Screw in the tire!

What are the probabilities of an 18 inch tire getting punctured by a nail/screw as one drives over it bearing in mind the laws of physics such as gravity, velocity, friction, etc?

By the way, it has just happened to my car but I’m trying to avoid human factor-some rascal doing it for instance!

Does it make any difference whether it is 1 in a 100 or a thousand?..it happens and unless you angered a neighbor it was one of those things.

Don’t know the odds, but this has happened to me twice since the first of the year. First time was a bolt, second time a screw. Same tire both times, too.

Decent if you are driving over a screw.

Given it is impossible to see a screw while driving this falls into why do you care? It is all part of car ownership.

In my 45 years of driving, I have had screw or nail punctures of tires on at least 10 occasions. And yet, I have never entertained the thought that someone decided to drive said screw/nail into my tire.

Road debris exists everywhere, with a much higher incidence in urban areas. If you drive your car, you will wind up with punctures on at least an occasional basis.

The size of that tire has nothing to do with the likelihood of it being punctured by a screw or a nail, but if these tires are of the ultra-low profile type, you can look forward to both the tires and the rims being damaged by the impact of potholes.

Thanx for all your answers.I’m just a very curious guy and like to find logical reasons even in the most unreasonable cases!Lol

Just curious really!lol

Yes it does due to the extended amount of space availability. Try to insert a nail into the thin edge of a surface! U’ll c what I mean!Lol

The chances are much higher that the rear tire will be penetrated than the front.

You run over the debris and the front tire kicks it up so it is tumbling as the rear tire runs over it, This greatly increases the odds of penetration.

The chances are much higher than you expect.

On my 3 cars, driven on average10k miles/year in an urban area, I get AT LEAST one nail puncture/year/car. A few years back I got a 6 inch nail in the rear tire of my motorcycle.

But this was my front tire!

Here are some interesting statistics from the Rubber Manufacturer’s Association;

http://www.rma.org/newsroom/release.cfm?ID=185

? 42 percent of tires in the study were removed due to wear-out (had tread at or below tread wear indicators). After the first year of service, 59 percent of tires in the study were removed due to wear-out.
? 25 percent of the tires had road hazard damage.
? 17 percent of the tires had been repaired.
? Alarmingly, 87.5 percent of the observed tire repairs were improper ? not performed with a plug and internal patch as specified by RMA tire repair guidelines.

While this study did not list as a result what percent were punctured, we can assume that the repaired tires ALL were punctured at some point, and that some of the “road hazard” tires were. Overall, these numbers seem a little high, but data is data and it’s hard to argue with it.

Murphy’s Law is always applicable in the automotive world.

I’ve had plenty of screws and nails in front and back tires. If the point of the nail or screw is facing you, then you will probably drive over it without it sticking in. However, if the point is facing away or to the side, then there’s a good chance that the tire going over the head of the screw or nail will flip it to where it is pointing almost straight up. Then it will puncture the tire. There’s no conspiracy here.

Here is one that seems improbable, but happened to us. On our first trip in our brand new 2003 Toyota 4Runner, we discovered a nail in the right rear tire when we made it to our son’s house. The tire still held pressure, but I took it to a tire store for repair. The shop dismounted the tire and checked to be certain that the nail hadn’t gone clear through. They remounted the tire and wouldn’t take anything for the service. A couple of months later, I came out from church and happened to notice a nail in the left rear tire. It, too, hadn’t caused an air loss. A couple of years later, we were traveling up the Interstate to a Cracker Barrel restaurant and we had a blowout on the right rear tire. I replaced the right rear tire with the spare and bought a used tire for the spare. One year later, we were going to a different Cracker Barrel in the other direction on the same Interstate. The left front tire got punctured and went down.

I know that these incidents were all coincidental, but when I bought new tires, I didn’t replace them with Dunlop tires that were the original equipment. I bought Michelin tires instead.

…and hopefully you stopped going to Cracker Barrel.
The cause and effect is unmistakeable!

;-))

Unfortunately, Cracker Barrel is my wife’s favorite restaurant. However, we seem to get there more safely on Michelin tires.

All for the lady.And why not?! Good luck to you and your wife’s next cracker Barrel visit. By the way, the name Cracker Barrel may actually mean literally- Crack the Barrel(Tire)! Just came to me!Lol

I don’t take chances going on the Interstate to the Cracker Barrel any more. I go on country roads–haven’t had a puncture or blowout on these roads. (Actually, I’m an old country boy and like to look at the fields and scenery in the area where I grew up).

A back tire??