Why did the gator cross the road? To bite your truck of course! If you’re not familiar with the lingo, the gator I am talking about is not a prehistoric looking animal commonly encountered in the Everglades. This “gator” does have the ability to harm your equipment and others around you though. I am talking about thrown tire treads and other bits of blown tires that can be seen across our highways and roads all over the country.
I tend to refer to this time of year as “gator season” due to the general change in climate. As we transition into spring, most areas begin to thaw out and give way to sunshine and warmer temperatures. This is the time of year I notice more gators starting to show up on the highways I travel throughout southern California. The reason is simple; more heat = more tire failures.
I will begin by explaining some common causes that lead to tread separation or your tire turning into a “frag grenade” from casing or sidewall failure. First, let me start by pointing out that the retreading of a tire can sometimes carry with it the inherent risk of defect from the retread plant, which might be aided towards failure by some of these controllable and also uncontrollable things. As your climate temperature increases, it is more and more important to maintain the proper tire inflation pressure.
Not only does this aid in preventing sidewall flex, leading to increased tire temperature, but will save you fuel as well! As the heat and pressure increase in the tire, it will find the weakest point to escape causing a failure. The warmer temperature of the air and heating of the pavement accelerates the heating of a tire with improper pressure. This can ultimately lead to catastrophic tire failure, or “ka-boom". Remember that on a hot summer day the pavement on a highway can easily reach 150o+ Fahrenheit. It is also important to watch retreads as they age, to assure that cracks do not form on the casing sidewall or where the tread meets the casing. I witnessed this on my last truck shortly after buying it and replaced them with virgin rubber before “gator season”. Some other common causes of tire failure are overloading your tires and using the wrong kind of tire for your specific type of duty.
Since it seems that a lot of the tire pieces we see on the road are a result of improper inflation and relaxed/no inspection, a thorough pre-trip can eliminate a lot of these. Of course, you should safely avoid running over these pieces on the highway to avoid damage to your truck. A good piece of rubber under your truck can cause fuel tank damage, ripped air lines, broken fenders, ripped off mud flaps, and much more. Damage to your truck is not the only result of running over one of these pieces. It was just last week that I witnessed another big truck run over a nice-sized piece of tread, which flew back and hit a four-wheeler that was following closely behind. Let me tell you, it did some pretty good damage to that car! The driver should count himself lucky that it didn’t hit their windshield!
The best solution to protect yourself from getting “bit” by one of these “gators” is to be proactive in your preventative measures and carefully avoid the pieces that are out there lying on the road waiting for their next “good meal”.