BLOWN TIRES AND SERVICE CALLS

Another thing I’ve been asked often is, “Can you hear when your tire blows out?” Yes, ma’am or sir, you most certainly can. If it’s the trailer tire, the noise is like a large caliber gun followed by a puff of dust (from the inside of the tire, I guess) and you’ll see, hopefully, bits and pieces of rubber, skittering across the highway. If it’s the drive tire, on the tractor, which is much closer to the cab of the truck, the noise is more like a shotgun boom going off. And the steer tire, hopefully, you’ll be as lucky as I was. I’d stopped for a traffic light and barely began rolling when I heard my steer tire blow. It allowed me to pull off the road into a large lot used by truckers for taking a break, or in my case, to get the tire repaired. I shudder to think what would have happened had I been traveling down the highway at 60 mph. If a car is difficult to handle when the front tire blows, I can only imagine what handling an 80,000 pound vehicle would be like. However, there are no specifics, other than possibly losing control, on what happens when the steer (front) tire blows out. Most tuckers make every effort to pull off the highway and get it fixed ASAP. As you can see in the picture above, the tire tore up the mudflap holder. Luckily it didn’t impact the tire next to it. And that can and does happen.

Which brings me to answering another frequently asked question.

“Did I have to change my own tires?”

No, I did not, nor would I have even tried to. I was hired to drive the truck not to provide the muscle and wherewithal to change a very large tire. That doesn’t mean some drivers, female or male, wouldn’t or couldn’t change the tire, just, I’m not one of them. I might change a car tire if pushed to do so, after all I know the concept, but that’d still be iffy. All the firms I worked for had a list of road service companies their drivers could contact to change a tire, repair, or tow my truck as needed.

Here’s another unbelievable experience regarding flat tires. I’d left the warehouse about 1 AM or so and was headed to Petaluma. I expected this run to be a cake walk, easy peasy. I’d delivered in the area before and knew where most of the deliveries were. Didn’t work out that way. . .nope sure didn’t.

I had the highway almost to myself when I left Auburn. As I neared the junction of I-5 and 80 I noticed a white blur. I squinted, trying to identify just what I was seeing. I suddenly realized it was, a tomato truck on its side across most of the road. These trucks are distinctive in that they usually have large white tubs (what I’d seen) filled to the brim with tomatoes that would be processed in one of many facilities in the area.

Well shucky darn, that’s gonna make a mess of my truck. Just then, Mr. speed demon passed me, his car sliding one way, then the other as he fought to maintain control. He finally did. Thankfully we were the only vehicles out there right then. Watching him from a distance, I allowed my truck to slow down and listened to my truck squishing through the mess. I picked up speed on the other side, continuing toward my deliveries.

It wasn’t until I stopped for a break, I realized it wasn’t tomatoes on the road, but grapes! And my truck was coated with them. I left the rest stop and headed toward Vallejo stopping at a red light. I started across the intersection, when I heard that dreaded “WHOMP” that signaled a flat tire. Thankfully I was a stones throw from an empty lot used regularly by truckers, I pulled in there, called the office and had them send out a tire guy. They did and he put a new tire on. At this point I’d only be about 90 minutes late on my deliveries. Except, except—when I pulled back onto the road, my truck handled sluggishly, my steering was off. Also, I could smell smoke, so pulled off on the other side of the road. Popped the hood and nothing. Back on the road and same problem. So, pulled off again and call tire repair a second time. Out he came, raised the tire up, “Holy shit.”

“What? What’s happened?”

“You know that new tire I just put on?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s trashed. The smoke you smelled was the tire rubbing against the road. Apparently, the grapes you ran over earlier created a sticky goo that literally glued your rim to the drum and prevented it from turning, so the new tire is worn flat in one spot.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, in fact I’ve been doing tires for 20 years and I’ve never seen this happen,”