New Tires YEAH - Blow-Out UUGH

[ronerjones]

OK so I read almost all of the threads, learned a lot and trying to do the best for my camper and the family. We have several camp-outs scheduled over the next few months so last week I took the camper over to my local service place and had the breaks checked, repacked the bearings, and replaced the tires (they were just starting to get some dry rot cracks, better to be safe than sorry I thought). Thursday packed and ready for a great spring break camp excursion to Fort Wilderness just 20 miles into our drive BOOM, it sounded like a bomb went off in the back of the truck. One of my brand new trailer tires blew out as I was driving 70mph on the turnpike. Luckily I had a spare but guess what I still had 3 hours of driving and then the return trip with out a spare now. All went well we had a great weekend, made it home safe, and will be replacing that blown tire this week. What an awful feeling though the other tires served us so well, I replaced them only for the peace of mind that I would not have to worry about them now I am not so sure.

[flyfisherman]

OK so I read almost all of the threads, learned a lot and trying to do the best for my camper and the family. We have several camp-outs scheduled over the next few months so last week I took the camper over to my local service place and had the breaks checked, repacked the bearings, and replaced the tires (they were just starting to get some dry rot cracks, better to be safe than sorry I thought). Thursday packed and ready for a great spring break camp excursion to Fort Wilderness just 20 miles into our drive BOOM, it sounded like a bomb went off in the back of the truck. One of my brand new trailer tires blew out as I was driving 70mph on the turnpike. Luckily I had a spare but guess what I still had 3 hours of driving and then the return trip with out a spare now. All went well we had a great weekend, made it home safe, and will be replacing that blown tire this week. What an awful feeling though the other tires served us so well, I replaced them only for the peace of mind that I would not have to worry about them now I am not so sure.

You don't say what tire size ... AND what load range tire they are. In the past, on this very fourm, there have been folks have who have replaced their Load Range "C" tires and put on Load Range "B" tires. And the B's could not take the load and blew out directly.

In addition to the tire size and the load range, what kind of air pressure were in the tires?

[wavery]

Fly has some valid points. You may also want to check what the max speed the tire is rated for. Some trailer tires are only rated for 65MPH MAX.

I would be very careful about telling the dealer that you were doing 70 on those tires until you check the rating on the sidewall.

[dthurk]

Overloading, under inflation and traveling over 65 mph with ST tires are probably the top three reasons for tire blow-outs.

[ronerjones]

I want to make sure that everyone knows that I did have the correct tires. My trailer has 13 inch tires D rated and most of the truck places only could get me C rated tires and told me that should be fine. I had my tire guy order the tires that were D rated load rating for 1660lbs the same as the factory tires. I had no more weight than ever before and the tires were freshly inflated. I even went with the nitro fills hoping they would hold the air better. I was told that there could have been a slow leak which could have caused a low pressure blow out. I would have thought if it was a low pressure blow out then the exploding sound would not have been so great, it litterly sounded like a bomb went off in the back of the truck. I did not check the tire pressure as the tires were installed 2 days prior to our trip. From hear on out I will be checking the pressure prior to getting on the road.
I will have to look at what the speed rating is I did not think that 70 was pushing it that is the local speed limit.

[wavery]

I want to make sure that everyone knows that I did have the correct tires. My trailer has 13 inch tires D rated and most of the truck places only could get me C rated tires and told me that should be fine. I had my tire guy order the tires that were D rated load rating for 1660lbs the same as the factory tires. I had no more weight than ever before and the tires were freshly inflated. I even went with the nitro fills hoping they would hold the air better. I was told that there could have been a slow leak which could have caused a low pressure blow out. I would have thought if it was a low pressure blow out then the exploding sound would not have been so great, it litterly sounded like a bomb went off in the back of the truck. I did not check the tire pressure as the tires were installed 2 days prior to our trip. From hear on out I will be checking the pressure prior to getting on the road.
I will have to look at what the speed rating is I did not think that 70 was pushing it that is the local speed limit.

It might be helpful to others to know what brand tires they are. Although, we've heard this scenario more than once on differing brands of tires.

I just put new Duro's on our PU a month ago. We've made 3 trips since then and I check the tire pressure before we take-off on each trip.

That's one other point.....you do know that you check the tire pressure "COLD".....right?

[dthurk]

Also, were you depending on the tire dealer to correctly inflate the tires?  I check my dealer installed tires as soon as I get home.  I've received tires that were supposed to be inflated to 50 lbs. incorrectly inflated by the dealer to 32 lbs.  Some of them do 32 lbs. so frequently it's almost automatic to them.  Seems like that's their magic number.

I told this to the dealer, he said my tire gauge was off, buy a new gauge.  I checked them with 3 gauges.  I'm not going to have 3 gauges all off by 18 lbs. in that range.

[austinado16]

I told this to the dealer, he said my tire gauge was off, buy a new gauge.  I checked them with 3 gauges.  I'm not going to have 3 gauges all off by 18 lbs. in that range.

That would be the last trip I made to that dealer.

I agree about rechecking the work of all new tire installation.  Same thing goes with your car or truck.  Can't tell you how many times I've had to go back to have tires rebalanced, and had the guy stand there and tell me they were fine...."Really?  Let's spin 'em on the balancer and see.  Oh look, 1/2 and ounce out of balance.  Imagine that."

That's too bad these tires blew out.  I hope you get a new set under warranty.  You'd think that a set of 13" load range D's could handle sustained 70mph though.  A 13" D is a super strong tire.  Maybe the were a really cheap brand?  Or by the date stamp on the sidewall, are they a couple years old already?

[dthurk]

Dealer's now out of business.

[wavery]

Dealer's now out of business.

:yikes: What a shock!!!!!!

[flyfisherman]

On one of my fishing outings somewhere, someplace along the way picked up a 10 penny nail in one of the PU tires (5.30 X 12") and it was sort of a slow leaker. After setting up camp, got the fly rod out and headed on down to the river. Came back shortly and the PU was kinda bent over like the Leaning Tower of Pisa with the door side tire flat. To be safe I dropped the roof almost all the way and jacked up the camper (via the main frame rail) and changed swaped that tire with the spare. Headed for town with the flat tire & rim and took it to a tire store that I had been to sometime before for service on one of the truck tires. That nail had run up the inside tire wall making it impossible to patch. But he tells me he has those very tires in stock and I tell him to mount up a new one and I head on over to the local grocery store for some needed items. Coming back I see that he mounted a load range "B" instead of the required load range "C" ~ called it to his attention and, of course, he does not have that in one in stock. But he orders it and comes has it in a couple of days, mounts it up for me and apologizes for his error. Now I do not believe this tire man did that to me deliberately, he simply made a mistake. No doubt there are some sorry dishonest scudders around who would do such a deliberate thing just to move some old stock or for a quick sale; and no doubt there are those working at a tire store who simply do not know the difference. To be sure, this tire dealer's vast majority of business is with cars & trucks and the trailer tires are few and far between, and most of that being with boat trailers that use the LRB tires of that size, so you can understand. My point of all this long winded post is to say that I check back up on EVERYTHING that's done to the PU tires, more so than with the truck tires.



Fly

[AustinBoston]

I'm not trying to excuse anyone by this.

Everything is subject to possible infant mortality.  While it can often be reduced, there is no way to prevent it.

I once worked for an electronics manufacturer.  We made components that were tested, adjusted, run on a rack for 24 hours, tested again, put in a can, the can was filled with goo that solidified, run on a rack for 24 hours, and tested one more time before being put into stock.

On a regular basis, audit samples were taken from stock and tested.  Those tests included thermal cycling (running the units at -20

[ronerjones]

Well took the tire down to the shop today and they are replacing it for me. He did say that it looks as if something hit the side wall and cut the tire as there is a very clean break in the side wall. As I have been a customer for a very long time I do not feel the dealer is at fault or trying to hide anything from me. Both he and I made sure that the correct tires were being installed and I verified the date stamp on the tires they are not old tires.

On a slightly separate note about the tires:
I had call several truck and trailer places to get a price on the tires, none of which could get me a "D" rated tire but all had excuses as to why their "C" rated tire would be just fine. Everyone should be very careful that they are putting on the tires that are required.

[austinado16]

I too have experienced the scenario of tire shops trying to "cheat" me into a lesser tire.  Most commonly, it's been trying to sell me their cheap-a$$ house brand, hoping that I'm looking at the bottom line, instead of at the fact that there's nothing worse than a set of cheap rags for tires, that you are then stuck with for the next 5 years.

Recently, I had the local tire shop order a set for a VW Eurovan I was working on.  I told them exactly what I wanted.  A week later, the shop installed a set with a lesser load rating, and I found out from Tirerack, that tire had been discontinued.  I made the shop order and install the correct set.  They also coincidentally remembered that the tires came with a $75 discount/rebate.

So yeah, pay attention to tire details.