OT: How to get a new tire; 101

[J Miller]

Yesterday evening my wife came home mid shift and sat for about 10 minutes. Got a call, went out to leave and got about 20 feet down the driveway and came to a dead halt. Left front tire was flat, flat, flat.

I had her back it up so I could get the floor jack under it and change it out. Because she couldn't wait I told her to take mine. In less than 20 feet it had rolled off the bead. So much for safety bead wheels.

In the cold, freezing, darkness I changed out the flat tire. After getting the spare on I checked it all the way around and found nothing.

This morning I looked again as I popped off the wheel weights. We buy our tires from Discount and when they fix flats they reballance them. So, I keep the weights.

Later between shifts she took the tire to Discount to be fixed. When she got home she said: Tire is history, I got a brand new one. It wasn't repairable. I said, what punctured it. She said, and animal bone .

Tire ruining bone_web.jpg

The bone fragment is from a hollow bone and it's 2" long. Poked through the tire like a knife blade.

I've had tires punctured by:

nails
screws,
bailing wire,
bucket wire handles,
cactus thorns,
glass,
jagged rock fragments,

but this is a first, this one was ruined by ..........
an animal bone.

Wifie said all she had to pay was for the new road hazard warranty.

So, that's how to get a new tire.

Joe

[Rustolium]

We did tire work in high school if you bought the tires and brought everything by the shop. I remember pulling a "T" bone out of a tire, one of my teachers had hit a bag of trash that was in the road. Seems to me that someone had steak before they tried to take the trash to the dump!

[RIHMFIRE]

I never got a flat from a bone fragment...but
a few years back we hade 3 hurricanes within 2 months or so...
and a lot of roofs were lost...I am talking thousands of roofs...
and when the roofs were repaired...they would haul the old roof materials
to the dump....and the roofing nails, screws , and God knows what else,
were all over the roads....I lost count on the number of flats I
had to fix....on my truck....my daughters truck..my wifes car,
tractor, atv, and the camper....what a PITA....
and never mind what i pick up at construction sites...

Just last week there was a guy going to the dump with a sliding
glass door in the back of the pick-up.....and the dufus did not tie it down....
Can you guess what happened.....and who could not stop in time....

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I get about 3 nails a year between the various cars. I also use Discount Tire and they have replaced several of my tires over the years where the nail was too near the sidewall to repair. Like RIHMFIRE said ... there are nails everywhere around here probably from all of the careless disposal of roofing material.

[Mac in Mo]

Joe,
Several years ago, going through the woods one Friday night to deer camp, I spot a shed antler in the headlight glare, laying in the rut of the log road. Son gets out and picks it up. It was a nice 5 point with the brow tine broken off. Get into camp where my friend was sitting by the fire, waiting for us to arrive. First thing out of his mouth, "I got a flat on the way in". I told him there was probably a brow tine in his tire. Sure enough, right in the sidewall. He had not noticed it in the dark. He was amazed that I knew what had caused the flat. We then pulled out the shed.


Kevin

[markinalpine]

Joe,
Several years ago, going through the woods one Friday night to deer camp, I spot a shed antler in the headlight glare, laying in the rut of the log road. Son gets out and picks it up. It was a nice 5 point with the brow tine broken off. Get into camp where my friend was sitting by the fire, waiting for us to arrive. First thing out of his mouth, "I got a flat on the way in". I told him there was probably a brow tine in his tire. Sure enough, right in the sidewall. He had not noticed it in the dark. He was amazed that I knew what had caused the flat. We then pulled out the shed.


Kevin

Dang! I was going to tell my story about an antler induced flat, but yours is so much better, I'll just shut-up.
Grumble,grumble,
Mark

[J Miller]

Kevin,

Did you glue the broken part back onto the shed?

Joe

[Mac in Mo]

Joe, I did glue it on and it sits out on a shelf here at the house.

Mark, Let's hear it.

[geobru]

The wierdest flat I ever got was on the high bridge over the Willamette River on I-5 in Portland, OR. The rig ahead of me ran over a piece of aluminum that was 3/16 inch thick, 7" long, and 2" wide, shaped sort of like a knife blade. The metal flipped up. I hit it, and had an immediate flat tire with no place to pull over for about 3/4 mile. Needless to say, that tire was toast!

[rafter-7]

Deer antler sheds are very hard on my ag tires ...

^

[hayabusa]

```I have never had a use for antlers. But when I was in my early twenties in about 1968 or so I worked for Piggly Wiggly grocery warehouse, a distribution center for a five state area. The manager of the repair shop for our Semi tractor trailer rigs keeps ragging on me to save the antlers. So I saved a nice set from the next buck. A very nice set. I left them on the workbench in my shop. The wife leaves for work at the local nursing home at 5:30 AM, still dark. She comes back into house & says she heard a noise in the right front of the car so she goes forward & there it is again. I go out & look. You all have probably guessed it by now. The feist dog we have had jumped upon the work bench and dragged the antlers off and left them behind the right front tire. When the wife backed up the antlers punched thru the sidewall. When she pulled forward they punched thru again. Total ruined tire. I have only kept a couple more sets since then to give my gunsmith to make knife handles from. Plus we have had punctures from most anything imaginable.
hayabusa

[Tycer]

Things I found inside flat tires when I worked in that biz:

mostly nails, largest being a railroad spike.
many bolts, the largest being 3/4" x 4".
glass, one being a test-tube that barely broke and cored about a 5/16" hole.
a screwdriver.
a 9/16 craftsman wrench (still have it).
various pieces of metal, one being 1/4"x6"x6" that also penetrated the mag wheel.
tool heads - hammer, axe, a matic that absolutely tore up the right front fender of a truck.
a toothbrush, with the brush head inside the tire.
sparkplugs two different times.
a kitten (obviously was in there when tire was mounted) in a split-rim semi wheel. Tube type. The flat was from a nail.

As a whole, we sure dump a lot of trash on our roads.