not out alot.


I personally would have filed a police report if for no other reason than the bus cut you off and caused this. but thats me and I have road rage.

I would call your insurance agent and explain what happened and see what can be done.. It's possible that once you get all the black mark off, you may see what needs to be done and can replace it yourself then pay someone for a decent paint job to make it look new again.
 
Call grey hound and complain. Legally speaking they are supposed to pay for repairs. Proving it is another story and next to impossible.

Yes if your car throws a rock and it chips the windshield of the car behind you techically and legelly you are responsible
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Call grey hound and complain. Legally speaking they are supposed to pay for repairs. Proving it is another story and next to impossible.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have no way to prove it, so I think I'm just not going to put myself through the misery of trying to talk to them. I'm kicking myself now for not noting some sort of ID# on the bus, but I was upset and traffic was heavy.
 
mrogers said:
Yeah I have no way to prove it, so I think I'm just not going to put myself through the misery of trying to talk to them. I'm kicking myself now for not noting some sort of ID# on the bus, but I was upset and traffic was heavy.
Click to expand...


It worth a shot. You might get lucky. To find out the id all they need to know is when, and where. From there they should be able to figure out what bus it was.
 
OscarTheGrouch said:
Trucking companies use Retreaded tires usually for their trailers- it's just more economical to do this because of the number of miles they travel, plus if one shreds like that, they are not out alot.
Click to expand...

Also trailer tires are 40+ feet behind the driver, unless it is an outside one that blows or he happens to catch it in his mirror he won't know until the next time he stops or someone tells him. Also big trucks often times have more road noise inside the truck, it makes it pretty hard to hear the tire go. One of the reasons we have air horns.

Cars also only have one tire supporting each corner of it, it you blow a tire you'll know. With trucks you have two tires at each end of each axle(except for the steer axle), if you blow a tire the other tire on that end of that axle will still support it, you won't even notice.

Just last week I had a tire repaired on my truck It was around midnight and I was driving and the truck developed a weird vibration that was coming and going. I stopped to look at things and didn't see anything. I (literally) kicked all the tires and everything felt ok so I continued. The vibration was still there so I stopped at the next truck stop and took my 10-hour break.

In the morning I did my pre-trip, when I kicked one of the tires on the right side of my truck I caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of my eye, the tire was completely flat. It looked normal and felt normal when I kicked it but it was flat. I had it repaired and the vibration went away. Had the tire come completely off I would have never felt the vibration and stopped, I could have easily been 300 miles down the road before knowing I lost a tire.

Normally I'd thump my tires with a hammer instead of kicking them but this truck is fairly new to me and I haven't been by home with it yet to pick up my tools.

BTW, in trucker lingo a tire carcass is called a "gator"
 
Been there, have the bubble-gum card.

It is a shame though, black on light looks nasty.

In my case I was lucky. A semi blew a tire just as I was passing him. Like a cannon going off. Then a good chunk of the belt hit my windshield. Almost had a heart attack.

No damage, that 20 minutes of calm breathing didn't solve.

On the general question of "Why?", trucks use retreads, and the bonding to the body of the tire is not always done correctly.
 
I can never understand why retreading is legal. I know there are significant economic and environmental benefits to it, but the pieces left behind when they fail are dangerous...not nearly worth it in my mind.
 
I had that happen last summer. You should be able to get the black marks off fairly easily. Looks like you can snap the bumper back, but not sure. Unfortunately, it busted one of my headlights :(
 
Ouch... The sucks. I hope you are able to get it resolved with Grayhound, seems unlikely but you never know, its worth a shot.
 
Last summer I ran over a steel bumper going 65 MPH… I was in the middle of a lane change and saw it coming up… ran right over it… no damage btw
 
I have a weekly trip that is 2.5 hours each way, and in the first couple of weeks of doing it I ended up hitting one of them "gators". Luckily no damage. I make sure to keep a distance and try to get off the highway before it is too dark to see debris.
 
I know that sucks, but at-least you didn't end up losing control of your car or something worse. I have seen stories about a person being paralyzed by a bowling ball that went through the window.
 
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