CREW TRUCK MIRROR AND TIRE SAFETY

By Larry Bush

Ref: vehicle blind spot, rear view mirrors, tire selection

Summary: "Larry's comments and stories on truck blind spots and best tire selection."

The crew truck side mirrors were a hazard. Nearly all of the crew trucks were equipped with a large parts and storage bed that took the place of the regular pickup bed.

The central cargo area had a cover. I decided to measure the distance behind the truck that various objects could be seen.

The driver could not see an object the size of a small child directly behind the vehicle until the object was 220 feet (about 70 meters) away. That was astonishing.

We double and triple checked, using both side-view mirrors and inside rear-view mirror. The results were the same. The vehicles were Ford pickups with small side mirrors.

The Chevrolet pickups had the much larger truck-type mirrors, but the distances were still very scary. I made every one of our drivers take the test inside the vehicle and outside doing the measuring.

A year before, I had been in a line of cars and pickups trying to enter a small road leading to a parking lot near the bank on our Company residential camp at Dhahran. There was no progress for about ten minutes and I could wait no longer.

I looked in both side mirrors and there looked to be plenty of room to backup 4 or 5 feet so I could get out of the line. My truck had a loud back-up alarm so I wasn't too worried.

I eased the truck into reverse and moved back about six inches and felt a crunch. I pulled back forward, stopped the truck and got out to see what had happened.

I had backed into a small Volkswagen parked directly inline and back of me. There was no way to see the small car without getting out of the vehicle and walking around in back.

I got back in the truck just to check again. Nothing was behind me that I could see from inside the truck. I went back and asked the other driver why he didn't honk when I started backing up. He just shrugged his shoulders. I wanted to shrug his shoulders, also.

I told the guy I would give him three hundred dollars US to repair his grill and he said OK. He apparently wanted to keep it quiet, also. That was fine with me. I didn't want Security or the Police involved, either.

When I accepted a position in Saudi Arabia in 1979, I owned a four-wheel drive International Harvester Scout II. My family and I lived in Trona, California, about 40 miles from the boundaries of Death Valley.

I purchased a set of four, ten inch, Goodrich tires, radial, with rayon belts and 8-inch, off-road rims. The tires were very excellent, giving good service both on and off road in sometimes very harsh desert environments.

I was a member of a four-wheel drive club and a sworn member of The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Searles Lake Search and Rescue Unit. Our club was on a four-wheel drive trip in Death Valley on approved four-wheel drive roads, when we came upon a stranded vehicle.

The driver was in an extremely remote area with his family in a four-wheel drive vehicle with a flat tire. We stopped to give assistance and another of his three remaining tires went flat.

His tires were street, steel-belted radials. They were definitely not designed for off-road use. He still had his other flat tires. On every one, it was very evident that the extreme flexing of being driven off-road over rocks and very rough trail had separated the tread from the tires and they then went flat.

We had two members who had spares with rims that would fit his vehicle's tire bolt pattern. One of them volunteered to escort the hapless driver of the vehicle and his family back to civilization where he could purchase new tires. The rest of us continued our trip through the desolate but beautiful country in Death Valley National Park.

When I left for Saudi Arabia with my family, I purchased another brand-new set of Goodrich, rayon-belted, 10-inch, off-road tires for my Scout. I used them for years in Saudi Arabia, on hot roads and sometimes under-inflated, with no problems.

When they wore completely out, I bought another set of Goodrich tires from a local dealership. In the 13 years I drove the Scout in Saudi Arabia, those were the only tires on it. There were no tread separations.

The point being that there was and is a good alternative to purchasing steel-belted radial tires that are documented to have a problem with tread separation.

Larry Bush

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About the Author: Larry Bush has been an electrician for 47 years, and in maintenance management for 22 years. Download his new e-Book "Maintenance Policy and Procedures Manual" !!