2 Blowouts, different tires, different axles, 1 hour apart

Try a basic check for axle alignment. Measure from center to center of the wheels on each side of the trailer. If the two sides don't match, you have an alignment problem. There are several other measurements that need to be checked for proper alignment, but this is an easy one that you can do. I had a similar experience to yours. I found my axles were not aligned -- there was over an inch difference from side to side.

Bruce

love4god wrote:
We're been travelling the better part of a year without any trouble and we haven't added any extra weight. It would be weird for them to go now all of a sudden. I'll check the tire code and see the actual age of the tire.

It's possible that when the one tire went and I put on the spare that we overloaded the other side. That tire blew out, I heard it go. My tires are E rated buy my spare was D rated. When I bought new tires I had them use the best of my old ones (an older D rated Towmax) as my spare. I guess that could have shifted weight over to the other side.

I thought I should be at 70psi, but I looked and it seems they should be around 85 (although I've been driving at 70 for a long time).

I'll need to weigh again. We've been out for a long while and we've probably bought a few things, some games, some clothes, etc, etc over the last year that could have bumped us up. I'll go through a weigh station.

Right now I need to get these tires fixed, we're stuck in Summerton, SC right now. I can't go anywhere. I'm just afraid of spending a bunch of money on new tires and then blowing them right out again when I hit the road.

The road WAS very rough. It's I-95 heading north from the SC border. I told my wife it was weird how much rubber was on the road. It looks like a lot of tires on the side of the road as we're driving, a lot more than usual. It was interstate so it's nothing crazy, no dirt roads or anything, but for an interstate it was a pretty rough ride. I suppose that's possible also.

Your trailer would be a good candidate for 16" LT tires at 12k

We're been travelling the better part of a year without any trouble and we haven't added any extra weight. It would be weird for them to go now all of a sudden. I'll check the tire code and see the actual age of the tire.

It's possible that when the one tire went and I put on the spare that we overloaded the other side. That tire blew out, I heard it go. My tires are E rated buy my spare was D rated. When I bought new tires I had them use the best of my old ones (an older D rated Towmax) as my spare. I guess that could have shifted weight over to the other side.

I thought I should be at 70psi, but I looked and it seems they should be around 85 (although I've been driving at 70 for a long time).

I'll need to weigh again. We've been out for a long while and we've probably bought a few things, some games, some clothes, etc, etc over the last year that could have bumped us up. I'll go through a weigh station.

Right now I need to get these tires fixed, we're stuck in Summerton, SC right now. I can't go anywhere. I'm just afraid of spending a bunch of money on new tires and then blowing them right out again when I hit the road.

The road WAS very rough. It's I-95 heading north from the SC border. I told my wife it was weird how much rubber was on the road. It looks like a lot of tires on the side of the road as we're driving, a lot more than usual. It was interstate so it's nothing crazy, no dirt roads or anything, but for an interstate it was a pretty rough ride. I suppose that's possible also.

Doing a little investigative work I see you own a Wildcat 5th wheel 32+ ft long. The GVWR on those is 11,999. I also see you commented that the tires had 70 psi in them which indicates you probably have 15" D rated tires on them or you have underinflated your 16" E rated tires. Either situation would be a serious concern. 15" D tires on a trailer that size would be operating very near their weight limit and 16" E rated tires inflated to 70 psi would be considerably underinflated for Maxxis tires. How much does the 5th wheel actually weigh and which size tires are you using?

I'm thinking that he drove on the flat for some time, leading the one side of the axle not holding up its fair share of weight, shifting that weight to the other side of the axle. The additional weight on the other side of the axle caused the other tire to fail.

The tires are probably pretty close to their max weight rating in an ideal situation, and in this case were overloaded.

When I replaced my trailer tires, I went way overboard and stepped up to D rated tires. My tires can support over 8400 lbs of weight. My trailer is max around 6500 lbs, with about 800 lbs tongue weight.

If your a tandem axle what was the status of the other two tires? If your single axle perhaps your over loaded or slammed into the same lane wide pothole? There is also the possibility that you had a bad batch of tires. Save both and bring them back to your tire dealer for examination.

Ive hit some potholes, one in particular that couldn't be avoided on the BQE that launched both hub caps off the starboard side. However no flats! My new rig comes with loadstars and Ive seen those on tractor trailers but I don't know much about them. My 180 mile tow from the dealer home was smooth. However in the future replacement area I will switch over to LT tires with a higher load rating. My TV has E rated tires on them.

Lowsuv wrote:
maxxis failure # 22 on this forum.

= non value added post

Two tires failing that close together is indicative of external forces at work such as road hazards, excessive heat, or over loaded. Having drove that stretch my guess would be road hazards.

Golden_HVAC wrote:
How old is the RV? How much weight is on the tires? What are the tires rated at?

You did say that the tires are about a year old, is that by the date code on the tire? Or just that you had them installed a year ago?

Do you know how to read the date codes? It will be a 4 digit code, such as 4507 meaning it was manufactured on the 45th week of 07 and is now nearly 7 years old, and to old to be on the road. Hopefully your tires will be something like 2212 or 2213 if they are only about a year old, and where somewhat new when installed.

Sears was on camera when a news crew purchased a "New" tire with a date code 11 years old from one of their tire stores. The installer said that it would work great as a spare tire. Seems that the tire shop rarely rotated the display tires away from the window to the stockroom.

Hopefully you where able to get back on the road soon. When I buy a trailer, I will change the ST tires to the more durable LT tires, and make sure they are not made in China.

I might even change from 16" rims and tires to 17.5 or 18 or 19.5" rims that seem to be rated at a lot more weight. Some RV manufactures only put on tires barely rated at the axle rating, and then "Expect" them to last a long time.

For instance a trailer with a 16,500 pound GVWR with a pair of 7,000 pound axles and a hitch weight rating around 2,500 pounds. The tires and rims are rated at 3,550 pounds each. That is just "barely enough" weight rating. What about turning and curves? What happens if you drop one tire off the pavement while getting on the freeway or while exiting a gas station? then the other tire takes much more weight for a few seconds.

I would rather have two axles rated at 8,000 pounds with rims and tires rated at 4,400 pounds each, than ones barely up to the task at hand. Sure the axles should not weigh more than 6,600 pounds on a typical trip, and the 3,550 pound tires should not have more than 3,200 pounds on them - except while the RV is leaning into a curve. But tires get more than the rated load on each curve, that is why I wanted something much stronger.

Good luck with your tires.

Fred.

Yeah 19.5s that's how I roll.If I need new axles I will certainly have 8kers put on.

More questions than answers but what does your trailer weigh and what size and load rating are the tires? STs are notoriously bad if they carry more than 75 percent of their rated capacity. We had a similar experience early on with our other rig. Changed to lts and never had another issue.