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Speaking of Tires: PSA of Stupidity

Third From Texas

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I'm pretty thorough on my walk-around the truck pre-drive. I inspect all the usual things, tires, lights, lines, hoses, pins, compartments, etc.


So last week we had a but 8 days of solid rain/drizzle.. I had run errands on Monday and backed the truck up the driveway as always.

Friday things had dried up and I needed to get to a doctor appointment. I do my typical walk-around as the truck warms up a bit. I get in and start to roll forward and sometimes the brakes with pop after being driven in the rain and left sitting. The brakes do the little pop, and she rolls forward as normal. I turn onto the the street and go about two houses and let off the gas. The truck lunges to a stop. Uh oh....

I get out and look, and the passenger rear is locked (the air brakes had of course released them normally, but mechanical it was ceased from sitting in the rain for a week). A light tap with the hammer fixes the issue (not uncommon). But I'm usually parked with all four on the driveway. This time I had left the passenger side on the pavers to give my garage apartment tenants some more room to park out of the street/rain.

But looking back up the street, I see that not only did I drag a row of my driveway pavers out into a nice pile complements of a stuck wheel........ but I also left 1/4" of my tread behind. Yeah...

So now I have a 1/4" flat spot on that tire (it will now go into the trailer as a spare/spare). But yeah, the tire is basically ruined..

Oddly, the truck gave no indication it had a stuck wheel. I could have driven to the doctor and back. LOL Honestly, it made no noise in the cab and until I let off the brakes there was no indication at all that the wheel was stuck. The rough asphalt shredded it down rapidly or course. Had I let my foot off the gas sooner, I'd have noticed it

I'm so pissed...and bummed. But at least I have three spare Goodyears on rims in the garage and a clean spare in the cradle.

Another expensive lesson learned..
 
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Third From Texas

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Yeah, the tires on the truck are all still the 2008's.

I have a 2012 that will go one for now (or I may just swap it with the spare and keep the 2008's on the pavement for now.

No plans to buy all new Goodyears until I have then project completed. But yeah, before I travel I'll get all new 2026's direct from Goodyear. Not even going to screw around with surplus or the blems that are flooding the market these days
 

GeneralDisorder

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I haven't had this locking up behavior.... I did used to get the pop of the brakes releasing when leaving the driveway but over time that seems to have gone away. We do get plenty of rain here in Oregon so.... not sure on that. On my big list of stuff to do is rebuild/change all the brake chambers, change all the air lines, and service all the brake mechanical components. Haven't had an issue yet that's pushed this to the top of the list.......
 

serpico760

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Yeah, the tires on the truck are all still the 2008's.

I have a 2012 that will go one for now (or I may just swap it with the spare and keep the 2008's on the pavement for now.

No plans to buy all new Goodyears until I have then project completed. But yeah, before I travel I'll get all new 2026's direct from Goodyear. Not even going to screw around with surplus or the blems that are flooding the market these days
Ouch at $2,000 a tire! Hope you have a friend at the Goodyear sales department!
 

Third From Texas

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Ouch at $2,000 a tire! Hope you have a friend at the Goodyear sales department!
Yep, hopefully someone will see this and save one of their tires someday.

Had I not had that side of the truck on the pavers, it would not have slid down the driveway w/o warning But the pavers acted as skids/slides and the tire didn't grab at all until it hit the street and I was turning. There was enough mud evolved to grease the way to the street w/o feeling a thing.

But yeah, all five were slated for replacement after the build is complete.
 

Third From Texas

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I haven't had this locking up behavior.... I did used to get the pop of the brakes releasing when leaving the driveway but over time that seems to have gone away. We do get plenty of rain here in Oregon so.... not sure on that. On my big list of stuff to do is rebuild/change all the brake chambers, change all the air lines, and service all the brake mechanical components. Haven't had an issue yet that's pushed this to the top of the list.......

I get it when the truck sits up after driving in rain. Seems to be pretty common. Usually, the will pop free.

The worst I saw was that little tan parts truck I picked up from San Antonio. One wheel brake was REALLY stuck good when we wen to drag it off the yard. But the 5lbs sledge works every time.

But yeah, drum brakes + water + sitting up sometimes stick.
 

serpico760

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Yep, hopefully someone will see this and save one of their tires someday.

Had I not had that side of the truck on the pavers, it would not have slid down the driveway w/o warning But the pavers acted as skids/slides and the tire didn't grab at all until it hit the street and I was turning. There was enough mud evolved to grease the way to the street w/o feeling a thing.

But yeah, all five were slated for replacement after the build is complete.
The tires I've been getting from Feltz tire have been brand new 2018 and 2019's. All the whiskers still on the tread. Rubber looked and felt in very nice condition. One of them was covered with a bit of CARC overspray which I'm figuring out how to get off. A lot of it just flakes off.
 

chucky

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Yea ive left trenches in my gravel driveway so first thing i do now is release the brakes at the knob and look in the mirror both sides at the tread on the tire to make sure shes turning ! The shoes are just rusting to the drums 9 mo. a year and freezing to the drums 3 mo ! Even though it might not be wet/damp in the cold part of the year when you go to park just throw 2 rubber wedge blocks on your front wheel and dont set the brakes cause there hot and will sweat and still freeze to the drum and if your trucks like mine the air will bleed down soon enough and automatically set them when the air gets down to 60 pounds ! So you dont have to baby sit the truck for an hr waiting on them to cool off ! (DISCLAIMER FOR THE VICTIMS MUST BE ON FLAT GROUND !)
 

chucky

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Can you please explain for those in southern climates how to do this and why?

Or is this just a check to see if if they are stuck?


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Its just something that sometimes works! When the drum/shoe are really frozen this never worked for me but ymmv your just trying to flex the shoe in each direction to hope it pops loose from the drum but usally ends in a BFH or some heat on the drum ! Our trucks dont have enough weight on them to have any leverage to torqe on the drum/shoe so the hammer usally gets brought out and dont hammer on the edge of the shoe use like a long 1/2 inch extention as a punch against the metal web of the shoe and hammer there as to not bust up the edge of the shoe material
 

ramdough

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Its just something that sometimes works! When the drum/shoe are really frozen this never worked for me but ymmv your just trying to flex the shoe in each direction to hope it pops loose from the drum but usally ends in a BFH or some heat on the drum ! Our trucks dont have enough weight on them to have any leverage to torqe on the drum/shoe so the hammer usally gets brought out and dont hammer on the edge of the shoe use like a long 1/2 inch extention as a punch against the metal web of the shoe and hammer there as to not bust up the edge of the shoe material
Thanks Chucky!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Jbulach

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Can you please explain for those in southern climates how to do this and why?

Or is this just a check to see if if they are stuck?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Biggest thing is you will feel the unusual condition as the OP did when he let off the throttle, and will “usually” break the drum free, but after feeling the drag on the truck you will always reverify all wheels are turning freely.
 

GeneralDisorder

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I saw a truck down the street have a locked brake on his trailer and started a fire. The exploding tires was quit loud.
Surprisingly common on military trailers - especially water buffalo's. Hard to tell the smoke from the dust with the parking brake not being released when you're moving out down a dry dirt/gravel road...... I wouldn't know anything about that though. 🙄
 
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