Tires...why do rv tires blow apart so bad?

byways wrote:

skipnchar wrote:
When you have a flat on your car you KNOW it's flat immediately but with a trailer you might tow it for miles and never know it's flat until you see debris flying. People OFTEN then believe they just had a blow out when they may have had a gradual leak and just towed on until it self destructed.

yes.

EXACTLY. Case in point. I was on a busy two lane road behind a TT when I noticed he had one tire starting to give occasional puffs of smoke, obviously flat. I tried flashing my lights and honking to get his attention to no avail. Then more smoke, almost continous. After about 10 miles total BOOM! stuff all over the place. I pulled in behind him when he stopped and mentioned I tried to notify him of the flat tire. He said When?? I said about oh, 10 miles ago, maybe 15 minutes. His comment he had NO idea he had a flat tire. No change in towing etc. till it blew. How far before I pulled in behind him it was flat who knows.

A case where a TPMS likely would have avoided a blowout.

skipnchar wrote:
When you have a flat on your car you KNOW it's flat immediately but with a trailer you might tow it for miles and never know it's flat until you see debris flying. People OFTEN then believe they just had a blow out when they may have had a gradual leak and just towed on until it self destructed.

yes.

RV daytrader wrote:
...I've had many flats on my cars and vans over the last 43 years but never had one come apart...just pop a small hole in sidewall is the worst that ever happened...

You have been lucky! In my 50 years I have had "flats" and I have had a tire come apart at 65mph that caused over $6000 in damage to the vehicle, and I felt lucky that I was still upright when I got it stopped :E

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTrailerTireFacts.dos

My vote:
Speed: most if not all ST tires are rated at 65 mph or below
Weight: Some are at or close to their weight rating.
Heat: Seems that you see more tire carcasses on the side of the road during the hot summer months.
Axle: alignment, tires are not pulling straight so it causes heat build up.

I see more evidence of tire failures in areas where the highway speeds are higher and it is hotter. Have pulled a travel trailer, 5th wheel and now drive a motorhome. Have never had a blowout.....knocking on wood here. I think it helps that we keep our speed in the 60mph range.

chevor wrote:
I have had 2 blowouts and had to change 3 more tires on New trailers from the factory in 2.5 years 423,000 miles. I had to patch 2 tires on the truck in that time. The main culperate I have seen is screws and nails. One of the blowouts happened within 100 miles of the factory. The tires have no steel belt ply in its construction. I think it isnt right the tire manufactures claim those tires can handle as much weight just drop the speed rating. LT tires are so much strong. Only reason their rated lower is their designed to handle weight at higher speeds. Say 100 mph where trailer tires are at 65 mph.

Lets see if I understand this. You transported trailers and on average had a puncture that caused the tire to loose air every 84,000 miles. Maybe if you had a TPMS you would have known about the air leaking out because of the punctures and hopefully you would have stopped and avoided all 5 of the failures.

The bias tires that are not supposed to have steel belts didn't. I don't think you can find a tire that says it has steel belts in it that doesn't. The material i.e. steel, polyester etc must be molded in the sidewall of the tire. If you read the sidewall of today's radials I think you will see that most if not all say steel belts

Tires are designed by engineers to meet a variety of performance specifications. These include load, inflation, speed, traction, fuel economy, wear etc. All of these present trade-offs. Increased speed capability means lower load capability are just one of the more simple trade-offs to understand.
An ST235/75R15 LRC is rated for 2340# at 50 psi with a max speed of 65. It has about 2/3 of the tread depth of an LT235/75R15 LR which can go 85 mph is only rated to carry 1512# so I'm not sure in what you base the statement "so much stronger" on.

RV daytrader wrote:
Just wondering...why do motorhome, trailer, 5th wheel tires blow apart so bad that they cause damage to the rv?? I've had many flats on my cars and vans over the last 43 years but never had one come apart...just pop a small hole in sidewall is the worst that ever happened. Higher pressure in rv tires the cause maybe?

If they "blow apart so bad that they cause damage to the RV",
it's due to an inattentive (that's being polite) driver!.:R

Best answer to avoid that = preventative maintenance.

However, specifically for tires -

MH - usually (only) due to being too old..:(
(and rarely "come apart" - driver "feels" the flat)

TT & 5th - equipped with *ST* tires - the infamous China Bombs..:(
(LT tires just don't have the same problems).
Often driver isn't aware of low or flat tire until somebody alerts him.

Use of a TPMS highly recommended - as "Murphy" can still strike, no matter what the age or quality of the tires.
Regular & frequent "mirror checks" should be SOP for Trlr folks - and were the "only way" before TPMS systems!

Following the above (as my own advice) - I've had all of the above types of RVs, vans, trucks w/campers - been all over the USA and a lot of Canada with RVs - never even had a flat (knock on wood) for 52 years. (DL for 55 years)..:C
Yes - I've found "injuries" to a tire before anything bad happened, due to periodically checking the tires..:S

Take care of your "shoes" - and they will take care of you!.:W


~

I have had 2 blowouts and had to change 3 more tires on New trailers from the factory in 2.5 years 423,000 miles. I had to patch 2 tires on the truck in that time. The main culperate I have seen is screws and nails. One of the blowouts happened within 100 miles of the factory. The tires have no steel belt ply in its construction. I think it isnt right the tire manufactures claim those tires can handle as much weight just drop the speed rating. LT tires are so much strong. Only reason their rated lower is their designed to handle weight at higher speeds. Say 100 mph where trailer tires are at 65 mph.

I have seen pickup wheel wells and finders beat up from failed tires over the years. A failed tire is going to damage anything near it if not stop immediately.

The bigger question with trailers is why do we as buyers except low quality economical tires, like Goodyear labels their Marathon trailer tire. We would not stand for this on a 60-80k car or truck, yet we routinely drive off a RV dealers lots on cheap marginal tires provided by the low bidder.

The big DP MH run similar tires to OTR trucks. Failure rates there should be less due to the reduced miles driven. So age comes into play along with driver skills regarding curbing etc.

sometimes they are… but importers are legally just as responsible for the product as the mfg they use…