Emergency Tire Service: What to Do When a Truck Tire Fails

A tire that fails at highway speed pulls the vehicle toward the failed side, and a steer tire failure pulls hardest. The instinct is to brake hard and steer away. Both make it worse.

• Grip the wheel firmly and hold the vehicle in its lane.
• Stay off the brake at first. Ease off the throttle and let the vehicle slow.
• Do not jerk the wheel. Small, steady corrections keep the unit straight.
• Brake gently once speed is down and the vehicle is under control.

A drive or trailer tire failure is usually less dramatic in the cab, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed. A thump, a vibration, a change in how the trailer tracks or a warning from another driver are all reasons to check.

Pull fully off the traveled lanes, onto a wide shoulder, an exit ramp or a lot if one is very close. The goal is a place where the driver and the technician who comes can work without traffic beside them.

What not to do is keep driving to reach somewhere more convenient. A tire that has lost its air and keeps turning under load is usually destroyed within a short distance, and so is the casing that could have been retreaded. It can also damage the wheel, the brakes and the fenders around it, and a shredding tread can strike other vehicles.

If the only safe stop is some distance ahead, go slowly and get there. Safety comes first. Convenience does not count.

Once stopped:

• Turn on the hazard lights.
• Set the parking brake.
• Put out warning devices as the rules for your vehicle require. Commercial drivers have specific obligations here, and company procedure usually spells them out.
• Wear high-visibility clothing if you have it.
• Stay clear of the traffic side of the unit. If the shoulder is narrow, the safest place to wait may be away from the vehicle, behind a barrier.

Write down where you are before you make the call: the road, direction of travel, the nearest mile marker or exit, and any landmark. A phone location pin helps, sent to whoever is coordinating.

Call the Purcell location nearest the unit. Purcell runs 24-hour roadside assistance at 48 locations, and each location page lists that store's number. Your dispatcher may make the call for you; the article on 24-hour truck tire service covers what a dispatcher should have ready.

Tell them, as plainly as you can:

1. Exactly where the unit is.
2. Which tire failed: the axle, the side, and inside or outside on a dual.
3. The tire size from the sidewall of the matching tire.
4. Whether the unit was driven on the tire after it failed, and how far.
5. Whether you are loaded.
6. Who authorizes the work.

Look at the failed tire, but stay safe doing it. If anything looked wrong before the failure, such as smoke from a wheel end, a smell of hot brakes or a vibration that had been building, tell the technician. A tire failure is sometimes the symptom of something else, like a dragging brake or a failing wheel bearing, and the fix needs to address the cause.

Check the partner tire on a dual. When one tire of a pair fails, the other carried the whole load on that side, possibly for some distance, and it may need inspection or replacement too.

Emergency tire service gets the unit moving. It does not always finish the job.

• Have the cause looked at if there was one: brakes, bearing, alignment, a wheel that keeps losing air.
• Ask whether the failed casing can go into the retreading program. A tire stopped promptly sometimes can.
• Note the failure on the unit's record, with the position and the reason. Patterns across several failures point at a cause that a single one does not.

Not every tire problem is an emergency. A slow leak found at a pre-trip inspection, a yard full of trailers due for tires, or a unit that can wait until a shop opens is planned work. Mobile service handles planned tire work at your site, and a store visit handles the rest. Keeping emergency calls for real emergencies helps the service reach the units that need it most.