[VAC] Re: Single Axle Trailer Skids

["C. Petrich" <towster@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On August day in 1996 a couple was pulling a trailer (or was it a car behind
a motor home?) up Hwy 55 along the Payette River here in Idaho.  A tire had
gone flat on the trailer/towed, and sparks were flying, setting off
fires as
they continued down the road.  The couple did not stop for over 12 miles,
despite flashing lights of motorists behind them and in front of them
("what, me pull over to let traffic by? No, never!); hot, dry conditions
made for a huge wildfire.  The result for this retired couple, as I recall,
was a 7-figure bill for fire suppression costs.  The following winter a
rain-on-snow flooding event led to massive amounts of debris flows that
closed Hwy 55 for weeks (a photographer, stranded on the highway by debris
slides,  happened to capture one of the debris slides as it carried off a
D-8 dozer that was clearing the highway as if it were a Tonka toy - the
operator excaped alive before it rolled).

My point is that, at least here in the arid west, axle skids could emit many
more sparks than a rim with a blown tire.

Christian
'66 Caravel