Montana bound

We left Thursday after being home one week from Alaska to go to Montana. Got a late start (3:30pm) because of every problem possible. Started driving and started to relax. Planned on pulling in to Cordelle, GA for the night at 7:30. BAM blew out a tire 18 miles away from campground on I-75. Cops passing us left and right going after speeders. Fortunately we were at an off ramp. Good Sam service came and put on our spare. We got to the campground at 10:30pm, dog tired. Tires are one year old 10 ply rating Denmans. Not big damage but enough to get fixed.


Doesn't look bad in the the picture, but it did enough damage that I will get it fixed. The tire looked like someone cut it from the trad to the rim. I was lucky to get over as quick as I did

Sorry to hear of your bad luck, hopefully this will be the last for your trip to Montana. You did pick up a new spare tire, right?

Now I do. This was the second tire blowing on Saturday morning as we entered Kentucky. Patrol service truck put trailer up on jack stand, took my wife with both tires to get new ones at Walmart. Brought her back put tire on all at no charge except for the tires (which were D). We were back on our way again. Wife wanted to stop at place for diner that was on Food Network. Her and daughter had diner. I stayed in truck with dog. Just as well, I really wasn't hungry. Between tire and diner we lost some time. Pulled into campsite at 11:30. Hit power post and ran it down the side of WC. Oh well, life goes on. I am going to change to 16" when we get to Montana. We are now getting ready to leave Sioux City, SD. Got an email from a friend that we have some heavy weather coming our way. The beat goes on. I am trying to beat Scruffy & Tater's record for blowouts on a trip. I really do hope that I loose this contest.

Robert,
Sorry to hear about your tire problems. Our trailer insurance paid for the damage done by one of our blowouts - tore up the fender and did some damage to the underside of the trailer. We had to pay $500 deductible.

We had the lifetime warranty on the tires, so Discount Tire replaced the tire for free, and we bought another warranty. We had Carlisles at the time. Because the tires were so new, and we had lots of pictures of the damage, either Discount Tire or the manufacturer reimbursed us for the deductible, so we came out okay. Discount also gave us credit for the Carlisles and we bought Maxxis. We haven't had them long, just one long trip with them. We also got a set of tire pressure monitors.

Tater

Scruffy and Tater wrote:Robert,
we bought Maxxis.
Tater

Hi Tater,
What size are your Maxxis's ?

Robert you said it best.....the beat goes on. Hope the rest of your trip is a little less bumpy.

Hi Robert;

typical causes for tire failure are:

1. Puncture from road debris
2. Over or under inflation
3. Overloading
4. Vandalism
5. Defective tire or wheel

Has anyone told you what they think caused the blowouts? By the look of the pictures, at first glance it looks like defective tires. I would worry about the other two.
Going with 16 inch tires and wheels with a "E" rating is a good thing.

Keep on truckin' Robert.

TC

Tom,
Scruffy says 15inch - to fit on those expensive but beautiful rims we bought in California.

Tater

The pressure was fine, I check every morning and have pressure monitors on the tires. I stopped on the scale when I left the house. It was more than likely a defective tire. From the looks of the failure, the belts were not overlapped when the tire was made. I found out that it is a common problem in Mexican tires. Great to find out now. What size rims and tires should I get in the 16". Today was good. We actually had fun stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.


Spent a little time at Wall Drugs this afternoon. We are spending the night in Sturgis, SD. Tomorrow off to MT.

Good to hear you had a little fun...From the sounds of it,You deserve it.

I bet if the Corn Palace ever caught fire and burned, it would smell delicious.

Maxtor, you forgot one big cause of tire failure-- SPEED--! I lost count of the number of people (with trailers) who have flown around me doing 75-80 or so and I pass later pulled over with a blown tire. My tires are rated at 65mph so I stay 65 or slower, sometimes you have to go faster to pass but that's only for a short time.

Yes,, speed increases heat in the tire.
Our tires are Transmaster ST235/80R16 Load range E. They take 80psi air pressure cold. Maximum load per tire is 3500 lbs.
I am very happy we ordered our WC with the 16 inch wheels.
Our GPS records the fastest speed we attain on a trip. On the trip East, we hit 84 mph. I normally do not drive that fast, because heat in the tires is a concern.
Sometimes it is hard to slow down these Fords...

Richard Mondavi wrote:I bet if the Corn Palace ever caught fire and burned, it would smell delicious.

Yeah, lots of popcorn .....

robertz675 wrote:Spent a little time at Wall Drugs this afternoon. We are spending the night in Sturgis, SD. Tomorrow off to MT.

Just like "South Of The Border", everybody has to stop at Wall Drugs at least once in their lives. Quite an experience.

When I had a blow out last year, I changed all four. We have had several landscape trailers with our business. I knew D range was at the limit. I am loaded to max GVW or maybe a smidge over at times. I put 15 inch back on but my dealer had E range. They are towmaster, but we are hoping they last a year or two till we upgrade our trailer. That is if we can make some money again someday. I did drive I-90 at around 70mph and did check them at fuel stops. Just warm never hot. pressures good.
I wouldn't want to drive much faster though. Some people pass me like I'm standing still. Not sure about that

I had changed all five last year to load range "g" tires. They are the ones that blew out. The fastest that I drive is 63mph. They had to be defective tires.

Robert, I agree. We have G tires on one of our work trailers. That trailer sometimes has close to 20K on it. No problem.
Must be a bad batch. I would almost think G would be a little to heavy for your Cat.
How is the ride?
Maybe a thought for others.

It didn't ride bad until the tire exploded.

We have been dry camping here on private land for going on two weeks. I still haven't called the insurance company yet. I'll get around to it. The solar that I installed before the trip is working great. There is a water cistern to fill from. Yesterday morning when I was filling our water tank, I came across old Mr Buzztail himself. By the time I got my gun, the rattlesnake had left. That bothered me more. I haven't seen him since, thank goodness. It also looks like I have a split in my water tank behind one of the metal straps. I thought that my luck was changing.

Dang Bob, maybe you're getting it ALL out of the way on this trip so all the othertrips to come will be trouble-free.

You're not the only one here who's had a problem with their fresh tank. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a FR quality control problem.

TC

schrowang wrote:

Richard Mondavi wrote:I bet if the Corn Palace ever caught fire and burned, it would smell delicious.

Yeah, lots of popcorn .....

You suppose they'd ever consider putting the fire out with melted butter and salt?

TC

do you have to change axles and hubs on the trailer when you go from 15 to 16 in tires or just rims?

ribbs65 wrote:do you have to change axles and hubs on the trailer when you go from 15 to 16 in tires or just rims?

Just wheels. Just get same bolt/lug pattern as your 15" wheels.

ribbs65 wrote:do you have to change axles and hubs on the trailer when you go from 15 to 16 in tires or just rims?

If you are thinking of switching, take your spare with you to show the tire dealer what you currently have.

Well the saga continues. Last Thursday I finally got an appointment with a dealer out here to get the WC fixed (to the tune of $5400.00). Guess what happened on the way to the dealer? Yep, you guessed it. I had another blow out. I watched the fender go off the side of the road and the underneath of the trailer disappear along with it. We called the dealer to tell him that we would be late. No problem. We got to the dealer and told him that we were going to get new tires at Sam's. So we dropped the WC and went off to Sam's ready to get 5 new 16" tires and rims. At the door at Sam's we were greeted by the normal "welcome to Sam's" with an additional "all Sam's and Walmart computers are down nationwide and we can't take any credit cards or Sam's membership cards" Off to the tire dept. He had the tires, but couldn't write a work order so, no tires. I assured him that I would have 5 new tires and rims mounted shortly. We came to an agreement and I got the tires. Took them back to the dealer for mounting. Went back at 4:30 pm to pickup trailer and head back to our site. Fast forward to Monday. We get up all ready to leave for the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque NM. Check tire pressure, three at 80#, one at 10# and every time we turn on the water pump we leak water. Pump up the tire, back up, hit the grill and off to the dealer. He finds the leak an fixes it quickly in 4 hours time. Next stop Sam's. Have to back the trailer in so that they can jack it up. Run over the Michlin Man and finally roll to a stop. Pull out Michlin Man and start fight with tire department. I guess by now you can see where this is going. They take off the tire and show me a pin hole in the sidewall. No problem, replace it. And, he says problem, I don't have anymore of these tires and trailer tires are not guaranteed. My response will be left out in case children read this. We come to an agreement that if I don't run over the Michlin Man again they will take care of it on my return trip, after all, I did have 70 miles on this tire. Left there and got on the road to Albuquerque at 3:15, a good early start.

As I write this, we are south of Denver on the way. There is a silver lining. The manufacturer of the original tires, went out of business. Can't imagine why. The dealer that we bought them from is sending me a check for the 5 new tires and rims and the insurance deductible as long as I promise not to run over his Michlin Man.

Just hope that a hot air balloon doesn't land on us.

Keep a smile and keep on truck'n.

Forgot to tell you how I dropped my fuel tank. But I'll save that for later.

Only 93 days left of this year lets hope that next year will be more friendly to you. But things are already on the up you have a check coming your way.
sean

Bob & Karyn,
Sorry to read about all your problems. Wow! If it weren't for your bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all.