Blow front tire, what do you do?

[whporwil]

If you saw the video last week of the Class A blowing a tire and going off the road. I'd like to hear what is the right way to react. I've heard don't use your breaks, what's the answer?

[jolooote]

1st Rule...NEVER drive a Class'A' over 65 mph! Notice in the U-Tube...he was easily passing the truck who said he was doing 70 mph...80? 2nd Rule, DON'T touch the brakes if a front tire blows!!! 3rd Rule, ALWAYS drive with BOTH hands on the wheel at ALL Times!

[topflite51]

Pull over to the side of the road and call Coach-Net.

[hershey]

If you have ever watched COPS on TV, there is always a high speed chase where stop strips are used to disable the bad guys car. Ever notice that when the tires are blown, the car just keeps on going at a high rate of speed? Just because you lose a tire, doesn't mean that you have to panic, just accelerate a bit and regain the control and slowly come to a stop.

[robertbenita]

Apply accelerator to gain control of steering and then coast to stop and pull over to side of road. Don't worry about the RV or damage, as it can be repaired/replaced, you and your family cannot! Run through the scenario in your head as you drive...We revert to our training instinctively, but as said before, you only know what you will do once you encounter the incident.

[Executive45]

Think about the laws of physics. When you're driving down the road at say, 50mph, all your tires are rolling at that speed, contacting the highway, creating friction and generally leaving you to be a happy camper. All of a sudden, one of those tires goes flat, say the driver's side front. That tire immediately creates more friction as well as dropping that portion of the coach. As that friction increases, that area of the coach begins a rapid decrease in speed, pulling the coach in that direction. If you hit your brakes, you increase that decrease in speed more rapidly causing your vehicle to pull in the direction of the failed tire. By accelerating, you are in effect, overcoming that decrease in speed. Once you've regained control of your vehicle, then gradually decrease your speed across all tires and gently pull to the side of the road.....Dennis

[Dale_Traveling]

Really hard for any of us to say what we would do. My time in the military we trained, repeatedly, initial reactions to combat situations until we knew exactly what to do without having to look or even think. Same reason airline pilots spend so much time in simulators or why it takes NASA so long to train a crew. Pretty hard to do in an RV.

Our best option is prevention. Stay on top of pressures, maintenance pre-drive checks and such.

[Cloud_Dancer]

In the Michelin video, they don't fully explain the reasons you should step on the throttle and NOT the brake. My guess is that they think that very few people would understand it, so they leave out the interesting stuff. Just do it.
It's easy to say, but nobody really knows what they'll do until after it happens to them.

[scrubjaysnest]

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
With ABS they should never lock up.

Un fortunately they will, ABS works by applying break pressure to the wheel that is going to fast or by bypassing pressure in some cases to release the wheel but all it takes a a small dirt particle and the bypass doesn't work. Had wheel speed sensors fail on our Grand Cherokee and it locked the breaks with me in the middle of a 6 lane intersection.

[rgatijnet1]

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
If you have ABS using the brakes in icy conditions is not a problem as you maintain steering. Basically the main function of ABS.

Yep, that all seems fine with all tires still inflated. When you blow a front tire, the coach wants to steer in the direction of the blown tire and no amount of ABS is going to overcome the basic laws of physics.
Of course there is always a good chance of the shredding front tire taking out the ABS sensor wiring and you losing your ABS braking.
Use the accelerator and keep off of the brakes and you stand a better chance of survival with a blown tire.

[Jack_Diane_Free]

With ABS they should never lock up.

[2oldman]

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
If you have ABS using the brakes in icy conditions is not a problem.

..sure, as long as the wheels don't lock up.

[Jack_Diane_Free]

If you have ABS using the brakes in icy conditions is not a problem as you maintain steering. Basically the main function of ABS.

[2oldman]

Every year I see news video of people slamming on the brakes on icy hills, losing control, and skidding into parked vehicles. No matter how often you tell them, they still apply the brakes.

[rgatijnet1]

That is right, you do not touch your brakes. Hit the accelerator and then as soon as you have directional control, slowly back off of the gas to come to a safe stop. Do not pull off of the paved surface until your speed is below 10 mph as the drop off of the pavement could cause you to lose control. Don't panic, don't make any excessive quick moves, and don't worry about any damage to your coach.
If you watch TV very often there have been several police chases where they were chasing a Class A, Class C, bus, etc. All of the vehicles being chased are able to continue fleeing from police even after the spike strips have blown one or both front tires.
I grew up where a new tire only had a 12,000 mile warranty but I could only afford recaps. After awhile a blown tire is only a minor inconvenience to be dealt with and not something to fear. They rarely happen with today's tires but it is always good to be prepared.
There will be some people that have survived a blowout by jamming on the brakes and doing various other maneuvers but it is best to watch the video and go by the experts rather than someone who happened to get lucky, once.

[bluebarry1964b]

In addition to learning how to properly handle a blow-out, get a product such as a Safe-T-Plus steering stabilizer onto your RV ASAP. The videos on this product show front tires being deliberately blown with small explosives to simulate a blow-out. One particular video showed a cement truck, if I remember correctly, having a front tire deliberately blown-out. The driver was sweating bullets, but ended up being simply amazed at how well he was able to control the truck by having the Safe-T-Plus on the truck. I think it's money well spent, myself. Again, you just don't know how much of the videos, etc, are sales hype and how much is true, but it looked to me like having the Safe-T-Plus was certainly going to be an asset in the event of a blow-out. We had one installed on our RV several years ago.