I hate to admit it, but I have had it happen too.
The regular driver left the truck and 16 tire Murray in the dirt street at my house, lightly loaded, for me to make an after hours delivery with. It was dark when I left, and I rolled about 3/4 mile down a dirt road to the highway. I only had about 15,000 lbs on the trailer, so it pulled easy with the 550 Cat. I turned onto the highway, and got up to speed, when aafter a mile or so a car came up behind me. As I watched the car coming I thought "Gee, that is a lot of smoke in his lights" . When the car got closer, I could tell something was wrong, so I pulled over to have a look. The S-cam on one of the inside tandems had cammed over, so it was still locked up. I may have noticed it, but the combination of not driving the truck for a month or so, darkness, light load, and a dirt road all combined to cost me a pair of tires and one aluminum wheel. I was close enough to the yard at this point (only a block) that I drug it there and switched trailers, re-loaded, and went on.
A few years before that, my driver had a brake hang up going down a winding mountain 2 lane road with another very light load on, and also at night. There was no traffic on the road, so he never seen the smoke, and aluminum wheels do not spark, they just smear. He finally seen it when the brake drum hit the pavement and started thrownig sparks. Same thing, after a hard corner, the brake cammed over and did not release. With a light load on a 16 tire trailer, there is barely any drag from one tandem sliding when it only has less than a ton of weight on it.
That one cost 2 tires, 2 wheels, and a road service to swap a tire from one of the other tandems to get back home.
