Feel A Flat Tire

[pink1632]

Anyone on this forum have the same problem I have? I had a flat on the right front of my '02 Silverado and did not "feel" it at all, drove approximately two miles with speeds up to 65, no pulling to the right. I only noticed it when I had stopped at my destination, found out when I went to have the tire fixed that I had broken the steel belts down and then had to buy a new tire. I'm just wondering how other people can tell if they have a flat on the road and know it prior to stopping. My Thanks in advance for anyone who can give me good advice...

[nickvrebel]

well, you see.... the problem all started back when some soccer mom decided to take her yuppie husband's truck to the store one day and she complained about how harsh the ride was, so the engineers got an earfull about how this truck handled so bad compared to her Lexus (or Mercedes, or Jaguar, etc.) and they started refining the ride.... now they ride and adapt so good that it's almost impossible to tell if you have a flat without seeing it.

 

THEN they had people having blowouts from driving on flat/ severely under inflated tires because it rode so good that they couldn't tell the difference.

 

AND THEN the government decided that this was not acceptable, so they mandated that all SUV and trucks (and eventually passenger cars) have a tire pressure monitor system on board.

 

so.... the answer? yes, I've done it and seen it done many times. My new truck will tell me the tire pressures at the push of a button.

[mkelly]

Last vehicle I had a flat on was an 05 envoy.

 

I drove around 3 blocks before I noticed it.

 

 

The way I noticed it was a change in the ride and it was way down on power.

[pm26]

I have ruined several tires on my car that went flat while I was driving the car. By the time I noticed the problem and stopped, the rim had damaged the sidewall to the point where the tires had to be replaced.

[Wires]

I've had the same. I had Toyo's on 18" rims, and one had a side wall blowout (I heard it go). I checked, said the f'er, and drove it the 10 blocks back home to swap the tires off. It actually drove pretty fine.

 

Probably due to the high ply count for firm sidewalls.

[Silverado4x4]

I can not believe you can have a flat and not feal it while driving unless you have those "bling bling" large rims and very small sidewall tires "rubberbands".

[pm26]

I can not believe you can have a flat and not feal it while driving unless you have those "bling bling" large rims and very small sidewall tires "rubberbands".

You can definitely feel it once the tire goes flat, but if it deflates gradually, by the time you feel something is wrong, damage to the tire will most likely have occurred.