Keeping a check on your horsebox tyres

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silu

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I meant to post this bit of advice months ago but forgot. I was reminded when I heard of someone else having the same problem. We had a double blowout of a rear offside tyre some months back. When the rescue service arrived the mechanic immedaitely said to me"suppose it will be the offside tyres that have gone" I said "yes, how did you guess?" "Always is with horsboxes because the drainage holes on a horsebox are most often on the offside and tyres regularly get soaked in pee". I told him we regularly checked the treads on the tyres and the ones that blew had years of tread left. Evidently it's the walls of the tryes which perish and over time they get thin and eventually split, this "damage" isn't that easy to spot. He recommended we regularly washed the offside tyres and had them checked at least every 6 months. Just thought I'd pass on this useful advice from a tyre expert onto those who didn't know about this potentially life threatening problem. We have had a lorry for over 10 years and hadn't heard about this, but obviously it is quite a common occurance.
 
It has a lot less to do with horses peeing on the tyres :D than the fact that the offside tyres generaly carry the most weight(horses bums generaly on offside). Most 7.5 tonners run at their maximum weight (and often above )measured on an axle basis. .The offside tyres however are almost always being run at above their maximum load. Very few people check tyre pressures often enough and as tyre pressures fall the maximum load they can take drops.The tyre becomes overloaded and then damage is done.Also ,as for the myth of the double rear blow out. It doesnt happen!.What happens is that someone fails to check the tyres and has a flat inner tyre.The outer has to then take double the weight and blows. Result appears to be two blown tyres.
 
Agree about dbl blow out not happening as such. Guy who came out to us explained load on inner very unlikely to cope with load if outer goes. However don't agree with your other remarks. Our 7.5 tonne lorry we have had since new, it has only ever carried 2 horses (not Clydesdales!) and when we had the blow out it was carrying 1 fairly light 16.1 horse, no water on board either so we were not travelling heavy. We regularly do long trips of say about 7 hours to complete and had had the tyre pressures checked a week before the trip where we had the problem. The mechanic works for the biggest tyre company in Scotland and can't see why he would have said what he did without having pretty good fact to back up what he said, he was no novice at his job either as he told me he'd been working for the same company for over 20 years!. IF what he told us was not correct I ain't taking any chances and will continue to do what he told us to do after all it isn't a big deal to do it.
 
Its a simple easy to prove fact that the Off side rear tyres carry a disproportionate amount of the weight. The damage caused by underinflation and overloading is not generaly visible and merely checking the tyre pressures does not guarantee that they are still servicable.
 
Sorry to step into a conversation, but how do you go about checking the tyre pressure on a 7.5ton? I am guessing a regular compressor isn't going to handle it?

The last blow out I had was the nearside inside tyre, which was lucky really as we were on the M6, previous to that was an offside tyre and the police had to shut a lane of the M42 so the chap could change it :eek:

My horses very, very rarely wee on the lorry so I won't worry too much.
 
Mil I'd maybe recommend you phone where your lorry is plated and ask best place to get trye pressure checked and tyres balanced as well, as out of balance tyres won't cause a lorry to fail a plating. Certain tyre companies have the facility to check pressures on lorries but not all do.
Lucky you having horses that don't wee in the lorry.Because we do long journies to be able to compete at the higher levels we HAVE to travel long distances and thus the inevitable happens!!
 
pretty well any reputable tyre fitters will be able to check your tyre pressures .They ALL have compressors that run up to a more than adequate pressure (or their Air tools wouldnt work:D).The only question is do they have adequate room. One yard I knew used to get a mobile tyre fitter out occasionaly to do all the boxes and trailers.
 
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