Truck vs trailer tires, chip-sealing fiasco

[Fritz]

It's orange-barrel season out west, and in the last 5 miles of a 6,500 mile trip we picked up some newly chip-sealed pavement from I-84.  Not just a little tar, but an entire piece of roadway.  Thick, gooey stuff.   It incapacitated our rig.  After removing the worst of it, we drove about a mile to an off-freeway parking lot, where the road contractor (responding to my substantial fuss) and I removed another 14 lbs of tar and gravel from the left side  TV and trailer tires.  

Next day I went to the Commercial Tire store, which sells Cooper tires, to make sure there was no lasting tire damage.  The fella told me that the tires were OK, but that the Oliver tires are truck tires (no surprise -- I knew that) but that truck tires shouldn't be used on trailers.  He said they are not designed for the sideways scrubbing that occurs when turning, and that excess scrubbing can lead to tread separation.  He said trailer tires ("ST" for "Special Trailer," instead of "LT" for "Light Truck) are meant to handle sideways scrubbing, but do not come in the size of tire that is installed on the Oliver.  

I wanted another opinion, so I took the rig to another tire dealer (Les Schwab, a regional shop), and the guy said "don't worry about it."  He said they see truck tires on trailers all the time, without problem.  

So there you have it, FWIW.  Just thought I'd share.  Opinions?

p.s., tires look clean again, after driving a couple hundred additional miles.  I drove very slowly both prior to scrubbing (had to: the tires were too unweighted) and after scrubbing, to avoid slinging any remaining tar onto that new, freshly waxed hull.  There are mudflaps in our future.

p.s.s: The first tire dealer also said that they'd recently seen a couple cars with so much tar in the wheel wells that the wheels would not turn, and if the tar sets up (which in our case it did not) it completely ruins the tires.

 

[John E Davies]

Wow, I have driven plenty of freshly chipsealed roads, but never ever in that situation. I think the contractor really screwed up big time. That is just plain disgusting. For those who don't know: ... https://dpw.lacounty.gov/gmed/lacroads/TreatmentChipSeal.aspx

A freshly chip sealed highway can be nightmare with a nice trailer, especially if people exceed the posted 35 mph limit and toss rocks, but that tread clogging mess is very unusual. Do you have any more pics?

LT instead of ST, no worries, but I definitely would not install light duty P rated radial tires.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Mike and Carol]

1 minute ago, John E Davies said:

Wow, I have driven plenty of freshly chipsealed roads, but never ever in that situation. I think the contractor really screwed up big time. That is just plain disgusting. For those who don't know: ... https://dpw.lacounty.gov/gmed/lacroads/TreatmentChipSeal.aspx

I have to agree with JD on this.  Our city chip seals every few years, including the street we live on.  I’ve never seen anything like that.  Even driving right after they’re done there is little to no tire residue.  Mike

[Fritz]

9 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

That is just plain disgusting.

Yes, John, that is a very genteel way of putting it.  I called 911 and the Dept of Transportation (took several calls to get the right DOT person late in the day).  DOT sent an inspector and the pavement contractor, and the contractor then sent a mechanic to help scrape tires.  We worked on them for 2 1/2 hours.  At first the inspector would not believe that this came from the interstate, because the pavement had been down, with traffic,  for several hours.  Then they went out and found the spot where we picked up the tar and gravel: it was along the seam between two lanes where I had done a low-speed (~15 mph) lane change in nearly stopped traffic; the inspector thought the contractor had not sufficiently cleaned dust and debris from the old pavement before laying down the new tar and gravel, allowing the new stuff to peel up. This was also more than the average chip seal, where they just coat the road with a thin layer of tar before applying gravel; it was a thick layer of tar (I assume so that the gravel becomes embedded in the roadway).  Here is another pic with tar just dripping from a truck tire (and this was taken after having slowly driven about a mile to get away from what I thought was a dangerous freeway merge zone).

[topgun2]

THAT is plain nasty.

I simply can't imagine the work it took (or will take) to clean the underside of the Ollie and/or truck.

Hopefully it doesn't cause you any permanent issues.

Bill

[Fritz]

Thanks, Bill.  I don't think there are any lasting issues, in that it didn't sling tar.  There is very little to clean from the trailer.  Plus, it occurred on only one side.