Apparatus Tires

[rroyston]

I am wondering if anyone has had any history of apparatus tire blowouts. I had the "opportunity" to go through a blowout on a right front tire of an engine and since that time have found out very valuable info relative to tire replacement and maintenance. As a matter of fact, I am doing my Applied Research Project for the EFO program at the National Fire Academy on this subject.
Any information or experiences that you have had would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[engine23ccvfd]

Never had a blowout but a week or so after getting a new ladder truck while driving down the HW at 50MPH we see a tire/wheel go rolling by which was slightly amusing until we realized how big it was and that our tandem wheel rear axle was missing one.....story was before my time but sounds better first person!

[EFD840]

My department had one on a tanker. Right inner tire on a single axle 1250 gallon tanker blew out while responding to a mutual aid call. We caught several good breaks:

1) Location of the failure. The axle still had a good tire on each side.
2) Speed. This tanker is a military conversion. Top speed is probably about 55. Normal speed and the speed at the time of the incident was about 45.
3) Road and Weather Conditions. Nice, wide, straight road in daylight and dry.
4) Operator experience. The driver had 10 or so years' experience as an operator and is one cool customer under pressure.

Other than not providing the mutual aid needed, no problem occured. Joe got it stopped without a hitch and it was in back service the next day but had any of the four breaks I listed above been missing it could have been a disaster.

[WRENCH]

We have had a couple of incidents. In one will responding to a call
as one of our engines was going around a slight curve under a R/R trestle a tire blew out narrowly missing the new clock in the plaza. Another incident occured when one of our new F/F s was returning a pumper from another town where we doing pumptesting. He was on a main highway at 55 to 60 mph when a tire blew fourtunatly in neither case was there any damage to any thing or vehicle except for the tires and wheels. We also expeirenced a series of flats on another pumper, what we found in all cases that on our older and reserve pieces rust was building up on the inside of the wheels and causing the tubes to blow out. Shortly there after All the tires and wheels were changed and replaced with new tubeless tires. on seldom used or reseve units that se little mileage like happened to our recue truck we had tires like new after 20 years yet were rusted and cracking on the inside.

[SCOOBY14B]

There was an article in Fire Engineering a year or so about a left front tire blowing out on a ladder. The tire was manufatured by Firestone.

We exclusively use Michelin. No problems that I know of on nearly 50 trucks.

[hwoods]

Us Too...........

Michelin makes some of the best truck tires in the world, no question. One thing that is VERY important is rims. To avoid the "Rust Problem" we have gone to Budd Aluminum wheels with good results. This year I've had more driveshafts fail than tires. Stay Safe....