Tire Explosion Video.mov

This is a sneek peek of a tire safety video created by Branick Industries.

[adammcinnes]

I saw a split rim/2-piece rim tire blow one time when I was in my early teens. My younger brother and I were repairing and mounting tires on the farm. Our dad always warned us about how dangerous split rim tires can be. My younger brother started filling the tire while it was lying on its side, and I told him to flip it over so the locking ring part was facing down in case something when wrong (we didn't have a cage or anything else to use, and we had a locking air chuck that allowed you to fill from a distance so we didn't have to hold it on there). A few moments later, the whole wheel assembly shot probably four feet into the air when the tube inside ruptured at the ring came flying off (we were lucky that it wasn't at full pressure when it happened). It scared the crap out of us and we learned a valuable lesson that day about how dangerous tires can be.

[PlebScrubber]

i just wanna say that who ever welded the pipes to the plate to build that steel framework did an excellent job
under that force, the welds hold intact while the plate and pipes buckle

[mairou.]

I want to tell more of this kind of injuries. About 20 years ago, My grandpa was inflating old trucks tire when that whole tire exploded and my grandpa flew to a wall, He broke his leg bone, arm bones, alot of bones from the hands, broke his chin from 3 places and also broke his skull :(, luckily he survived and I still have my grandpa :)

[Unmannedair]

I had a cycle tire explode on me while I was filling it with air. It knocked me across the garage and gave me one hell of a headache. Since then I've learned a lot about explosives and the real danger is internal organ damage and the pressure crushing your skull. Actual danger is a function of the pressure-wave intensity and your distance from the source. A psi difference of 40 lbs is 2880 lbs force on your skull. many other things also factor in.

[dant]

split rims are dangerous as hell. i worked at a trucking company as a mechanic prior to getting my other job. i was out washing trucks and i heard a big boom, almost like close thunder, when i went in the garage the cage was mangled and it ripped the anchors clean out of the concrete. thankfully the mechanic wasnt hurt.

[mozzmann]

2 and 3 piece rims still exist on some 4WD's as well as trucks and trust me I have witnessed a locking ring from one cut a neat hole in the wall of the tire shop when it went off.
Even chained and in a cage I have seen some nasty stuff happen when repairing tires while driving trucks for a living .

[Tom-kwkm]

This is a great video of the cage doing it's job. We used a cage for our corporate jet split rim service where the tires are inflated to 130+ with nitrogen.

At the beginning of the red cage setup, 0:27 mark, you can see that the bead has not been adequately seated on the locking ring thus it is guaranteed to fail for the high speed video.

What I've learned that in a 'failure scenario' a technician, who would also know the dangers of this type of rim, is in a hurry would have not insured that the lock ring and rim were in good service and/or the tire bead had not FULLY seated onto the lock-ring itself. Then casually went to full service pressure without protecting himself from the failure. That's why these cages are still being made by these companies because they know the risks with non-solid rim service as they are still used today. Otherwise these cages won't be needed.

By the way. Has there been a new tire bead failure that anyone has heard of? If so, what was the circumstance?

In life we now how to manage risk that we've educated ourselves on.

I have this rim type on my vintage '53 International COE and plan to continue to use them for now. I'm trying to save a piece of history and will be able mount the tires myself to save money for the more expensive parts of the project. I don't want put anyone else in unnecessary danger trying to servicing them. Later try to find a way to get tubeless rims for it. That's going to be expensive.

There are many good tutorials on YouTube that has made me feel more comfortable with lock-ring rims and not with the "Widow Maker" split-rims.

Note: When I got my truck it did have the "Widow Makers" on the L & R inboard duals. I deflated and disassembled to see what the rim type looked like and found out the 10% to 15% of the locking sections were worn away! I suppose previous owner was trying to save money too. The outboard "Widow maker" halves along with two of the older tires will become man-cave tables.

My honest recommendation is to try and upgrade to the safer solid rim type when you can.

[UncleBubbles]

I have heard stories where the two piece rim failed while at a stop light, the outer piece embedded itself into the engine block of the truck next to to it.

[NavigatedChaos]

I love this, people misjudge the power of air so much, so it's cool to see this.

[nicolec]

the guys at the truck stop I worked at changed the split rim and one blew and put a 1 inch deep circle in the concrete building...lot of power...

[NewGenTech]

@xfusionpower Ok, that makes sense. They had just started to really incorporate the use of the air cages when I left about 11 years ago so that probably why I didn't know or remember the policy. I do remember that we mainly used them on the larger truck tires more than anything.

[rcxs]

A zipper can happen if one dual is run flat for miles, but not long enough to show damage. U start putting air in and find a leak at 10psi. Pull it apart, looks fine inside and out. Patch the hole, mount it up and put air to it. Then at 60 psi it starts popping! Scary stuff!

[jacquesjacobs]

The very fact that they are made in this manner speaks volumes. You truly can't come up with a better design?  Oh wait, there is...

[laxdogg]

to everyone claiming that they didnt see a tire failure. While correct, the video shows exactly what happens when you overinflate a tire. The tire itself will not explode. Its the rim that blows from excessive pressure. I dont know where it says anywhere that the tires failed. Ask any tire guy (myself being one) when a tire blows your not worried about fragments of rubber. Your worried about fragments of rim. Any rim new or old will fracture when overinflated

[pcsheets]

Split rims are used in agriculture in many applications.

[YahikoHaldane]

Commercial aircraft also use a two part rim. It is filled with N2 and it is
a very good idea to make sure the tank regulator is turned to 0 PSI
and start from there or you get the same thing you just looked at

[Duckyistrippin]

@mateopdx thats what happens. Thusly, the tire cage. these wheels used to be two piece with a snap ring. Lots of people have gotten hurt/killed before changes in wheel design and safety cages.

[heyitsvos]

This is a Dayton style split rim. if the ring isn't seated properly or the ring groove is dirty, this can happen at very low psi.

[goyeabuddy]

these split rims were called 'widow makers' i had to replace a tire on one of these split rims once, a job i never have done before. i called tire man 1st & he walked me thru the process, if it wasn't for him i probably wouldn't be typing this today...

[BornRandy]

I used to work with split rim tire repairs years ago. I used to put the air to it and go to the other side of the shop to put at least one wall between me and the flying pieces. I can show you the holes in the walls from flying 40 lb pieces of iron to this day. I still have the equipment to work with the split rings altho I havent had to work on one in 30 plus years. Split rims are still dangerous even tho they are mostly on antique pieces of equipment