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How Does Something Like This Happen?

David Nunn
I guess I am not all that familiar with tractors and their tires. I do expect to own a tractor one day, and I don't want to get killed working on it.

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Man killed changing tractor tire

By BRAD KELLAR
Herald-Banner Staff

What would normally be a routine task turned tragic for a Hunt County man Monday morning, as the individual was killed while attempting to change a tractor tire.

Hunt County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Robert White said the incident was first reported at around 10 a.m. Monday at a residence on County Road 3106, just south of Interstate 30, as a tire explosion.

"It actually didn't explode," White said, noting the individual was in the middle of attaching the tire to the rim when the rim separated from the tire.

"This caused the rim to violently to shoot out toward him and it hit him in the head," White said.

White said the person operated a tire repair store in Greenville and was at the residence at the request of the owner. The name of the individual was not released as of Monday afternoon, as White was not sure whether the next of kin had been notified.

http://www.heraldbanner.com/archivesearch/local_story_198013827.html
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Comments

25 comments

Date Votes
  • HandgunHTR52
    It sounds like it had a split rim. Those things are dangerous.
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  • mateomasfeo
    I've always heard that changing tractor tires is dangerous...
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  • duckhunter
    Truck tires also. My father was almost killed with a split rim. ALWAYS put into a cage before you work on the tire.
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  • fastcarsgofast
    Could this happen on a regular passenger car tire?
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  • Alpine
    Passenger cars don't normally have split rims. Just implements and trucks.
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  • spryor
    There was a local here killed that very way about 15yrs ago.

    Knew another guy that got buggered up pretty bad when looking at a brake drum that had been sticking. Stuck his head between the dump bed and the duals. The sticking brake drum had generated enough heat that one of the tires blew when he had his head in there. I messed his head up pretty bad..in more ways than one.
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  • Horse Plains Drifter
    Yep probably a split rim or a seperating rim of some sort, some of them come apart in the middle. The rims get old and rusty and the locks don't latch right. I have changed dozens of them and never had a problem, but thankfully not many are in service anymore.
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  • rogue_rob
    yep, a split rim will take your head off.

    If we didnt have a cage available, we would put a ratchet strap around the tire as we air it up. Glad we never had to find out if the ratchet strap would have held.
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  • dongizmo
    Yep, it happens, I used to fix my own, you make sure the ring is seated, and never stick your head over the ring when your airing it up[xx(]
    Don
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  • Frogbert
    I've worked with split rims many times, and to this day the thought of them makes me nervous![:I]

    For those of you who do not know, a split rim has to be levered around the wheel to trap the bead of a heavy implement or truck tire in place when air pressure is applied. They are like a huge single slinky coil that gets hammered into place with a 3lb hammer. If they are not seated properly they can fly off under air pressure and take your head off or go through the wall, etc.

    That being said, a tractor tire can come unseated from a conventional type rim under too much pressure or one that's deformed because of an unusual impact previously that has weakened the rim or something. If your head is right beside it as you are airing it up, the heavy rubber bead will pop out 6 or 8 inches at a 100 miles an hour or more and hit you with the force of a sledgehammer.
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  • jimdeere
    Hardly anyone will change one around here anymore. They are not split rim but the calcium chloride solution inside used as ballast leaks and corrodes the rims from the inside. Very low pressure but enough to take your head off.
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  • Captplaid
    My worse fear is losing control of an 18.4X38 dual while manually moving it, having it fall on me, and slicing me in half.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    quote:Originally posted by duckhunter
    Truck tires also. My father was almost killed with a split rim. ALWAYS put into a cage before you work on the tire.


    +1
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  • ljwrench
    I saw a guy loose his arm from the elbow down changing a main tire on a Lear 23. He was airing it up and had the regulator set to the max (3000psi) when the thru-bolts sheared off. It was his first day on the job. I made sure our guy's used a tire cage after that.
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  • dheffley
    Always fill tractor tires with as much water as I can, then finish them off with air. If something seperates, there is only a small amount of compressed air.

    Everyone I ever knew did the same thing. It was how I was taught.
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  • sarge_3ad
    Back in my younger days, I helped a guy move a house. He had his dolly's made from old truck axles and rims, that he slid under the house to move it down the road. We were moving wheels from one set to the other, and I was in front of one pulling it off the hub. I just stood up and boom, the ring blew off the tire and sent me sailing. I thought it broke both of my legs, but I was really lucky that day as it only took some meat from my shins and laid me up for about 2 weeks. Never felt anything that hurt so bad.
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  • Colt Super
    Before we got cages, when changing split rims at my Goodyear store in Compton, California, we would lower a rack on top of them to prevent any damage if it didn't seat. When we aired them, we would always go around the corner of the shop until we were sure they were OK.

    They always made me nervous.

    Doug
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  • Kimbercolt
    we had a new guy in the air force.
    tires on the F-111 would kill if you did not follow
    procedures.
    It still had pressure we he went to disassembly.
    alot of damage.
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  • JamesRK
    quote:Originally posted by fastcarsgofast
    Could this happen on a regular passenger car tire?

    Not the same way, but there is always somebody who can figure out how to get killed doing anything.
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  • wanted man
    quote:Originally posted by rogue_rob
    yep, a split rim will take your head off.

    If we didnt have a cage available, we would put a ratchet strap around the tire as we air it up. Glad we never had to find out if the ratchet strap would have held.

    If I had a dollar for every time I've seen that done in the motor pool, I'd be a very rich man[B)]
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  • oldemagics
    quote:Originally posted by Captplaid
    My worse fear is losing control of an 18.4X38 dual while manually moving it, having it fall on me, and slicing me in half.

    AMEN i did many wheel loaders like the cat 930 ALONE! not fun
    spent 11 years doing tracter trailer and heavy equipment tire repair
    and it doesnt have to be a split rim to go south fast!
    most actual "split rims" have been gone for many years, but a "lock ring" type which only has one of the rims as a large snap ring took their place. true split rims part in the center of the wheel.
    recent years (past 10 or so) many trucks are going tubeless like car tires and will save this type of thing from happening.
    my heavy equipment career was ended by one of the lock rings!
    tire was seated in cage, deflated and re-aired to about 80 lbs psi and set aside for delivery.
    i got a call that the truck was down and they needed the tire brought out and put on...right rear inner position for you drivers out there.
    placed the spare on the spider (axle hub on a truck) and was useing my left foot to help slide on smoothly (two hands @ 10 and 2, foot at 6) when the ring broke loose
    a few seconds before i had had my back to it as i lifted it up and on, a second or two more and my head would have been in front of it as i picked up the spacer that goes between the wheels.
    the force of that blasted off ring (about 20 lbs) caught mostly the left leg just above the height of reg issue combats and accross lower abdomen/right thigh about 3 inches from makeing me a woman...
    lifted me clear of the ground and back about 20-30 ft INTO a rr car on the sideing with enough force to split the skin of my back THROUGH A PAIR OF INSULATED COVER-ALLS AND LONG JOHNS and bounce back about half that distance where i came to rest.
    left ankle joints were literally torn apart just from the sudden jar, and the bones of the lower left leg looked like they had been removed and replaced with small gravel and compounde at two places from some of the larger fragments
    young gal on the responding ambulance crew picked up several fragments from my pants leg when they cut it open and asked what to do with them! told her to tuck them in the sock, they may need em!
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  • Doc
    Two-piece wheels (split rims) can even separate while driving. There was a case of a motorcyclist being seriously injured when the rim blew on a truck he was passing and it knocked him off his cycle. They come apart with great force and are very dangerous to work with.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    Used to have them in the military. We had a cage that the tire went into to air up after the "split" rim was installed . There were a few instances where people taking shortcuts got hurt and a few killed by "Flying" rims.
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  • William81
    I worked every Saturday at my Dad's shop. My job was busting down two piece tractor trailer rims. We always used a cage and on a couple of ocassions the rims blew.

    One Saturday I was being helped by one of the drivers and he was airing one up while it layed on the floor of the shop. The ring blew off and flew straight up (Thank God) and did a number on the light and ceiling above it.

    We used to do some tractor tires also. As Danny said, we filled them mostly with water, but we still used the cage.
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  • TrinityScrimshaw
    Classic is right, the only safe way to split one is to put it in a cage.

    I have a slow leak on my old 630 Case, and I will have the local Good Year dealer bring their truck out to fix it for me. It will cost me more for a home visit, but that way I will not have to deal with it.

    Trinity +++
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