Had the trailer been moved since this pic of the damage? Looks like something could have possibly hit it while it was stationary. Need more pics and to hear the story from the operator himself.
Does look kind of suspicious that all the dents are perfectly lined up. Plus it looks like there are some skid marks on the concrete pad like something hit it. And as damaged as those rims are I question how the tires would have stayed on them for more than a few feet.
Oh yeah, he was definitely moving when it happened, said he didn't know what happened. Said that all three tires just blew out on him! You can see the rub marks on the front tire pretty clear, there's cuts on the other tires. The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is how the center wheel got bowed in on both sides. The front wheels bent in so far we can't get the lug wrench on there. Tried a bottle jack and this: Neither worked...
And yeah, that first picture is just down the road from where the tires "mysteriously" blew out.
Wow.. that's a doosie.. but bigger lies have been told.. I once had a trucking co. dispatcher call me & needed a cummins injection pump, a complete set of injectors and a turbo.. & needed it delivered to the truck stop up the road.. SHE SAID, they were stolen while the driver was asleep in the cab.. I asked, what kind of truck is it?? Her answer was, Its a cab-over.. I said, that's IMPOSSIBLE without him ending up in the windshield!! There was silence on the other end and she said, I'll have to call you back.. LOL!!!
Had to do a service call once to help a tire guy who couldn't get the rims off the trailer. This was 24.5"'s on a 53' trailer. The leading tandem on the passenger side was damaged just like in those pics. The rim was folded almost in half. Had to cut it out with a torch. That driver cut the turn into the driveway way short and way to fast and bounced the trailer over a foot tall curb.
Well must be air worms got in the tires and sucked all the air out, they'll do that if you don't spray for them now and then! The more I think of it now that you said it happened right close to where the picture was taken the tires on the inner rims would if all were the same diameter keep the outer rims more or less "in time" with each other. I think I would grab the tire irons and just pop those tires off the bent rims and either use a torch or 4 inch grinder with cut off wheel to make access for air wrench. Or is boss expecting you to straighten them out and put it back on the road?
I think WaterDoc has most of it figured about right. Take a walk down the street looking at the curbing. Bet you will find the scrape marks in the concrete.
I'll go out on a limb here and say this again, I don't believe the tires were rotating at time of impact.
The driver already said it was moving when it happened. There's just no way that he didn't hit something. Im 90% certain it was a guardrail around a tight curve. kshansen, that's most likely what we'll end up doing. Im not sure if its intentional, but I'm digging everyone straight away sticking uo for this guy. In any case I'll try to post of picture of however we get that wheel off there. It still doesn't make sense to me how both sides of the same wheel are bent in. I would love to see a slow motion close up of something like that.
A great driver with 3,000,000 miles experience and a clean record swung wide one night to make a right turn. He thought he hit the curb with the rear wheels of the trailer. Half mile later, somebody flagged him down. A K5 Blazer had tried to squeeze between him and the curb. The bump he felt, and thought was the curb was actually the hood of a full size Blazer. Your driver may not have known he hit something.