Blown Tires

I just returned from a car trip to North Carolina myself and noticed an extreme number of all types of vehicles with flat tires all along the road. I noticed 7 different vehicles with donut spares installed, with two of those on the shoulder with the donut shredded. I probably saw in excess of 20 vehicles with flat tires, cars, pickups and RVs, but not a single semi.

No clue if that relates to the RV issue OP saw, but there is probably some overlap in that I believe a lot of people in the world operate under the idea that things like cars, mowers and even RVs are self-maintaining. Those of us who have been around a while remember needing spark plugs every year, changing oil every month or so and a lot of other more maintenance intensive ownership experiences. Things are much more hands-off today so people are less likely to check things like tire pressure or condition.

I think the real issue with the cheap tires is that they have no margin for error. Run them a little low or heavy and they will give it up quickly.

I've destroyed trailer tires over the years every way possible from neglect to physically yanking the tire off the rim on a culvert. The first money I spent on my 5th wheel after I got it home was a TPMS and every time my feet touch the ground on a trip I'm visually inspecting the hitch, tires, truck and trailer.

Stuff is still going to happen, but I'd bet the majority of rigs you saw on your trip had problems that could have been dealt with more easily with a little more care before getting on the road.

Much easier to fix a leaking or separating tire at a gas station than to replace a blown tire along the road.

mike-s wrote:

CapriRacer wrote:
Don't forget that ST tires are speed limited to 65 mph and that bit of information generally isn't told to new trailer owners!

No, they're not. It's just that (for most of them) the standard pressure/load tables only apply up to 65 MPH. Pressure and/or load rating needs to be adjusted for higher speeds. ST tires can go up to 85 MPH with the proper load/pressure adjustment. Some tires are rated for higher speeds without any adjustment.

Mike is correct.

New trailers; more than likely new owners.

New owners (and some old owners) don't have a clue when a tire goes low feels like.

New trailers won't have a TPMS on them.

Low tires on a trailer come apart.

A bunch of trailers along side of a road changing tires means a bunch of FOD on the road cutting tires down.

CapriRacer wrote:
Don't forget that ST tires are speed limited to 65 mph and that bit of information generally isn't told to new trailer owners!

No, they're not. That's a common misunderstanding. It's just that (for most of them) the standard pressure/load tables only apply up to 65 MPH. Pressure and/or load rating needs to be adjusted for higher speeds. ST tires can go up to 85 MPH with the proper load/pressure adjustment. Some tires are rated for higher speeds without any adjustment.

If you had ST205/75*15 tires on a 3500 lb axle, you'd need LRC to support a full load (@50 PSI), and that would be good for 65 MPH. If you wanted to go faster, you could go to LRD and up the pressure to 60 PSI, then you'd be good to 75 MPH. Faster? Go to 65 PSI (which gets you 1940 lbs load per tire at 75), then derate by 10% to 1746 lbs load per tire, and hold your axle load to 3492 lbs, giving up 8 lbs of capacity. Then you're good to 85 MPH.

The UN-INFORMED consumer will continue to buy junk....

Until more people realize that the tires should be looked at EARY in the negotiations, nothing will change . . . .

Probably some cheap Chinese brand and an overloaded trailer and under inflated tires also driving over the speed limit.

navegator

And part of the problem is trailer manufacturers not specifying large enough capacity in their tires. Don't forget that ST tires are speed limited to 65 mph and that bit of information generally isn't told to new trailer owners!

I think that if I were to buy a new unit I would look the brand of tire over before completing the deal. I put Maxxums on my TT when I first bought it just for peace of mind. JMHO but I do see alot of 5ers being pulled at speeds that would exceed many tire nfg. rating as I do not know of any particular blowout being caused by excessive speed I will leave it at that.