The Wheel from the Sky

Bilbo

Bilbo

New member
I was driving the Interstate yesterday afternoon in traffic, and happened to look up at precisely the time a mounted truck tire, about 18 feet in the air, was reaching the top of its trajectory and, as I found out, heading directly for my rig.

When I had time to recover, it did seem that luck was on my side (?!). Almost all the impact was absorbed by the now-shattered leading edge of the driver’s side roof rail. It didn’t crash through the windshield or the sunroof, it didn’t make first contact and crater the roof itself, and although it left a really nice trail across the roof, it seems to have mostly spared the spoiler.

So, who says those stock rack rails aren’t good for anything?

All in all, my dealer's body shop is estimating about $1,500 to un-dent, repaint, and replace. And while I wasn't originally in the market at this time, those Baja short racks are now whispering loudly in my ear that Now is the Time.
 

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You sir, are one lucky son of a gun!

Glad to hear that the damage to your 4R was minimal, and more importantly you were unharmed. I witnessed a similar turn of events a few years back on a rural interstate... the car was messed up pretty bad, but the driver and passengers were luckily unharmed.

Godspeed.
 
Bilbo said:
I was driving the Interstate yesterday afternoon in traffic, and happened to look up at precisely the time a mounted truck tire, about 18 feet in the air, was reaching the top of its trajectory and, as I found out, heading directly for my rig.

When I had time to recover, it did seem that luck was on my side (?!). Almost all the impact was absorbed by the now-shattered leading edge of the driver’s side roof rail. It didn’t crash through the windshield or the sunroof, it didn’t make first contact and crater the roof itself, and although it left a really nice trail across the roof, it seems to have mostly spared the spoiler.

So, who says those stock rack rails aren’t good for anything?

All in all, my dealer's body shop is estimating about $1,500 to un-dent, repaint, and replace. And while I wasn't originally in the market at this time, those Baja short racks are now whispering loudly in my ear that Now is the Time.
Click to expand...

WOW!!!! I hope you went to Church after this! Glad you weren't hurt my man, that could have ended very badly!
 
Man, you were inches from being killed. My granddaughter's Accord took a truck wheel/tire to the RF on the freeway and the damage was extensive.

Glad you're OK.
 
Friend of mine's wife was killed when a tire came through their windsheild, Semi Driver didn't stop, probably didn't realize that he had lost it until the next time he stopped.
Someone's looking out for ya
 
Damn you got lucky. Looking at the pics it doesn't appear that it did any real damage except for the scuffing which is easily buffed out. It may be the angle of the pics but I don't see any dents or creasing.
 
were you able to track down the truck it came from?

someone up the road from you was missing a tire, shouldn't have been too hard to find...
 
Thanks to all who commented about my near-wipeout. It took me a while to sort it all out.

There was no time to react, and in fact I don’t know how I could have reacted anyway. The post-event me wants to say “Well, it could have been worse, but I’m a skilled driver.” But that’s obviously false. If I had braked, it might have found the windshield. And if I had swerved, I could have taken out another vehicle. I was, as you have all noted, just plain lucky.

After taking quick mental inventory (no broken windows, holes in the roof, etc) I did assume it came from the back of some tire dealer’s truck, and I tried to chase it down. But there was no truck hauling tires to be found. Perhaps it was lost by someone traveling in the opposite direction.

The photos don’t show creases, but they are there. I might just keep them as a souvenir. Occasionally think about friends who’ve run into bad luck. And load a copy of Journey’s “Wheel in the Sky” onto my playlist.
 
I thought you were going to say you got a set of BFG KO2's, and reference the commercial where they drop the tire from a helicopter :)

Indeed - Glad it hit where it did - that could have been much worse for your T4R and you both!

And I've been crying about freeway construction road debris cracking my windshields like crazy. This is a whole 'nother ballgame! :lookout:

:cool:
 
Loose wheels from trucks & cars

Bilbo said:
I was driving the Interstate yesterday afternoon in traffic, and happened to look up at precisely the time a mounted truck tire, about 18 feet in the air, was reaching the top of its trajectory and, as I found out, heading directly for my rig.

...
Click to expand...
Wow, you are very lucky. The tire was mounted to a truck rim, right? I've seen these come off of trucks while driving. It's usually caused by a bearing or axle failure. I've seen tires come out of ordinary vehicles with the axle attached. Due to rotational inertia, the wheel (when not on an axle) usually speeds up and passes the truck. It often starts out rolling straight and just keeps going. Eventually it slows down. If it hits something, it carries a lot of force, and that's when it flies through the air. You apparently caught it on the descent, after some kind of impact.

The truck that lost this tire was not far ahead of you. It may have been the outer rim of a dual wheel. The trucker may not have seen the rim come off, but with todays mentality of hit and run accidents, they may have known and just kept going. Or they were circling around to retrieve their tire.

I'm glad everyone is okay. A dozen years ago I almost got impaled by loose 2x wood planks flying off the top of a van. Just lucky it didn't hit us at 50+ mph.
 
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