Overheated Tire

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Jan 26, 2012
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Hawkinsville Ga
I've never seen nor heard of this before....the other evening my wife was driving home on the last few miles to our house and came upon five or six other vehicles trailing a very slow moving tractor-trailer that was bellowing smoke from the RR trailer wheels. She couldn't tell if the brakes were locked or simply dragging flats along. She also noticed dual tire tracks on the roadway that were apparently made by the TT.

The next day we went to get the X out of the garage and I noticed both RS tires were covered in popcorn gravel similar to what we use at the top of our driveway. Closer inspection shows the tread is completely filled in by, apparently, molten rubber that has vulcanized itself to our tires. I used a screwdriver to poke/dig at it a bit and it is definitely bonded to the tires.

We contacted our insurance who initially denied responsibility for road hazards to tires but due to the unusual circumstances have agreed to fully inspect the car for paint/whatever damage and maybe pro-rate the tires since balance is way off now. This occurred to our X 35d.

I just thought I'd share since I've never seen something like this before. The dual tire marks are almost 4 miles long before he turned north and it amazes me the tires liquified rather than catching fire. It was a box trailer and not a tanker hauling liquid asphalt or anything like that and she said the smoke was definitely from the tires/wheels and not something dripping out that she could tell. Weird huh?
 
wow dishdude....ours wasn't near that bad....luckily!

A leak was my first thought as well but the next day we photographed the tire marks and there's no sign of any spills. I mentioned (gently of course) that she could have/should have dialed 911. She is certain the trucker was aware though as he was traveling very slowly and had his flashers on. This happened on Rt234 west in York Cnty and the disappointing part is there is a Rutters Truck Stop approx 1 mile before the tire marks appeared with several areas he could have pulled over/turned around.
 
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Those of us in PA like this trucker. He provided free paving for the road so Penn DOT won't have to surface the road again for at least 25 years!!
 
I agree with you on that one.....this particular section of Rt234 was originally paved by what was probably a bunch of drunken convicts. I've driven into strip-mines on dirt roads that are smoother than this.
 
It wasn't a tanker....dry-goods box.

Insurance adjuster looked at it today and appointment made for two weeks to clean "stuff" from paint and wheels. He said they were going to try to clean the tires but doubtful of any success...we were planning on replacing the tires prior to Winter anyway so any amount offered will lessen the pain. He said he had never seen rubber-transfer this bad either.

Just today, we noticed solidified rubber 3/8" deep and tread-patterned at the top of the driveway that was made by her tires.
 
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