On Monday morning I was making a delivery in Pasagoula MS and noticed that the right rear outside tire was low.It looked like I had about 12,000 lbs on board when actually only had about 500. I didn!t pay too much attention to it and after the delivery stopped for cheap MS fuel on I 10 and walked around and saw that the inside tire was flat. This was at a Cone truck stop and they had a tire repair facility on the premises. The guy was out but he came right back,jacked up the truck ,took off the outside tire and the problem was that a balancing counterweight on the brake drum had broken off and cut the valve stem on the tire. I didn!t even know that they did this to brake drums. He suggested that I get a new drum as now it would be unbalanced and cause excessive tire wear.I did this yesterday to the tune of $175. and the service guy told me this is not uncommon when trucks get old. It bears checking out older trucks,but newer drums are turned true at the factory.
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