How fast were you going when the trailer tire blew out ?

For those of you that have had a Blow out on the camper.

Just wondering what conditions were involved.

How fast where you traveling ?

Tires properly inflated ?

Any alignment problems ?

Where one of the china Valve Stems to blame ?


Just wondering.....

Phil,

Fortunately I've only had one tire blow, it was on my previous TT. I was traveling around 60-65 MPH. We had been on the road for around 4 hours when the tire turned loose. Before leaving, I checked and inflated all tires to their proper pressure.

Now understand, this was my first TT and I was not as well educated as I am now (thanks to wonderful forums such as this). The tire blew because of age issues. I was still under the impression back then, if the tire had tread, then it must be good!

On my Cat, when the tires reached 4 years old, I replaced them.

Only one blow out. It was a China-made tire. It was inflated to 65psi (I am rabid about checking the pressure). We were on a congested freeway, so I think 55 or so.

Just returned from a 3700 mile trip (towing). Started middle of June. The tires on my 05 cat are ST225/75R15 LRD, Power King TowMax, mfg date: middle of 06. I am paranoid about tires since I blew two Marathons on my old trailer (age issue...didn't know better). I check tire pressure every morning before towing, and run them at exactly 65 lbs. I had the cracked valve stems replaced before we left (thanks to this forum). I've weighed the trailer twice, fully loaded...3400 on rear axle, 3200 on front axle (axles are 5200 lb rating, as are the combined rating of the two tires on each axle). We were about 1500 miles into the trip when one exploded. Traveling 60 mph on interstate, up to 65 going downhill. Didn't do any structural damage, but the 24RL Cat has the entertainment center in the slideout. The umbilical carries 6 coax cables, dc and ac power, and telephone. It also snakes along the inside edge of the slideout from one end to the other. It all looked like spaghetti after the steel belts got done with it. I couldn't get over very far because of guardrail, and the now-missing tire (except for some steel bands) was on the drivers side. As I was changing it, 18 wheelers blew by about 18" from me when they couldn't get over because of traffic. I had to hang on to keep from getting blown over. Pretty scary. In my haste, I mashed my knuckles on my left hand with the star lug wrench. Major pain. This was over the 4th of July weekend, so we had to layover in a CG in Illinois until Monday morning. Next morning after blowout, my hand was swollen so bad, we had to cut my wedding ring off since my finger was turning blue. Found a Marathon tire in this little town, and we continued on (Goodyear Marathon now made in China!).
On the way back in August, I was checking the tires in a Rest Area in MO (as I always do), and I saw a bulge on another Towmax (in the tread area). The tire was so hot you couldn't keep your hand on it. Of course, all were hot as it was over 95 deg outside, but this baby was ready for major explosion. I released pressure and put on spare. We stopped at first campground, and had to lay over again. One dealer carried Towmax, I said "No Thanks". Never had a problem, he said. Found another dealer with tires in stock. I bought two Load Range E tires (yeah, Chinese). Hopefully the LRE's will hold up. I pumped them to 65, well under the 80 max, but well over what the axle load is according to a tire pressure vs load chart. Next Spring, I'll replace the two tires on the front axle with LRE's. I'm sick of tires...
Frank

My mistake...I have an 07 Cat, not 05...
Frank

Wow...you must have really wacked your hand bad. Did you break anything or just bruise the snot out of it?

You are a braver person than I am. I believe in your situation, I would have put my emergency flashers on, slowed down and drove to a safer spot. With my luck, I would have ended up being a hood ornament on an 18 wheeler. Glad you made it home without to much personal injury.

Did you get the Cat rewired? Any issues?

I did like you, I went from the factory General load range D's to Maxxis load range E's. The camper feels to pull better with less vibration.

I didn't break anything, but it sure did hurt for several days. As for the wiring, I mostly rewired the entertainment system. I removed all the coax receptacles from their original position; remounted them directly under the concertone ( didn't have to add any new wiring that way and it was the same distance to the TV). I had to run a new coax from the outside park connector to the cable input on the Wingard antenna amplifier. That was easy since the outside connector was directly below the bedroom wall with the antenna amplifier. It's actually simpler now, don't need the jumper that was used on the original configuration to connect the park cable to the concertone. The concertone concept is shot anyway starting in February 2009 since it's analog and won't work with the new digital broadcasts. I guess one could buy a converter box and use that, but my flatscreen already has a digital tuner. For audio thru the Concertone, I just plug an audio cable into the audio out on the TV and plug the other end into the audio in on the concertone and I'm all set.

I replaced the ac and dc wiring on the slide, but still have to figure out a retractor arrangement. Anything I come up with will be better than the Mickey Mouse umbilical system FR was using...basically a coiled ac cord, with all the coax, dc, and telephone cables held together with ty-raps. When retracted, the whole mess just hung down. The steel belts from the tire went thru that arrangement like a weed whacker.

I agree with you about getting to a safer area. I'm not always the brightest bulb in the box! But it was several miles to the nearest exit, mostly guard rails, and I was worried about the load on the one remaining piece of junk tire, not to mention the fact that two or three feet of steel belts would have been still flopping on the suspension, brake lines, fender skirts and flooring of the slideout. By the time I would have gotten that cut away, I could have had the tire changed (except for my busted hand). Anyhow, I lived thru it. When we started rolling again, I told the DW that we're havin' fun now! :x

fvalli , I like your sense of humor. Thats probably the same thing I'd said after a tire changing session like that. Except with a few Mu$%^&*(, thrown in.

1 blew out at 40 and 1 blew out at 50 mph (stuck in traffic ya know). Both had had their pressure checked within 1 hour of the failure and each tire has nearly 900 lbs of capacity left. One other had an internal belt slip but never blew out. All were Carlisle's.

fvalli,

You have to do what you have to do, and sometimes you don't have opportunity to pick the spot. I am glad you didn't become a hood ornament and didn't get hurt (except for the hand). A good sense of humor can carry you a long way.!

any specifics on mileage of the blown tires? I have about 18K on mine and they are on thier 3rd season. I have been thinking about replacing them before next season. thoughts?

We'd had our 2001 27RL just a few months and were totally ignorant about tire pressure. Our now defunct dealership salesman had told us to keep the tire pressure at 35psi. WRONG!!! Proper pressure is 65psi. The unit was still under 1st year warranty, thankfully. And we were running thru central Texas on a 100+ degree day at 65mph. Blown tire was right under the kitchen sink and ripped out a bunch of plumbing. We found a real nice fellow in Waco who changed our flat (lesson #2 - I now carry a hydraulic jack) and another fellow a bit further down the road at an RV 'fix-it' shop who did the emergency plumbing repairs (lesson #3 - spare PVC for a water leak of any kind) to save our trip to the coast. I seem to recall the original tires being Carlile (or something like that). Anyway, the short story is that Forest River made everything 'right' after our trip was over, including a new set of 5 tires. I'm sorry the dealership went out of business - they were quite good at servicing their customers. The salesman just gave me bad info on tire pressure. And, it's just another story about Forest River being willing to stand behind their product.

Jacque

p.s. I replace tires every 3 years (maybe overkill). I don't ever want another blowout.

I had a set of Carlyles on my last 5th wheel that went right at 30K. I had a flat one morning before pulling out of the camp site and went to Les Schwaab. He found a "stone Bruise" and I put on 4 new tires. I watch tread depth but also look at age very closely. Try to keep my tires covered from the sun when extended parking. Any sign of cracking on sidewall is a change out.

I have 2 articles - both 4 pages in length - about trailer tires, selection, maintenance, etc. - that I have collected over the years of camping. I have scanned them to my PC. One is a technical article titled Trailer-Tire Safety from Carlisle Tire & Wheel Co. The other is reprinted with permission from Camping Life magazine (July/August 2001) titled Separation Anxiety. I don't think I would be violating anybody's copywrites or anything if I shared them with you. Or, I could share them with one of the forum's admin's if there is a special place for stuff like that. If you PM or email me, I'll be glad to share.

Regards,
Jacque

If its a really big file, Just park it on the web somewhere and post a link to it.

thanks Phillip

We were traveling about 60-65 mph westbound on I-10. We had just gone from Florida to Alabama and were a few miles west of the Alabama welcome center. I’m going to go back a day to when we were on I-75 northbound, near Gainesville, FL. We heard a “Pop!” Scruffy pulled into a rest area that was just a few hundred feet ahead, and checked the tires. They all looked okay. Later we decided that we must have hit something in the road (although neither of us saw anything on the road) that weakened the tire.

Now back to the next day in Alabama. We’re driving along and “POP!!” or was it a “BANG!!?” Whatever, Scruffy immediately pulled off the road. He didn’t feel any change in how the vehicle handled, all we knew was we probably had a BLOWOUT!. It was the front tire on the right hand side.

Here are some pics:

WOW, you guy's were lucky that the tire didn't fall apart and destroy the fender on that side of the camper.