Comments on: Episode 80: Big Rig Myths

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:14:51 +0000

I just saw this episode as an old re-run for the first time, and noticed the very same thing. Yep, if the speedometer said 40 mph, the tire was spinning at 80 mph. So I came to this site to see if anyone else noticed. Apparently we can excuse the Mythbusters for not understanding how a differential works since only one other person has pointed out the error.

By: Kody

Kody — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:04:06 +0000

I have had virgin tires and recap/retread tires fail on my rig and both produced the same damaging outcome. I think you should reword or rethink your post. Recap tires arent more susceptible to failure than the virgin counterpart.

By: MSpears

MSpears — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:03:57 +0000

Good point… but they were testing whether K.I.T.T. could have done it. K.I.T.T. had an automatic transmission and rear-wheel drive, so that’s exactly what they used.

By: MSpears

MSpears — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:00:09 +0000

Correction. It was part of the steel bead, my mechanic told me. Never mind, my previous reply was wrong.

By: MSpears

MSpears — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:59:22 +0000

That’s because they weren’t allowed to use a more powerful jet for insurance reasons. They later got the chance to try it again with a commercial airliner, and it flipped.

By: MSpears

MSpears — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:58:26 +0000

I haven’t been killed by one (obviously), but I was to the left rear of a rig when its wheel failed, and part of the split-ring got sucked under my car, tearing a hole in my oil pan…

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:05:06 +0000

Plausible? I am a pro cyclist, Although I can sustain only about 30mph alone, while traveling cross country we would stay loose by taking turns drafting our vehicle. I personally have drafted at well over 85mph for miles on rolling roads behind a pickup truck.

By: joebob

joebob — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 01:55:35 +0000

I was in texas riding my bike with a friend and we both tried to drop in to draft the truck, I was able to get upwards of 60-65 mph according to the speedometer on my mountain bike’s computer. My friend was left in the dust as he could do about 30-35 mph on his bike. Additionally wikipedia has a bunch of info on this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_records
turns out there is an official record for cyclists drafting on motorized vehicles.

By: Ali

Ali — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:05:58 +0000

So I just saw this big rig episode for the first time last night, and in the 80s, my father, who’s been riding motorcycles for 40+ years, was riding on the freeway -and saw a tire snake fly off a big rig, he didn’t have time to swerve, so he braced himself, and was hit in the chest by it. He survived, with a bad bruise and the wind knocked out of him, but that’s all. I’d say he was lucky.

By: Josh Rexhausen

Josh Rexhausen — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:52:34 +0000

The problem is that they tested this on a stationary dummy. In reality the driver of a motorcycle is going at the same speed as the trucker, what is the speed perpendicular to the tire as it explodes? I also agree the myth was not really tested, all they showed was a large piece of tire shot out at 40 MPH will cause serious dammage.