Discussion:
Daily Explosions of Front Solid Tires with White Smoke on Toyota 2.5T Forklifts – What Could Be the Cause?

Hello everyone,
We're facing a critical and recurring issue in our water bottling plant involving Electrical Toyota 2.5-ton counterbalance forklifts. These machines run 24/7 in three shifts. The factory floor is in poor condition (uneven, with many holes). All forklifts use solid black tires ,we've tried both OEM Toyota and aftermarket brands.
The issue: front tires (left or right, never rear) explode almost daily, and sometimes as soon as 3 hours after installation. The failure is always accompanied by white smoke. We're unable to determine whether the root cause is mechanical, thermal, or related to floor impact.
Each round trip (from loading to unloading the pallet) takes approximately 4 minutes, and the forklifts are constantly operating during all shifts.
What's also strange is that all explosions happen near the palletizer area - but we haven't identified any clear reason for this.
Could there be something in that specific zone (surface condition, temperature, static charge, contamination, incline, etc.) that could explain the repeated failures?
Any suggestions on what to inspect or measure in that zone would be greatly appreciated.
Key conditions:
* Solid black tires (press-on or resilient)
* Explosions affect only front wheels
* Rear tires remain intact
* Operation in 3 continuous shifts (24/7)
* Uneven and damaged factory floor (with many holes)
* Failure occurs daily, sometimes just 3 hours after tire installation

Has anyone experienced similar failures?
What could be causing solid tires to fail this quickly and violently?
Any advice on tire specs, forklift setup, or floor conditions that could help prevent this?

Thanks a lot for your help!
  • Posted 26 Jul 2025 01:23
  • By Forklift_Captain
  • joined 25 Jul'25 - 3 messages
  • Casablanca, Morocco
Showing items 1 - 6 of 6 results.
hitting holes and seams can cause delamination on solid tires. I have 2 buildings from the 80's with crap floors and have reduced my tire replacements drastically. I switched to yellow "smoothy" tires on my reach and pickers and they are the longest lasting. my sitdowns are all black rubber or non marring and I have been getting decent wear. If your trucks are hitting holes/ docks and uneven floors at speed it can easily cause this.
  • Posted 29 Jul 2025 22:04
  • By kb_whatdoyouneed
  • joined 29 Jul'25 - 1 message
  • Pennsylvania, United States
kb_whatdoyouneed
Is your forklift Toyota 8FBN25?
I just checkout the catalogue and Toyota mention that front and rear tiers types are pneumatic not solid tires and their dimensions are
Front tire is 21x8-9-14PR
Rear tire is 18x7-8-16PR
  • Posted 29 Jul 2025 05:51
  • By mohamed_m
  • joined 16 Jan'15 - 60 messages
  • cairo, Egypt
mmoner1@yahoo.com
Who is pressing the tires ? Are the rings they are using the correct size ring? If they use a ring a little too large it will catch tire side and damage it which cause tire to break apart
Next is heat , which could be caused by internal or external factors ie temperature from kiln, dragging brake , bad bearings etc
  • Posted 29 Jul 2025 03:20
  • By John_Bradley
  • joined 10 Aug'22 - 227 messages
  • Texas, United States
Jb69
Its possible to have this issue only 3 hours after mounting we also did buy new forklifts and they had the same issue
  • Posted 28 Jul 2025 18:08
  • Modified 28 Jul 2025 22:38 by poster
  • By Forklift_Captain
  • joined 25 Jul'25 - 3 messages
  • Casablanca, Morocco
Yes it is and some of them are genuine Toyota Tires
  • Posted 28 Jul 2025 17:55
  • By Forklift_Captain
  • joined 25 Jul'25 - 3 messages
  • Casablanca, Morocco
Hello
Is the tire is designed for 3 shift operation?
  • Posted 26 Jul 2025 17:44
  • By Saju
  • joined 24 Jul'19 - 2 messages
  • India
Tensor

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