Damage from tire blow-outs

I have had more than one treat separation on my fifth wheel. I have been lucky that I have caught it relatively quickly, but it will beat the snot out of the side of the trailer quickly.

I think I have had 2 insurance claims that were over $3000 in damage.

Any RV can be damaged by a blowout, depending on how they are made. Some trailers don't have steel wheelwells, and a blown tire can put a hole in the floor of the camper. If wires and propane lines are run in close proximity to the tires, they can be ripped out by a blowout. Depending on how the tire comes apart, it can also do damage to the exterior body of the RV.

This was my tire on the right front of the trailer



Fortunately, I have steel wheel wells, and the only wire nearby was going to the clearance light on the fender skirt. Damage was very minimal...I was lucky, had the tire come apart differently it may have cost me thousands.

Big class A's tend to be sturdier than trailer, but they also have much bigger tires, so the same possibility for damage exists there.

They can all be damaged. What happens is that the steel belt in the radial tire starts spinning without support from the tire rubber and acts like a flail, hitting the inside of the wheel well and the exterior of the RV.

When I bought my TT, you could see the tires and the roadway from the inside of the trailer. The wheel well was about 80% gone. I rebuilt the exterior siding area and the wheel well with 2" lumber and made a wheel well frame with the same. The exterior portion of the wheel well is now clad with 1/8" 404 steel plate, the same steel used inside garbage truck compactors and on the floors of military humvees.

BurbMan wrote:
Any RV can be damaged by a blowout, depending on how they are made. Some trailers don't have steel wheelwells, and a blown tire can put a hole in the floor of the camper. If wires and propane lines are run in close proximity to the tires, they can be ripped out by a blowout. Depending on how the tire comes apart, it can also do damage to the exterior body of the RV.

This was my tire on the right front of the trailer



Fortunately, I have steel wheel wells, and the only wire nearby was going to the clearance light on the fender skirt. Damage was very minimal...I was lucky, had the tire come apart differently it may have cost me thousands.

Big class A's tend to be sturdier than trailer, but they also have much bigger tires, so the same possibility for damage exists there.

Was that a LT or ST tire?

This past April, I had my first two blow outs, in eleven years of pulling a travel trailer.
There was zero damage to the trailer which had tandem axels

Jack L

That was an ST, and hence the reason I run LT's now... :B

BurbMan wrote:
That was an ST, and hence the reason I run LT's now... :B

Just wondered. I have had two ST flats. One had the tread come of clean with no damage, the other stayed together. That one looks like it detached lower on the sidewall than mine.

My two tread separations on my RV have been LT tires. They don't look quite as bad as the photo, but the tread still beats the heck out of the trailer.

I bought a TT that had blowout damage. It tore a hole in the floor about the size of a saucer, tore off the plastic fender skirt, ripped the bottom of the awning out of the metal, bent up the lower metal skirt behind the wheels, tore off the rear stabilizer jack.

I have a large class c that we lost the passenger side inside dual on. narrow road being passed by a semi when it blew. took out the outside dual also which didn't go flat until after we got stopped. lots of damage to wheel well, almost took out the propane header but the steel plate didn't totally fail. damage to side of RV from bumping guard rail. total $6000. could have been a lot worse.

Dave