I often park near conifers. I worry that a direct hit may damage a tire, so I throw cones off the pavement nearby.
If you drive over a bottle so directly that it breaks, does that hurt a tire? It makes a sobering noise.
I often park near conifers. I worry that a direct hit may damage a tire, so I throw cones off the pavement nearby.
If you drive over a bottle so directly that it breaks, does that hurt a tire? It makes a sobering noise.
Such a thing is possible I suppose, but I’ve driven my truck over a lot of pine cones and none of them has damaged a tire, knock on wood. I may be lucky though, never had a flat tire from a nail either, truck or car. Excepting bicycles of course.
A pine cone isn’t going to hurt a tire. A bottle? IDK, more likely, but very unlikely I’d have to say. Assuming these tires aren’t ancient.
Must have some awfully tough pinecones where you live. I’ve never seen one around here that can cause a flat. And this year was the year of pinecones. I’ve must have driven over a few thousand this past spring.
You can find decorative glass pine cones on the web. Don’t drive over them!
But I’ve driven over a lot of pine cones. You see them a lot on back country roads. None of them have popped my tires. But I tend to buy good all terrain or all weather tires with fairly deep treads, and maybe I haven’t driven where where the worst offenders live.
Needless to say, a good general rule is that if you see something big or sharp on the road - e.g., a 5 kg pine cone - avoid it.
There are people who report the hoods of their cars being damaged by being hit by the heavier pine cones.
e.g., I did a quick web search:
The 7 Best Pinecones (Really!) | Britannica says Coulter Pine pinecones can weigh up to 5 kg. I wonder they could do something bad.
Why Hate The Beautiful Bull Pine? | Sierra News Online says
But I can’t speak from personal experience. I have been nearly killed by a falling branch, on a bicycle. But not by pinecones.
No problem with pine ones, but had a sea shell go through a tire.
Can a normal Pine Cone damage a tire, yes, but you would have to hit it with some speed, I could wright a book on stuff found in tires that I have seen over the years… But driving through your yard or neighborhood, probably Not going to happen… If a small stick (you can easily bend by hand, like what could be used for a switch) can go trough a tread, about anything can go through the tread… Normally it is the front tire that hits the odd object and kicks it up and then the back tire hits it and in she goes…
So to answer the question, yes it IS possible, but no it is NOT probable…
I dunno but I had two thorns flatten my lawn mower tires. Some years ago the tire shop owner told me dead animals in the road are the worst. Seems the bones don’t do the tires any good.
Note: after waiting two days for the tire shop to put a tube in my mower tire, it went flat again at next mowing. Working on it myself, I discovered they didn’t remove the thorn. So now I have my own tubes in stock and a harbor freight tire changer. As the president tried to say, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
A shop that I used to use a lot had a container on the front counter for collecting many of the things that they pulled out of tires. And quite a few of those were animal bones.
The funniest one that comes to mind 1st was a Duracell copper top AA battery went through the center tread of a good tire and blew the center of the battery out, went flat very fast, customer said well crap, how much is a new set of tires, it was an AWD and he knew…
One of our drivers came back once with a pair of scissors stuck in the rear dual tire. He had no idea how it got there. Better in the tire I guess than in his back. Maybe drove somewhere he shouldn’t have. A little pricey having the tire replaced on site but my FIL used to say you couldn’t pay a good employee too much or a bad one too little.
Any car tire damaged by a pine cone wasn’t any good anyway.
Nothing to do with the compound of a standard tire, it is simple force being applied at a fast rate of speed… I have had twigs, thorns etc etc go through a tire that could not be removed without being destroyed, you would never believe it would happen while trying to remove it from the tire, but their it is right in front of you…
Just try to take a nail and push it through the tread of a tire (making a new hole), not going to happen, but giving enough speed with the weight of the vehicle and the same nail will go through the tread like a hot knife cutting butter…
Or better yet, try to push a AA battery through a tread… or a key backwards, or the handle of a screw driver 1st, a large pair of plyers handle 1st, etc etc etc…
I live in a ponderosa pine forest and run over cones every day. Never had a puncture. If I lived in a sugar pine forest I’d probably move the 2 foot long cones out of the way.
I’d like to know what that speed is because I hit a couple dozen pinecones while driving about 70 on I-93 back in the spring. As I said earlier this is the year of the pinecones. About every 5 years the pines decide they want to seed, and they all produce 20-50 times more pinecones than previous years.
What ever speed it is when the front tire hits it just right kicking it up just at the right angle for the rear tire to hit it and damage the tire… Never said I was a scientist or engineer, just know that when you have seen as many flat/damaged tires as I have over the years, you see a lot of crazy stuff…
And yes, when another tech finds an odd ball damaged tire, it becomes show and tell, plus we always show the customers as prof…
I have pine cones in my yard every year…
BTW at what speed do you have to be going for the handle of a pair of plyers to damage your tire?? Happens way more than you think… just saying…
Next story, bungee cord but I’ve got housework to do right now.
That is pretty common, the rubber bungee can/will beat the crap out of the quarter panel/fender opening, depending on how long it is…