Speed and blown tires
Another thought I had while driving home today again from our holiday camping trip up north. I posted about driving to fast and not surprisingly I was told I was going to fast at 68mph even though I ...
Forum Discussion
Heat kills tires. Running under-inflated creates heat and doesn't take long. Add over-speed and/or overloaded and a failure will happen even sooner. The internal heat damage is cumulative and irreversible so if tires have a prior history of being under-inflated, overloaded and/or used over their speed rating, a failure will happen even sooner still. Could be internal impact damage too that can't be seen.
Below is a photo showing melted body cords as a result of overheating that resulted in a blowout. I'm on the side of the fence that believes that the vast majority of "blowouts" is operator error and not cheapo tires. You could always dissect a tire that has failed to try and determine what happened. How many actually weigh their trailers to see how close they are to the max. rating and if one side of the trailer is heavier and maybe overloaded? How many check pressure and inspect for physical damage before each leg of a trip? How many do what they can to avoid hard impacts in potholes and stay off road shoulders where there could be shrapnel? How many run ST tires below their max. sidewall psi?
I think too many rely on TPMS warnings to save them when they would be better off taking better care of the tires instead. I also think the vast majority of ST tire owners have no idea how to take care of them and get so surprised when there's a failure and then they go on a forum and accuse the country of origin. Can't blame them in way - who ever tells them? Not the dealer and not the RV manufacturer that's for sure.
There's a lot of excellent info. on RV tires in Roger Marble's blog if anyone would take the time to read through it. Have not seen anything better and more in-depth elsewhere. Photo is from his blog.
Below is a photo showing melted body cords as a result of overheating that resulted in a blowout. I'm on the side of the fence that believes that the vast majority of "blowouts" is operator error and not cheapo tires. You could always dissect a tire that has failed to try and determine what happened. How many actually weigh their trailers to see how close they are to the max. rating and if one side of the trailer is heavier and maybe overloaded? How many check pressure and inspect for physical damage before each leg of a trip? How many do what they can to avoid hard impacts in potholes and stay off road shoulders where there could be shrapnel? How many run ST tires below their max. sidewall psi?
I think too many rely on TPMS warnings to save them when they would be better off taking better care of the tires instead. I also think the vast majority of ST tire owners have no idea how to take care of them and get so surprised when there's a failure and then they go on a forum and accuse the country of origin. Can't blame them in way - who ever tells them? Not the dealer and not the RV manufacturer that's for sure.
There's a lot of excellent info. on RV tires in Roger Marble's blog if anyone would take the time to read through it. Have not seen anything better and more in-depth elsewhere. Photo is from his blog.
