My first tire blow-out found me

[gitane59]

Northbound on I75 just outside Tifton Ga we had a rear curbside trailer tire detonated with a load bang and lot's of rubber flying out behind our trailer. The H-rated Sumitomo 17.5 tires were just over 6 years old and had over 30K miles on them and I was planning on replacing them at the end of this season. Guess I waited just a little too long. It simply looked like the tread peeled off the tire carcass and the air escaped with a bang after that. I had validated air pressure at 105 PSI and visually inspected all tires just that morning. I think I trusted this type of tire just a bit too much.
A Georgia Champ roadside technician happened upon me about 15min later and assisted me to install the spare and I was able to get 4 comparable Falken RI-151 tires ordered and installed the next day in Tifton.
I was very fortunate to only have a damaged J-panel and a destroyed plastic tire fender out of the deal. My hydraulic levelling jack fluid lines were only 8 inches from the failed tire and my hydraulic brake flex line was about 10 inches from the exploding tire and neither received any damaged.

[JIMNLIN]

Roger Marble is a tire engineer:

Roger is also Tireman9 on this and many RV forums around the net. His rvtiresafety blog should be read by newbies and not so newbies. His rvtiresafety blog will give much much more tire tech input/details than a tire dealer/tire mfg website ands most tire mfg 1-800 numbers.

[Planning]

gitane59 wrote:

To everyone else running 17.5 H-rated tires on fifthwheel's in the 16K lb weight range what air pressure are you running in your tires.

125 psi Cold Inlation Pressure, which also is the tire sidewall maximum. Yes, it is more than what a load table would indicate for the trailer. I am unconcerned about "trailer ride". Only inanimate objects ride in the trailer, and the springs and shocks do a credible job.

Why maximum pressure? To reduce the incidence of interply shear that is an attribute of multi-axle trailers.

Roger Marble is a tire engineer:

"For multi-axle trailers I would consider improved durability, i.e., reduced chance of failure, to be of primary importance. So in this application, the "optimum" inflation pressure would be the pressure on the tire sidewall associated with the maximum load capacity. Even if you are not loaded to the max load you want to lower the "interply shear" forces as much as possible, as trailers induce much higher shear forces than seen in similarly loaded tires would if on a motorhome."

[bad99ram]

Just had first one since 1998. Took out J wrap, fender and wiring harness.

[gitane59]

I was likely running very close to 68 mph in a 70 zone. I try to run the speed of the traffic flow. If it is 3 lanes in each direction I try to maintain the center lane allow me to pass slower vehicles in the right most land and faster vehicles to pass me in the left most lane. I have always believed that if I am passing everyone I am driving way too fast but if everyone is passing me then I am a rolling road hazard and a danger on the road.
The last 2 days with the new tires I tried to maintain 62-65mph finding myself in the right most lane being passed by virtually everyone and dealing with many dangerous merging situations. Passenger cars drivers simply have no concept how to merge smoothly and safely with traffic.
In response to another poster's TPMS question I do not run a TPMS system. I had gauge checked my pressure that morning at 105psi cold and since being it was a rear tire that detonated it is hard to believe the failure was road hazard related.
This morning I upped my pressures to 114psi and plan to run these new tires at that pressure.

[time2roll]

I have never had a 'blow out'

One shredded - no idea why. Speculate loss of air due to road hazard or separation. Remaining tires seemed to be separating in the tread.

One threw the tread off - still holding air when I pulled over.

One had tread separating - was replaced under manufacturers' warranty.

Recently picked up a screw in my Goodyear Endurance. Spotted low pressure at a fuel stop and swapped on the spare. Could have turned into something worse.

[joebedford]

Over the last 15 years I've had lots of blowouts until I stopped using trailer tires about 10 years ago. Since then, none.

[joebedford]

I generally run my tri-axle TH at 105kmh - about 65mph. It's the lowest speed my TV will shift into top gear and lock-up running cruise control. I'll run 80 for short periods if conditions warrant.

Bridgestone R250s at 80psi.

[JKJavelin]

I also am curious. We just got back from a 3000+ mile trip. Everybody on these forums preaches that they go 62 mph and on this trip I always went 60-65, usually having my cruise set at 62. Well, of the 11 towing days I averaged passing one vehicle of any kind per day on the interstates. Everybody was flying by me, little TTs and big 5ers alike.

[htss]

I am still new to towing and was curious, can the people who have had blow outs tell us approximately what speed they were traveling?

[gitane59]

pcm1959 wrote:
I don't know for sure, but I'm just throwing this out there for thought. I was under the impression that Goodyear recommended max pressure for trailer tires regardless of weight for travel over 65mph.
I have a 15200 lb fiver with 8k axles with G114 17.5 tires and I keep them cold inflated to 115psi which is well over the psi needed for the weight on each axle.
They seem to run warm even at that speed so I would imagine the lower the pressure the hotter it runs.

PCM1959 at 115psi do you have any concern about running the tires so hard as to create a damaging rough ride for your trailer?

According to the Sumitomo website inflation chart they make the following statement.
"When speeds are constantly above 70 m.p.h., it is recommended to use maximum air pressure for good wear and performance."
I rarely am ever over 70 mph but routinely in the 66-68mph range however I too am going to run my pressure's a little higher.

To everyone else running 17.5 H-rated tires on fifthwheel's in the 16K lb weight range what air pressure are you running in your tires.

[pcm1959]

I don't know for sure, but I'm just throwing this out there for thought. I was under the impression that Goodyear recommended max pressure for trailer tires regardless of weight for travel over 65mph.
I have a 15200 lb fiver with 8k axles with G114 17.5 tires and I keep them cold inflated to 115psi which is well over the psi needed for the weight on each axle.
They seem to run warm even at that speed so I would imagine the lower the pressure the hotter it runs.

[Planning]

What did your TPMS show prior to the blow out?

[gitane59]

allen8106 wrote:
I just don't understand all these blow outs. I've been towing campers off and on for over 30 years and have never had a blow out.

I too have towed all types of RV's for almost 30 years and this was my first blow-out. Don't think it won't happen to you. I thought that my decision to go with H-rated 17.5 commercial trailer tires with lot's of reserve capacity would have eliminated the damaging effect's of a blow-out caused by running tires with little reserve capacity.

[gitane59]

JIMNLIN wrote:



I would bet the Sumitomo tire was a fluke.

Jim:
I hope my Sumitomo tire failure was a fluke. I did a little research on the Falken tire company and low&behold Falken is a subsidiary of the Sumitomo Tire company. :h