Fifth Wheel tire blow outs.

All, or any RV can be either balanced or one side heavy. It all depends on design. A properly designed RV should be pretty well balanced. Shredded tires normally is caused by,
1, wrong tires,
2, cheap ST tires run above rated speed,
3, nails, screws, etc. In other words a flat tire,
4, poorly maintained tires,
5, out dated tires,
And the list can go on. Bottom line, there is no way to determine what caused the tire failure.

donn0128 wrote:
All, or any RV can be either balanced or one side heavy. It all depends on design. A properly designed RV should be pretty well balanced. Shredded tires normally is caused by,
1, wrong tires,
2, cheap ST tires run above rated speed,
3, nails, screws, etc. In other words a flat tire,
4, poorly maintained tires,
5, out dated tires,
And the list can go on. Bottom line, there is no way to determine what caused the tire failure.

.. and #4 above includes tires without proper air pressure. Check your tires once in awhile, you'll save yourself some issues down the road.

There is a tremendous amount of wind pressure against the front of a high profile vehicle. Just look at the fuel mileage drop and know that much of that additional energy is pushing the rear down adding to the effective weight.

Lynnmor wrote:
There is a tremendous amount of wind pressure against the front of a high profile vehicle. Just look at the fuel mileage drop and know that much of that additional energy is pushing the rear down adding to the effective weight.

Love that theory!

Way too many to a 5er nose high! It is either too much trouble, or too much money to bring it level. Towing nose high loads the rear axle more than the front, the equalizer can only compensate for so much.

You really want your 5er to tow as level as possible. Getting to level could be as simple as adjusting the pin box or hitch height, or it might require flipping the axles, or building a sub-frame.

I was lucky, pin box adjustment, then installed Correct Track system for 2" at axles and we are level.

A guy passed me today pulling a big 5er. I was in my car on the interstate going 78 MPH. He had to have been going 85, at least. I had about another 15 miles to go before my exit. I thought I’d see him on side of the road with a blowout, but I didn’t. He must’ve had good tires and a pocket full of money for fuel.

Easy enough to weigh each axle at a truck scale and see if you need to move some weight around in the 5er to equalize. Maybe you should be nose up and maybe nose down, just depends on your particular set up and weight locations.

I am not so sure the wind on the front makes a difference at the axles and if it does then on which axle. It could be pushing down or lifting up on the front. Hard to say. If a wing is analogous to the front, then wind lifts the front up-flat bottom rounded top-however wind hitting the top portion of the front should force it down. I am sure someone is a wind tunnel expert and will have an informed opinion. May depend on the shape of the cab in front of the 5er and where the wind goes once it is over the cab.

rhagfo wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
There is a tremendous amount of wind pressure against the front of a high profile vehicle. Just look at the fuel mileage drop and know that much of that additional energy is pushing the rear down adding to the effective weight.

Love that theory!

Way too many to a 5er nose high! It is either too much trouble, or too much money to bring it level. Towing nose high loads the rear axle more than the front, the equalizer can only compensate for so much.

You really want your 5er to tow as level as possible. Getting to level could be as simple as adjusting the pin box or hitch height, or it might require flipping the axles, or building a sub-frame.

I was lucky, pin box adjustment, then installed Correct Track system for 2" at axles and we are level.

Yes.....This!

memtb wrote:

Yes.....This!

Agree X3 . . . take a look at our profile picture and you'll see how level we are. In addition, to the other issues mentioned, being within weight for the LR tire rating you have, proper inflation (as noted and I'm the weight police in our house. Just because you have lots of storage does not mean you can fill it all up), drive within recommended speed rating (as mentioned), make sure your unit is in alignment (yes, even for a trailer. We had two tires in the same location in a row separating and found our rig was out of alignment), and have your tires inspected annually including a spin test.

5th wheel floor plans are all over the place, so it's not like it's a "universal 5th wheel thing" that the left rear tire is going to blow.

This goes back to another discussion recently on this site about ignorance being bliss. 99%+ of all RVers do not participate in sites like this so they can get all OCD about their trailer setting level, weights, etc.. They just hook and go. 99% of that 99% get to their destination with no issues, none the wiser that they were in "grave danger." 99% of the 1% end up on the side of the road with a minor issue such as a flat tire.

Heck even at 99% I may be understating things. That's 1 in 100, and I sincerely doubt that 1 out of every 100 RV towers experience an issue on the way to the campground. It's probably closer to 1 in 10,000, or a 99.99% success rate. "Four nines" in IT parlance.

Lynnmor wrote:
There is a tremendous amount of wind pressure against the front of a high profile vehicle. Just look at the fuel mileage drop and know that much of that additional energy is pushing the rear down adding to the effective weight.

Say what??? I hope nobody reads this and actually thinks there is any logic to this.