Super Singles more dangerous?

[Steve]

I've been noticing a lot more big trucks running around with super singles. But I was wondering if they would be dangerous to run on a school bus. The big trucks have tandem axles so on a tire blowout you still have a supporting tire. Same with the dual singles that we have on our buses.

Any thoughts?

[lapeer20m]

it's a valid point you raise. I once drove a couple hundred miles with a flat rear dual until i was able to get to a big truck tire place. That would not have been possible with a super single....(heaven forbid i actually have to stop and change my own tire)

the other side of the argument is that running a super single in the rear is really no more dangerous than a steer tire. If you have a steer tire blow out the consequences seem worse than having even a single rear tire do the same. Another thing is that bus tires really don't go flat very often. I've ran tens of thousands of miles on rock hard baldies (on the rear) that were no-where near dot approved and in all those miles only had 2 flat tires that i can remember.

[sportyrick]

I just saw a GMC big city type bus conversion with super singles on it, they seem to work but you may have a hard time getting to a safe place if you lose all support on one side with a flat. I have seen one dual take the other dual out and you have the same problem again. I remember driving down the highway in a 5 ton truck with a 1000 gallons of water on board and losing both right tires because of a loss of lug nuts, that was fun! We were lucky we didn't kill anyone with those tires bouncing around like that. Also finding a super single in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere could be a challenge. sportyrick