Tire kicking

[Buick35]

How did that come about and what other superstitions about car buying have you heard of? My wife won t buy a yellow car because she thinks they're lemons.I heard not to buy a car that was made on a Monday but how can you know?

[JamesR]

What was kicking tires supposed to find, anyway? Leaky tires?

[Doozer]

28 minutes ago, JamesR said:

What was kicking tires supposed to find, anyway? Leaky tires?

For me it was to relieve the tension of making yet another bad purchase 😱

[padgett]

a:If the wheel fell off, walk away.

b: Just look on the billing record

 

[JACK M]

Tire kicking is to check for soft tires. Lo air.

Truckers often carry a club to check their tires.

[Brass is Best]

On 9/21/2020 at 2:24 PM, JamesR said:

What was kicking tires supposed to find, anyway? Leaky tires?

Rotten wooden wheels.

[zepher]

1 hour ago, JACK M said:

Tire kicking is to check for soft tires. Lo air.

Truckers often carry a club to check their tires.

 

When you have dual wheels, one can have no air at all but won't look flat because the other tire/wheel assembly is holding it up.

So you use a club to whack the tire to see if it has air in it.

Works great.

[Harold]

I once read in a commercial driver's license handbook that dual rear wheels should be whacked with a tire iron to be sure they had air.  It was supposed to be done before setting out each day.

[Robert G. Smits]

Where I grew up in rural Iowa Kicking Tires was a slang term meaning to spent the afternoon looking at used cars ie “we’re going out this afternoon to kick some tires”

According to Goodyear Jack m is correct 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Robert G. Smits
Addition (see edit history)

[hwellens]

I think kicking tires was stated in WWII when you could not buy tires. When looking at a used car, people would kick the tires to see it they were still soft and usable.

[Robert G. Smits]

I drive a dually and tow either a 34 or 48 ft gooseneck. If the inner tire goes flat it starts beating against the other tire producing heat that results in a blowout of the second tire.  It also blows the plastic dually fender out. Ask me how I know. 

[padgett]

They make TPMS for trailers and rigs. Monitor both pressure and temp. Getting common for travel trailers.

[4Hud]

Tire kicker -  Someone who appears to be interested in buying something, asks a lot of questions but doesn't buy anything.  This pertains to nobody on this site I presume. 

[PONTIAC1953]

On 9/22/2020 at 3:24 PM, zepher said:

 

When you have dual wheels, one can have no air at all but won't look flat because the other tire/wheel assembly is holding it up.

So you use a club to whack the tire to see if it has air in it.

Works great.

as a retired truck driver with 22 years of driving a semi in 46 states, when looking at the dually tires, i could tell if one of the two tires were low or flat by the other tire squatting from being still the one with 100 psi in it.

[zepher]

3 minutes ago, pontiac1953 said:

as a retired truck driver with 22 years of driving a semi in 46 states, when looking at the dually tires, i could tell if one of the two tires were low or flat by the other tire squatting from being still the one with 100 psi in it.

 

I have a Class A and used to use it mainly to transport construction equipment and it is real hard to tell if you have a dead tire on a low-boy or an empty flatbed.

But I have not actually used my CDL in over 20 years, still keep it current, though.

[bdc]

When I pull my 40 ft gooseneck trailer I feel my tires when I make a stop. The heat on each tire should be roughly the same but when 1 is hotter than the others you know something isn't quiet right. 

This was a nice blow out in the middle of nowhere. Closest town was 20 some miles. It was still holding air, just not enough pressure 😄

Edited September 24, 2020 by bdc (see edit history)

[bdc]

This one still held pressure but I wouldn't of made it to the next town.