Lots of videos of split rim accidents/stupidity on the interwebs.



Why you use a cage:

I put a 16.5" tire on a 16" wheel by accident when I was a teenager, didn't know there was such a thing until it slipped the bead at about 25psi.
Gives you an up close & personal view of how powerful pressure can be.
I've had sidewalls blow out before, nowhere near as violent as the videos above, but I know someone that broke lots of bones on a call out to fix a tractor tire.

200 psi? I'm surprised these wheels are multi-piece to start with. Does that also mean there are tubes in them?

Early in my career (c. 1980) I had to deal with 16-inch split wheels. In automotive use - made worse by most of them coming from a nearby railyard - the outer rings get corroded and bent out of shape from repeated dismountings when they inevitably got nails and even rail spikes in them and had to be broken down to patch the tubes. One of these let go and put a quarter-inch dent in a half-inch steel plate comprising part of the safety cage. And this was only a 50-60 psi tire, and since I was still inflating it, probably 25-30 at the time.

quote:

200 psi? I'm surprised these wheels are multi-piece to start with. Does that also mean there are tubes in them?

I believe some do, and some don't. For the tubeless ones there is a sealing ring for mating the two halves.

That 200 is psi and there’s a lot of square inches there so a huge amount of force.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:...
You mean you bled off the pressure to about 10-15 psi (deflated without removing the core), not a fully pressurized wheel assembly, right?

No. If it was removed FOM (to Facilitate Other Maintenance). We built them up, filled them to rated pressure, set them aside for a 24 hour leak check, they were installed, all the while at rated pressure. (pressure checked as part of the installation, and serviced if needed)

Keep in mind I retired 32 years ago, and Tech Data is always changing.

I know Navy and Marines do things different, as the F-35 Program at Eglin back in 2015, they were deflated them anytime they were removed.

After reading this thread I think I'm gonna spring for a new tire for the spare on my F150. The idea of dying inflating an old tire doesn't sound like fun, even if light truck rims aren't split designs (I think).

Unofficial word is the third MX member has expired. Very sad accident.

A crack in a wheel should never be welded with an inflated tire on it. (For that matter, not at all, let alone with any tire on it, but some are expensive, hard to find, the owner is a cheapskate or an idiot, or any or all of those.) The heat expands the air inside, sometimes with disastrous results.

LS1GTO thank you

Sad way to go.

I just fall back on rule # 1 from my nuke training: A trained and qualified operator following correct and approved procedures verbatim.

The question is what failed in the execution of that rule.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:...
You mean you bled off the pressure to about 10-15 psi (deflated without removing the core), not a fully pressurized wheel assembly, right?

No. If it was removed FOM (to Facilitate Other Maintenance). We built them up, filled them to rated pressure, set them aside for a 24 hour leak check, they were installed, all the while at rated pressure. (pressure checked as part of the installation, and serviced if needed)

Keep in mind I retired 32 years ago, and Tech Data is always changing.

I know Navy and Marines do things different, as the F-35 Program at Eglin back in 2015, they were deflated them anytime they were removed.

no offense intended but, dauuumn.

True story - late 80's and just prior to Desert Storm. My squadron shared the same hangar as Top Gun on Miramar and participating squadrons would use our flightline to park their birds.

One session was a group of 10-12 F-15s. Really cool planes to see parked next to/with F-14s.

One day the rocket surgeon mechs decided to drive the loaner Navy pick-up through the McDonald's drive through then onto the flightline to eat under the wing of one of their aircraft.

Bwoop, bwoop, flightline security responds. Response from the airmen, "we didn't have any other place to eat" (like in the shop space Top Gun provides for maintainers....)

Day or so later, they did as you note above - removed an inflated main mount.

Airman Jones makes the call and bwoop, bwoop, flightline security and the flightline fire department respond. They clear all people from the now removed main mount and start positioning their vehicles to protect people and aircraft as best as possible.

Me as the AE1 (E-6 for you non-USN types), I am now eating popcorn, literally, in the hangar watching the show when my Maintenance Master Chief (E-9) comes out to chew my ass for eating popcorn in his hangar when he gets distracted by the show and and asks what's happening.

After explaining, he helps himself to some popcorn when the Maintenance Officer comes out to see why the MMCO and I are eating popcorn in the hangar.

Rinse and repeat the story/explanation and popcorn eating results.

Backside of the story - the F-15 maintainers tried the same story as you noted but were told in no uncertain terms, they were not allowed to damage ANY NAVAIR aircraft no matter what their story was.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Not obvious to this layman what triggered that.

A guy over on Reddit who claims to be a Delta mechanic at ATL said the accident happened in the tire shop when none of the three (deceased and the one survivor) checked to make sure the tire was deflated prior to disassembling it.

As reported this morning, one of the deceased was unrecognizable and was identified from a necklace and tats. One who survived reportedly had both legs ripped off by the explosion.

No one bothered to check the deflation first.

^^^
Tech data, and train, train, train.

"Gear up. All the time!"

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Not obvious to this layman what triggered that.

Guy is filling the tire with air. You can see the coiled air hose in the bottom right quadrant of the tire and then later flying in the air vertically after the wheel lets loose. The wheel is two pieces bolted together and lets loose because some part of it failed. It happens enough that the standard safety procedure is to inflate those assemblies in a cage.

I was talking to someone who does that for a living.

"That's why you never stand by the sidewall when doing those."

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
I put a 16.5" tire on a 16" wheel by accident when I was a teenager, didn't know there was such a thing until it slipped the bead at about 25psi.
Gives you an up close & personal view of how powerful pressure can be.
I've had sidewalls blow out before, nowhere near as violent as the videos above, but I know someone that broke lots of bones on a call out to fix a tractor tire.

I had the tire store manager pick 16.5" tires for a truck I was replacing. Thank god I checked because they were 16" rims.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I was and still am an asshole about safety.

To each their own, but I don’t consider that being an asshole at all. I’ve always considered being OCD about safety, especially when other people are involved, a virtue.

If someone is cutting corners while working alone, impacting nobody else (other than their survivors), then they’re being a dumbass, but that’s on them. If someone is cutting corners affecting others’s safety, then they’re the asshole (or worse). YMMV