The tires used on large trucks, especially military vehicle, are held in place by something called a ‘snap-ring’, which is a large metal circle, ‘split’ in one spot so it can be wedged into place to hold the tire on the rim. These are potentially lethal devices if you are in the line-of-fire when one lets go.

Because of the danger, repaired tires are inflated within a steel cage (called, strangely enough, an inflation-cage), so that if the snap-ring should ‘snap’ off, the flying debris will be contained, and the only damage should be some ringing ears from the noise of the detonation.

While deployed on a field training exercise in Korea, my truck suffered a flat, and a mechanic from the motor pool dropped by to help me fix it. Since it was already flat, removing the snap ring was – well – a snap, and we were able to replace the defective inner-tube and reassemble the tire in short order. The mechanic then announced that we would use the compressor that powered the truck’s air-brakes to inflate the tire.

“Shouldn’t we take it back to the motor-pool and use the cage?” I asked, with thoughts of someone’s head coming off when the ring let go.

He thought about it, and his face brightened. “We’ll turn it snap-ring DOWN.” he said. “That way, if it lets go, it’ll just slam into the ground.”

I wasn’t convinced that would be any safer, but I pulled the air hose over to my truck and hooked up to the aux air line.

The mechanic flipped the tire over, and stepped inside the rim. When I asked why, his reply was that this was another ‘just in case’ because any debris would just fly up AROUND him, if anything went wrong.

Figuring he WAS the mechanic, and should know what he was doing, I started the truck and turned on the valve for the aux air. He attached the filler nozzle, and began filling the tire.

As you’ve probably guessed, the snap ring DID let go, and the tire DID explode, but amazingly he was right that the ring and tire fragments were blown into the ground, instead of into the sky.

The mechanic and the rim, however, were blown some twenty feet into the air.

This may not truly qualify as a Darwin Award, since the mechanic survived his trip with only a broken leg and minor concussion, which he suffered upon his landing.

Submitted on 12/19/2003

Submitted by: dan mcgarry
Reference:

Copyright © 2003 DarwinAwards.com

Daniel said:
Maybe Toss: Too Common
Truck tires seem to be killing a lot of people lately.

Bill said:
Maybe Toss: Too Common
Yep - I'm pretty sure we had a similar story just in the last month.

Charles said:
Maybe Toss: Other
With the exception of misjudging the amount of force an exploding tire / snap ring would cause, this guy did everything right. I think this is misjudgement, not Darwin-grade stupidity.

Jack said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Yes, we did have a recent story, but this is better written and (IMO) worthy of mention as a Personal Account.

Dan said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Having been in the military myself, I have often been privvy to this kind of "military intelligence".

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