[Richard]

Cruising I 40 westbound, minding my own amongst the ten jillion trucks. Truck in front of me, swerves drastically. There is a tire, not just the tread, the whole truck tire, in the road. I swerve as hard as I dare and just clip it with the edge of the driver side tires. 

I look in the mirror to see what the obstacle did, only to see my muffler turning somersaults down the road. I am not that quick, but I know immediately that this is no bueno. 

Travel up the road a bit till the next safe place to park, listening to exhaust notes and worried about CO poisoning. On the upside, the jakes sound wicked. 

Disconnect car and travel back to the scene of the crime to find clamps, muffler elbow, muffler and tail pipe all within 100 yds of the tire, and all on the right side of the road. I didn’t have to enter traffic to retrieve anything. It’s a bit scuffed, and a hammer fixed enough of the dents to reinstall. 

We are back on the road, just a bit later than planned. 

Safe travels.

[360]

That had to be a scary moment with a whole tire sitting there! Glad to hear it turned out with the minor scrape and now you know what a straight pipe would sound like :-).

[Tfrazier]

Richard,

So happy that you and Rhonda made it through safely.

Tony

[Fulltiming]

Glad that worked out as well as it did!!

[ccjohnson]

Richard,
Thanks for reminding all of us that sometimes it's better to hang on tightly to the steering wheel and grit your teeth for an impact rather than swerve too aggressively and experience total loss of control and a possible roll over.

[Mageeacres]

Wow. And the $$ you saved by retrieving all the parts. Glad y’all are safe. It could have been much worse. Safe travels.

[pairodice]

“The Jakes sound awesome”. Lol - that made my day! Glad you guys are safe - we need you here!

[bikestuff]

I’m guessing something like this would help?

   

[Winegrower]

Happy yu'all are safe.  I was surprised to see more road debris this season, including a rear outside tire blow off the back of a 53' trailer without the driver even knowing.  The only thing that saved us was the space between us and the debris.  I had a professional driver patient who told me "Never follow a truck, stuff falls off all the time".  Good adice I think.

[Winegrower]

Happy yu'all are safe and found your acorns.  I was surprised to see more road debris this season, including a rear outside tire blow off the back of a 53' trailer without the driver even knowing.  The only thing that saved us was the space between us and the debris.  I had a professional driver tell me once "Never follow a truck, stuff falls off all the time".  Good adice I think.  Give me more space, I don't react as quickly as I used to.