Topic: Hit a Truck Tire Tread on I-495

[sunnygator]

Tues afternoon, on the outer loop, just before the Potomac.  The entire tread from a truck tire, still in a loop with no sidewalls, came careening down my lane. It left tire marks on my bumper and down the driver's side.  I stopped at River Rd, and looked it over - at the time I thought it would all come off with some TLC.  A better look today revealed a dent just behind the driver's door.  It's small, not very noticeable, but I think will be pretty hard to fix on that skinny panel.  We'll see what the adjuster says!

What a bummer - this is the first car I've kept in near-pristine condition since day one, and I just get sick looking at that dent! - but I guess I'm lucky I didn't do anything stupid on 495.

BTW, suggestions on how to "know" you've found a good bodyshop will be appreciated!

sunnygator

[DeepBlueGXP]

Sorry to hear that.  Our good body shop isn't in a junk yard and the workers aren't missing teeth.  The insurance adjuster sits in the shop at his own desk.  That is how you know you have a good one.

[DickW]

I hit a truck tire about a month after I bought my GXP. Insurance Replaced front air dam. About $600. I don't know why the let them run recaps on the trailers.

[1LILNDN]

sunnygator ----> When I'm driving on long trips I call them  "Rubbercondas" the highway Snake . As bad as an Anaconda in the Water     

[Uranium-238]

Sorry to hear that.  Our good body shop isn't in a junk yard and the workers aren't missing teeth.  The insurance adjuster sits in the shop at his own desk.  That is how you know you have a good one.

2 guys auto?

[DeepBlueGXP]

Yes.

[Mac]

Lucky it was not the whole tire, I had few very close calls back in Ca.  The whole tire rim and all jumped the center divider and bounced right over my car. Would be like hitting an Elk at speed. Once on the 405 S just passing John W air port in the early a.m..  I see what at first one might think UFO, coming out of the sky at about 11oclock  a spinning object, as it made its way to earth i figured it would miss me. they guy to my right never seen it and this 4x4 piece of 3/4 plywood slams in to the passenger side front window, the guy as calm as you please just turns on his blinker and takes the next off ramp. In the news he made a comment that normally his wife would have been with him but that day she was not, it would have killed her. Truck tires and poorly tied loads.....

[Treeman]

Got hit by a truck flap once.  Flew off a truck onto the road and was kicked up into my windshield at 80 mph by the car in front of me.  All I could do was duck and pray I kept in my lane (I did).  Dent's and black smears down the side and side mirror ripped off.  Amazingly, no damage to the windshield which took the full impact including the metal strip.  Scariest moment I ever had driving.

[baconbits]

I hit a blown chunk of tire  at night well over a 100 mph on the Trans Canada highway coming home from a night out.. on my old 1100 Suzuki the bars slapped side to side for at least a mile..I got off the bike had a pee and drove the rest of the journey at 40 ...if I would of crashed they wouldn't have found me for days...

[chuckdoc]

I hit something (it was dark, but I think it was a tire tread) on route 50 south coming into PG county.  It ripped my folding license plate bracket (along with the plate) off the front of my solstice. 

2 hours getting a new plate from MVA and just got the new Davescorvette bracket in the mail.  Now if I can just find time for Nancy to let me go to Joe's I can get this fixed before a ticket gets issued.

Why retread tires are not illegal is beyond me.

[duramax]

Maybe A little info from A truck driver would help. Its not retreads that are the problem. Its lack of A proper pre trip inspection. If 1 tire in A set of duals is flat it will heat up and disintegrate. They almost always fail where the tread meets the side wall. Then you get A road Gator. Also if A road hazard blows A tire suddenly they will sometimes do that. I had A steer tire do that when I hit A gator one night. The Steel in the tread will shred the tire that hits it. It tore the right front fender off the hood when the tire blew. Retreads do not fail if they are not flat. They will last longer when flat than A new tire. I don't know why but they do. It takes several miles to make one fail depending on temp of the road. Any where from A hundred to several hundred miles. As I said at the start in most cases if the driver had checked the tires before driving and A few times during the day they would not have failed. 

[Gentleman Jack]

Duramax,

 I never knew...

GJ

[chuckdoc]

Me either, but still scared the crap out of me!

[sunnygator]

All the tire marks came off OK when I washed and detailed her today. 

Also went to a bodyshop today, they think they can pull out the dent, but it will require having the rear quarter panel repainted.  The front panel (with the pontiac symbol) isn't dented, but it is a little out of alignment.  1st estimate is about $800 . . .

After she was all cleaned up, I felt better 'bout the whole thing...but I still want that dent to be gone gone gone....

sunnygator

[duramax]

I have only had 1 come off. It flew up and hit the hood of A county cop car. That was 20 or so years ago. I always check my tires now. It put A huge dent and scratch on the hood of that cop car. He peed his pants. No ticket or liability though. I worked for Toys R Us at the time and someone put A storage trailer in A load door. The trailer was not supposed to leave the yard. The tire was most likely flat for years. The cop did not even notice it had no plate on it. It went to A store about 90 miles away from the DC. Whoever took it there did not check it and I also did not. I made it to about 1 mile from the DC when it failed.

[MomsSol]

All the tire marks came off OK when I washed and detailed her today. 

Also went to a bodyshop today, they think they can pull out the dent, but it will require having the rear quarter panel repainted.  The front panel (with the pontiac symbol) isn't dented, but it is a little out of alignment.  1st estimate is about $800 . . .

After she was all cleaned up, I felt better 'bout the whole thing...but I still want that dent to be gone gone gone....

sunnygator

Yes a FYI ... if the dent is in the rear quarter panel - this panel is not easily removed.  Not only is it welded in place but it is also glued.  Fortunately for me, on mine they were able to get inside the panel and knock out the dent w/o having to remove the panel.

[sunnygator]

Yes a FYI ... if the dent is in the rear quarter panel - this panel is not easily removed. 

It is definitely the rear q panel.  I saw them being glued in place in Wilmington - I know they'd be a bear to get off!

Right now, they think they can do it without removal.

sunnygator