The spacing has at times been a problem for large trucks as well. When the conversion from bias ply to radial occurred there were a lot of heat problems created by the tires actually touching on the bottom.
It was worse on low bed (goose neck) trailers with 15" tires to allow a beaver tail. Trying to keep them both apart and cooled (remember the RPM on them is much higher than a full size) was not always possible. I had some monumental blow outs. One of the most memorable, (because I was looking in the mirror) happened on a down hill on I-80. I was possibly slightly over the speed limit at the time, and probably over the weight limit when an almost new inner tire let go. Keep in mind, those tires are not contained---they are open on top since there is no deck directly over the tires. What I saw, and took a few seconds to recognize was a large dark cloud go up---the cloud was the dust that was all that remained of the tire. No one had to make emergency moves to miss my "trash".
Last edited by Dave Grubb; 01-10-2021 at 09:32 AM.
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