Not one but two blowouts

[way2roll]

Heading out for a trip last week and within 10 miles had a blowout on our FW. More of an explosion actually. Mounted the spare and 5 miles later the one in front of it exploded. Had to have someone come out and mount it on the rim on the road. The dates on the tires were 09/2019 so not that old, no dry rotting and I always check pressure before heading out. No TPMS warning - just BOOM. But when I researched the brand - Ridgway Sport St - I realize should have swapped them out as soon as I bought the FW new. Affectionately referred to as tire bombs and boy were they right. I have never seen a tire explode like that. They literally blew apart and the tread peeled off like a re-tread. Thankfully there was only minimal damage to the skirting and everything functions without issue. I sprung for decent 14 steel ply tires rated for way more than the weight of my FW all around and re-started our trip the next day. I wasn't gambling anymore with the other 2, I felt that warning was enough for 4 brand new tires.

Calling the insurance company today and will see what the damage will cost to fix, but the FW is usable in the interim. Doubt there is much recourse from the tire company since they were 3 years old, but I did read about class action lawsuits on that brand. I'd say I am surprised you pay that much for a decent FW and they put horrible tires on it, but I'd be kidding myself.

I've read the posts on cheap tires before and rolled the dice. Guess my luck ran out. But both blowouts were uneventful in terms of being able to pull off the road with plenty of shoulder and level grass and no one got hurt and very minimal damage - so in some ways we got off lucky. Lesson learned.

[way2roll]

My setup is stock and level and loaded evenly (FW and truck in the signature). I always check condition and psi before a trip. I also have a TPMS. Sure it's possible that something in the road caused an issue. Anything is possible. But if you read reviews on the tires that were stock on my FW, there's a lot of incredible blowouts on these tires and even mention of a class action lawsuit.

Anyway, yes I did mount a full set of much better tires.

Insurance is dragging their feet on the damage estimate for the trim.

[Thermoguy]

There really is not enough information to form a reasonable opinion from the OP's statements. Many things can lead to premature failure of a tire. Age and brand are only a part of the equation. What is the trailer? is it loaded evenly? does it ride level?

I watched a guy this weekend hooking up his 5th wheel to his jacked up GMC. Nice combination, but with the trailer level, set up for camping, his truck could not fit under the front end of the trailer. They ran the front jacks way up to get the truck under it. The rear bumper was way low to the ground. Not even close to riding level. Do you think that guy should blame the tire manufacturers when he blows his rear tires? I almost went over to talk to him about reconsidering his setup, but I didn't. He must know he's not doing it right... Not suggesting the OP is similar, just stating there is more than what info we have here. Glad you got better tires.

[afidel]

StirCrazy wrote:

Durb wrote:
I've heard that if you have a blow out, drive immediately to the tire shop and replace the other tires as they are getting ready to go too. Could be automated manufacturing consistency causing a flaw to be continually and identically duplicated. I've had light bulbs on the same line burn out within 30 seconds from each other.

You might consider replacing the spare too. Glad you didn't have too much damage.

some people just have more money than they know what to do with. if you have a blow out and your tires are all 8 years old ya its time to look at chaning them out, but at 3 years old, even 5 years if they look like there in good shape why throw the money away.

Because tires are a hell of a lot cheaper than fixing RVs, cars/trucks, or most importantly people. The one time I had a blowout in a car I had bought a few months before the first stop was the tire shop. They told me Goodyear would prorate them since they were only 2 years old if I took them to the Goodyear shop on Monday (this was Saturday morning). I didn't care, I just wanted reliable tires on my car right then since I had almost ended up in a ditch at 50mph with my kids in the car. Btw, the fact that my favorite tire shop would send me to a competitor because it might save me a few bucks is why they get all my business, family run place that's as honest as the day is long, such a polar opposite from the one time I tried to have a simple brake job done at a chain yellow muffler place where my car basically got held hostage and I ended up paying nearly 2x what it should have cost.

[StirCrazy]

way2roll wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:

Durb wrote:
I've heard that if you have a blow out, drive immediately to the tire shop and replace the other tires as they are getting ready to go too. Could be automated manufacturing consistency causing a flaw to be continually and identically duplicated. I've had light bulbs on the same line burn out within 30 seconds from each other.

You might consider replacing the spare too. Glad you didn't have too much damage.

some people just have more money than they know what to do with. if you have a blow out and your tires are all 8 years old ya its time to look at chaning them out, but at 3 years old, even 5 years if they look like there in good shape why throw the money away.

I did replace all 4. I didn't give much thought to continue on the remaining original tires. I heard warnings on those tires when I bought the FW and ignored them. After seeing the damage they could do and the way it blew out I decided immediately I was going to replace them all with better tires. The second tire blowing within 5 miles of the first one was just icing on the cake and reinforced my decision. Granted they aren't cheap, especially when you look at the remaining tires, really inspect them and they look perfectly fine. But I was already buying 2 very different tires, it was a no brainer to buy all 4 and save myself the anxiety going down the road. DW wasn't having it any other way either.

you were half way there so not much difference either way. but I can pretty much guarentee it wasnt 4 tires just waiting to go, but rather you hit somthing on that side. even hitting a pothole two weeks propr can weaken the belt in a tire leading to a failure. in todays market I don't think there are any true tire bombs left. I have never gotten under 10 years out of a tire myself but I don't drive over 60 when towing, I make sure there always propery inflated and I avoid stuff on the road that I think could damage them. oh I lied I did replace one on the 5th wheel two years after I bought it. when I was checking the tires in the spring I noticed one had some uneven wear and upon further inspection it had a broken belt, so I changed it out. probably another two years and I'll look at changing these one out.

[Cummins12V98]

C Schomer wrote:
ST tires don’t need any particular reason to go pow and I know that from personal experience. I had an 18 K gooseneck tri-axle with 16 inch and the ST tires made it 26 months and I know for a fact they were never run under inflated or suffered any road hazard. Exactly the same experience with my RVs in Arizona. I never had ST tires last longer than 50 months and the trailers were only used for about one month out of those 50 months and stored off the ground and covered.
I use nothing but LT – E tires on my trailers and the problems are gone. Craig

Maybe it's due to the quality of the tire than the type???

[Cummins12V98]

Likes to tow wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Likes to tow wrote:
Many reputable RV manufacturers are putting the Goodyear ENDURANCE on as standard equipment now. I switched to them two years ago and have made two long trips out West with no tire issues! Yes get rid of the China Bombs!!

I have been running a set of GY ENDURANCE dated 2517 15" in "D" load range on my boat trailer since 2017 with at least 20k with ZERO issues. OH yea they have plenty of tread left. I run them at 50psi same as what the OE "C" tires are at MAX psi. Perfectly even tread wear. I run them most every day in the summer at 70mph. They run nice and cool also. Scrubbing??? Yea they get their share every day parking and leaving home plus at the boat launch in and out of salt water.

They also set without rolling for 6 months every winter.

PLUS THEY ARE MADE IN THE USA........HOW GOOD CAN IT GET

YES!!!

Also in the 5 years they have been on the market I have yet to see a NON ROAD HAZARD blowout on an ENDURANCE they are simply that good!!!

[C_Schomer]

ST tires don’t need any particular reason to go pow and I know that from personal experience. I had an 18 K gooseneck tri-axle with 16 inch and the ST tires made it 26 months and I know for a fact they were never run under inflated or suffered any road hazard. Exactly the same experience with my RVs in Arizona. I never had ST tires last longer than 50 months and the trailers were only used for about one month out of those 50 months and stored off the ground and covered.
I use nothing but LT – E tires on my trailers and the problems are gone. Craig

[Likes_to_tow]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

Likes to tow wrote:
Many reputable RV manufacturers are putting the Goodyear ENDURANCE on as standard equipment now. I switched to them two years ago and have made two long trips out West with no tire issues! Yes get rid of the China Bombs!!

I have been running a set of GY ENDURANCE dated 2517 15" in "D" load range on my boat trailer since 2017 with at least 20k with ZERO issues. OH yea they have plenty of tread left. I run them at 50psi same as what the OE "C" tires are at MAX psi. Perfectly even tread wear. I run them most every day in the summer at 70mph. They run nice and cool also. Scrubbing??? Yea they get their share every day parking and leaving home plus at the boat launch in and out of salt water.

They also set without rolling for 6 months every winter.

PLUS THEY ARE MADE IN THE USA........HOW GOOD CAN IT GET

[Cummins12V98]

Likes to tow wrote:
Many reputable RV manufacturers are putting the Goodyear ENDURANCE on as standard equipment now. I switched to them two years ago and have made two long trips out West with no tire issues! Yes get rid of the China Bombs!!

I have been running a set of GY ENDURANCE dated 2517 15" in "D" load range on my boat trailer since 2017 with at least 20k with ZERO issues. OH yea they have plenty of tread left. I run them at 50psi same as what the OE "C" tires are at MAX psi. Perfectly even tread wear. I run them most every day in the summer at 70mph. They run nice and cool also. Scrubbing??? Yea they get their share every day parking and leaving home plus at the boat launch in and out of salt water.

They also set without rolling for 6 months every winter.

[JIMNLIN]

If you have a heavy 5er with E rated tires I'd recommend replacing them soon with G's

On my commercial trailers and my rv trailers with 5.2k-6k axles/16" wheels I use and recommend LT E such as a Bridgestone R-238/others. Their good for 50k-60k miles and no issues.

One poster says his ST cheapie tires are 15 years old...this tells us he travels very few miles per year.
Lots of rv trailer owners don't run but 3k-6k miles per year vs those of us who travel 7k-10k miles per year. ST C/D/E simply won't hold up to that type of use.

I would recommend a quality commercial grade all steel ply carcass load G ST235/80-16 tire at 4080 lbs for 7k axles.
Or the same tire in a ST235/85-16 at 4408 lbs capacity on 8k axles.

I wouldn't recommended over tiring any highway trailer above 15-18 percent above axle ratings.

[way2roll]

Luckily our deductible is pretty low. Adjuster supposed to call me today and we'll take it from there. Can't imagine what that skirting/J Wrap will cost, plus labor, the trim pieces and anything else I can't see. And who knows how long it will take with supply chains messed up, but like I said, the FW is fully functional, it's just bent skirting and some missing trim, so we don't need to cancel any trips until the parts come in. I feel very lucky it wasn't worse and no one was hurt.

[way2roll]

StirCrazy wrote:

Durb wrote:
I've heard that if you have a blow out, drive immediately to the tire shop and replace the other tires as they are getting ready to go too. Could be automated manufacturing consistency causing a flaw to be continually and identically duplicated. I've had light bulbs on the same line burn out within 30 seconds from each other.

You might consider replacing the spare too. Glad you didn't have too much damage.

some people just have more money than they know what to do with. if you have a blow out and your tires are all 8 years old ya its time to look at chaning them out, but at 3 years old, even 5 years if they look like there in good shape why throw the money away.

I did replace all 4. I didn't give much thought to continue on the remaining original tires. I heard warnings on those tires when I bought the FW and ignored them. After seeing the damage they could do and the way it blew out I decided immediately I was going to replace them all with better tires. The second tire blowing within 5 miles of the first one was just icing on the cake and reinforced my decision. Granted they aren't cheap, especially when you look at the remaining tires, really inspect them and they look perfectly fine. But I was already buying 2 very different tires, it was a no brainer to buy all 4 and save myself the anxiety going down the road. DW wasn't having it any other way either.

[way2roll]

mooky stinks wrote:
Just wondering if you honestly checked tire pressure before leaving, since it was never mentioned. I’m not insinuating you didn’t. Just curious.

Yes, I always check all tires as part of my pre-flight checklist. Even with a TPMS and on the truck as well.

[Veebyes]

Long ago we switched to running same tires on the truck & trailer. This effectively gives us two spares.

All tire places have machines to change tires. Chances of finding a tire shop with same tires you are running are slim. Never needed to change tires on rims but it is nice to have the option there if needed.