From: Nathan Wilkens (nathan.wilkens@asu.edu)
Date: Sun Jan 19 2003 - 07:53:07 PST
Bjorn, Listers,
Please DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE DANGERS OF SPLIT RIM TIRES!
About 15 years ago, I had an uncle who worked at a CENEX farm service
station who was filling a split rim tire (after mounting it) off of a grain
truck who was correctly using the safety cage. The rim split and the blast
of air through the cage removed his nose (miraculously, it did not
permanently damage his hearing nor did any debris damage his eyes, but his
nose was left hanging by a flap of skin). To this day, he is my only
relative with a 'perfectly shaped nose' (according to my grandmother) since
it had to be cosmetically rebuilt and re-attached.
About 10 years ago, my father was just checking the air on one of our water
trucks (a converted 1950s school bus frame, with a cab attached and a large
water tank mounted on the back). Ironically, he was at the very same CENEX
service station that his brother was injured at a few years before. Also,
my father is a very large man (about 350 pounds). He pulled the water truck
up near the building with the air hose, then, after realizing it was just 5
psi low, he bent down to top off the air pressure and BAM! He woke up
laying in the street about 50 feet away. His left leg was severely wounded,
with his left knee entirely stripped of flesh (the blast of air had luckily
momentarily stopped all bleeding). His left arm was seriously bruised (from
the top half of the rim), and had his body not been turned when he bent down
to fill the tire, the top of the rim would likely have smashed his head in
and killed him, instead of beating his left arm and shoulder. When it was
all said and done, the doctors were able to fix his leg and knee, but he
still has problems with pieces of dirt working their way out of his leg (the
blast injected all kinds of dirt and debris into the flesh of the leg - much
of it the doctors could not remove). Within the year of the accident, all
the split rim equipped vehicles were removed from service (he's was really
frightened that the accident would have undoubtably killed one of us kids -
I was in the field running the spraying truck when it occurred, but it could
just as well have been me refilling the water truck).
Now, I'm certain there are many kinds of split rim tires, and only some
types are really dangerous, and to a trained technician these can easily be
distinguished - but, don't make light of a dangerous situation, and PLEASE
everyone who deals with split rim tires, be extra careful.
Thanks,
Nathan Wilkens
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bjorn Brandstedt" <super_deuce@hotmail.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 7:13 AM
Subject: [MV] Split Rim Wheels question
> We are all aware about the danger of a split rim flying off, maiming or
even
> killing someone during tire assembly. I have had a number of tires "done"
at
> a shop in nearby Mt Airy, NC. They all talk about the danger, but are not
> concerend about safety cages. I guess they know what they are doing.
>
> My question is, does the danger dissapear once the rim is installed and
the
> tire inflated? What I mean is, when we later deflate the tire (off road
> driving, etc) and again inflate it, do we again stand a chance of being
hit
> by flying iron or is the rim "safe" after a proper installation?
>
> Thankful for any futher info.
> Bjorn
> MVPA 19212
>
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 23 2003 - 13:25:01 PDT