Terrible Car Hauler Crash & Burn in AL
- Thread starter BamaSixGun
- Start date
Well I would stop and thank the Good Lord if I were them. I spent a few years of my life as a fireman when I was a much younger man. The outcome could have been alot worse. Can't imagine anything more awful than burning to death. I can still remember pulling out a few charred corpses, and its been over 25 years. The firefighter gets as much respect as the police in my book. The trailer could have went up from brakes, a tire fire or an axle overheating. With the exception of a grease fire, none of these can be put out with dry chemicals. I've had a tire fire and believe me, once they start to burn, might as well unhook the tractor and try to salvage that.
BamaSixGun
SDD Super Mod/Staff
hats off to the fire fighters definately.
we lost 2 trailers within 2 years. the axle hubs are greased packed, and we were told by the trailer manuf. that they were good for a life time. well that turned out to be less than five years. they failed to tell us that once they hit around 750,000 miles, you need to have them checked out for loose play.
if they are, you have to replace the whole hub, you cant just replace certain parts.
well anyways, we lost a trialer in laurel, ms due to one of the axle's getting hot and catching fire and we lost another trailer less than 2 years later in NM due to the same thing.
we were fortunate that our drivers kept a level head and was able to save the trucks and the cars that were on the trucks.
both times the driver's called me while it was happening. i could here the gas tanks exploding in the back ground both times.
of course it hurt us real bad and we and the driver's felt terrible, but no lives were lost and thats what is most important.
fordtrucker4life!
I work with waste
I know how hard it is to keep ahold of the wheel when a steer tire blows. One of our trucks blew two in one day because the toe was way out of adjustment. The hood was all tore up. One of my competitors had a few trucks blow steer tires and every one of then ended up flipped over in the ditch. It is very important for big rigs to have good steer tires.
WD40
Full Access Member
I drove a little over 2.5 Million miles and never blew a steer tire in over 30 years of driving. I was all ways on the co that I drove for to change them out at 100.000 miles. They would all ways do it tell, we got a penny pincher in there and he wanted to go on down to what ever the law allowed and I just didn't think that was safe. When you got 12,000 LB's on two tires that is pushing it, and they better be good tires.
i thought the axels bearings were oil bathed in 90w !?! man no way id
trust any bearing to be greased for life ! and when a wheel bearing goes
it goes NOW w/ little warning or time to salvage !
i grease my trailer bearings every time i take it out (which isnt alot but
EVERY time the trailer gets hooked up the bearings have been checked)
*AND* i carry a laser thermometer so i can check and compare the temps
of each wheel bearing & hub (when i stop)....HEAT is gonna be your
only EARLY warning that something isnt right.
when i trailer i carry an extra set of bearings (inner and outter) along
w/ the seals (and grease to pack 'em)...AND i carry a complete HUB
w/ the bearings already installed....i could probably change the
hub w/ tire on it, faster then i could installe new wheel bearings.
trust any bearing to be greased for life ! and when a wheel bearing goes
it goes NOW w/ little warning or time to salvage !
i grease my trailer bearings every time i take it out (which isnt alot but
EVERY time the trailer gets hooked up the bearings have been checked)
*AND* i carry a laser thermometer so i can check and compare the temps
of each wheel bearing & hub (when i stop)....HEAT is gonna be your
only EARLY warning that something isnt right.
when i trailer i carry an extra set of bearings (inner and outter) along
w/ the seals (and grease to pack 'em)...AND i carry a complete HUB
w/ the bearings already installed....i could probably change the
hub w/ tire on it, faster then i could installe new wheel bearings.
BamaSixGun
SDD Super Mod/Staff
just about all new axle bearings are grease packed unless you specify that you want them the old fashioned way. of course if we had known we would have had the trouble we did, my dad would have gone with the type you can service yourself.
the grease packed hubs have to be changed out with a whole new hub to the tune of about 1200.00 for 2, which we just had to do to one or our trailers. it takes 700 ft. lbs. of torque to take the hubs off and on. you have to have a special planetary air ratchet to do the job.
the grease packed hubs have to be changed out with a whole new hub to the tune of about 1200.00 for 2, which we just had to do to one or our trailers. it takes 700 ft. lbs. of torque to take the hubs off and on. you have to have a special planetary air ratchet to do the job.
so "the old way" is oil bath'd (in 90w ?) man i gotta think the
oil bath would be nearly serviced for life...see thru inspections caps
for "oil" level confirmation...and a CONSTANT lube (granted they dont
work well for axles that are gonna be submerged in water)
but id sure rather have THESE on my trailer (or truck)
oil bath would be nearly serviced for life...see thru inspections caps
for "oil" level confirmation...and a CONSTANT lube (granted they dont
work well for axles that are gonna be submerged in water)
but id sure rather have THESE on my trailer (or truck)
Yep. I like to take the steers off at about 3/4 of there life and put them on a trailer or use as a drive tire. You get your money's worth and don't create a safety issue. The problem is most of the bean counters have never driven a truck, so they don't get it.
