Flat spot on tire

[heagle52]

Right now I'm in Myrtle Beach and was just looking at my tires and discovered that the right front had a flat spot about 5 inches long. All the tread had been worn off. I guess that wheel locked up and I pulled that tire a good distance that rubbed off the tread. Have a new tire now and other 3 tires look ok. Anyone have any experience with this?

[Jerry_B]

I had a belt slip, caused a bubble that was not visually detectable untill the hump wore down the tread..

[riggsp]

A bad tire can flat spot without the brakes being a problem...happened to me several years and another 5th wheel ago...the tread was weak in one spot (I'm assuming the rubber wasn't properly cured in manufacturing (read Chinese bomb), and that is what caused the tire to fail (so said the tire guy when I replaced them)...I was lucky and caught it before it blew.

[tll]

I had a bad brake drum that was warped or machined wrong. When braking the brake shoes would contact the drum at a specific place and lock up that wheel each time I would brake. It was very hard to notice that the one wheel was locking up. Finally noticed it when making a turn and looking in the mirror. After a couple thousand miles of the wheel often locking up at the exact same place, there was a nice flat spot on the tire.

[laknox]

A flat spot can also be cumulative. Get one lockup and a tiny flat spot; the next time it happens, the tire will tend to roll to the flat spot and stop there, again dragging and making the spot bigger. Do this several times and you get a =large= flat spot. Not saying that's what happened here, just that it =could=.

Lyle

[oilslick]

On my new Cardinal 2 5th wheels ago I had one brake that would lock up intermittently it partially flat spotted the tire all over the place on a single trip, the dealer replaced the magnet cleaned the drum and was good for the years we had the trailer.

[Charlie_D_]

RCMAN46 wrote:
Grease on that brake. Need to check and I suspect you will find a bad grease seal.

To clarify for my information. How does grease on a brake shoe cause the brake to lock up? I would have thought that they would not brake properly.

[Vette_Racer]

It could also be just a defective tire or badly out of balance depending on the length of time or miles towed, otherwise I will agree on checking the brakes if it occurred suddenly.

[RCMAN46]

What brake controller do you have?

[RCMAN46]

Grease on that brake. Need to check and I suspect you will find a bad grease seal.

If you have the EZ lube system do some research on the pros and cons of the system.

I do not use my EZ lube I just do my bearings the old way. Remove drums every two years inspect the brakes and repack the bearings and install new grease seals.

[TenOC]

Yes it happen to me when going down a mountain I use the manual brake control to apply the trailer brakes to give the pickup brakes a "rest" to cool off. Bad Move. cost 4 new tires $$$ . . . :M

[ford_truck_guy]

You could have had a faulty brake component... Magnet , shoe , ect.... I would assume it either happened at night when you could not see all the smoke.... Or you do not use your mirrors as you done care where you've been,,, just care about where your going!! .. Seriously , I would assume that if it's as flat as you state , there would have been smoke involved!! Either way , check that brake assembly very close... Maybe it's a good time to look at them all??? And be thankful that it did not pop!!!!!! Good Luck,, Joe

[diesel_man_03]

I would think you should have seen smoke coming that tire, and no we have not had this happen to us yet.

[CapriRacer]

Yup, seen a few flatspotted tires and you need to look closely at the brakes.

[Mandalay_Parr]

Certainly need to check that brake. All brakes.