So we were on our way to Dallas the other night. About 100 mikes west of Abilene on I-20, there was construction, narrowing down to one lane. Right after the construction (after the "End Construction" sign) the road opened back up to 2 lanes and I moved into the passing lane. I noticed an orange lane delineator between the lanes. About the time I thought to myself, "Self, that's an odd place for a lane delineator, after the construction ended", there was a "thump thump".

So we drove about another 40 miles or so, no warning lights, and pulled off to get gas and something to eat. After we got back in the car and started to drive away, there was a "clunk clunk". We stopped and I looked at the tire. Sure enough, it was low.

First pic below shows the low tire.

Second pic shows the punctured tire. It's right at the edge of the tread and sidewall, so not repairable. I knew this as soon as I saw it.

Third pic shows what was pulled out of the tire. Based on the size of this thing, even if it would have penetrated the tire in the center of tread, I don't know if it would have been repairable.

Fourth pic shows what I think it was. Best guess, there was a second lane delineator, and it was hit before I got there and the orange part stripped off, leaving the base and the threaded piece that holds the reflective pillar to the base. I think Iran over this.

Tire was changed, and we drove the on donut spare tire another 50 miles or so to Abilene where we spent the night. Abilene was our intended stop anyway.

There were about 40K miles on the old tires. Note tense - was. I ended up replacing all four. Fortunately, there were two Discount Tire stores in Abilene.

That is quite the bolt! I think I had two last Summer, a small nail then a screw.

Some say the front tire can flip it up, then it’s in position to enter the rear tire? I’m not sure if that’s accurate, could be.

That looks like a rear air brake cage bolt, dump truck dropped it.


Be glad it didn't take out your rim

quote:

That looks like a rear air brake cage bolt

That's exactly what that is.

13 minutes to get an answer to what it is, and I didn't even ask the question! What a knowledge base this place is!

Excellent post

BigSwede beat me to it. As soon as I saw it, I immediately recognized a cage bolt off of a big truck air can. In fact, just yesterday I was laying under a truck, installing four of them on a trailer that had snapped off a glad hand.

They are carried in a little holder on the side of every air brake chamber (with parking brakes) to release the brakes in case air is unavailable.



You can see where it is carried on the side of the chamber.