Michelin LT failure
Well, I never expected to be writing this but I had a blowout on my second set of Michelin 16” LT load range E tires. They were only a year old.
We were on our way back to Houston Tx a week ago from a long summer vacation loop through the southwest desert. (About a 3000 mile pull.) On the last day just a couple of hundred miles north of home on US 84 we lost a tire to what the tire store manager called a catastrophic blowout. (There were just some inner casing pieces between the beads.) This was during the heat wave, I think the outside air temperature was about 103 degF. I pull at 60 mph, checked my tire pressure in the morning as I started and thought I was good. All that came to an end when a car pulled up next to me and held up a sign saying “blowout”. Bummer.
I could not even tell I was down a tire. There was no indication based on handling. Last time I scaled I was about 8600 lbs total on the two 5200 lb trailer axles.
Now I don’t feel so invincible tire wise. It cold have been due to a bad tire, a leaky valve stem, road hazard, who knows?
Maybe it is time for RIBs on the trailer and a tire pressure monitoring system.
Good thing I carry a tire changing ramp and DOT triangles.
Oh well, time to go fix the damage to the trailer…
We were on our way back to Houston Tx a week ago from a long summer vacation loop through the southwest desert. (About a 3000 mile pull.) On the last day just a couple of hundred miles north of home on US 84 we lost a tire to what the tire store manager called a catastrophic blowout. (There were just some inner casing pieces between the beads.) This was during the heat wave, I think the outside air temperature was about 103 degF. I pull at 60 mph, checked my tire pressure in the morning as I started and thought I was good. All that came to an end when a car pulled up next to me and held up a sign saying “blowout”. Bummer.
I could not even tell I was down a tire. There was no indication based on handling. Last time I scaled I was about 8600 lbs total on the two 5200 lb trailer axles.
Now I don’t feel so invincible tire wise. It cold have been due to a bad tire, a leaky valve stem, road hazard, who knows?
Maybe it is time for RIBs on the trailer and a tire pressure monitoring system.
Good thing I carry a tire changing ramp and DOT triangles.
Oh well, time to go fix the damage to the trailer…
