Tire exploded in Florida

[solman]

Hello All,
I just returned from a round trip to Florida from New Jersey. Towing a Keystone cougar fifth wheel trailer with factory installed Trailer King tires. These tires are made in China and I believe are not up to the rigors of highway travel in the Florida heat. The tire exploded on I-95 without warning. I monitor tire pressure with a tire minder and checked with a pressure gauge before my return trip. The trailer was difficult to control for a moment but I got to the shoulder and put on the spare tire. It Was a harrowing experience on the side of a busy interstate road.
I know that many believe that our poor road conditions are the problem but I know of no major impacts to my tires and they have only about 5000 miles after I returned home. Tread is good on all tires and I see no reason for a tire to just explode while traveling. I run about 5mph below the speed limit in the right lane. I had the trailer weighed after loading up for a trip and I am well within limits. Tires must be able to withstand the heat and road conditions all across the country. We don't have glass smooth roads to be built to accommodate poorly made tires
I have heard of other incidents with are same and I believe these tires should have never been original equipment on an expensive fifth wheel camper.
I will replace all 4 tires after my insurance adjuster inspects the damaged tire. there is some damage to the trailer as well. Wheel skirt and J wrap is damaged and the insulation under the floor above the wheel well is torn out. I was lucky to be able to finish my trip without the camper being disabled on the road. The trailer brake wiring remained intact.
If you have these Chinese tires on your camper I would recommend that you change them out before you experience a similar incident. I was told Goodyear Advantage is a good trailer tire by my local tire guys.I think I will go with them after some more tire research.
All the best and stay safe on the road.
Solman

[Sjm9911]

solman wrote:

Sjm9911 wrote:
Yea, speed and heat along with pressure kills tires. I have heard lots of stories about people putting the pressure sensors in the tires but they don't get warnings of a flat fast enough. I think, like in your car it takes to long for the sensor to read a tire lossing pressure quickly, so you get no warning untill boom. I have also heard stories of the china bomb tires. The truth could be eaither. Unfortunately, flats happen. Hope nothing is too messed up and you get up and running quickly.

Not a pressure loss issue The tire minder system responds to major pressure loss very quickly. I literally heard the tire explode.

Thats the exact opposite of my experiance and of those that have added the monitors in there campers that I know. If yours react instantly good. Mine dont. Even in my new truck they take like 30 mins of driving to get up to corect pressure.

[Thunder_Mountai]

Had a similar problem with Keystone's crappy Trailer King tires. Lost two on a trip with less than three thousand miles. Got lucky and did minimal damage. Trailer King said the tire I sent them was either over or under inflated. BS! Keystone puts the cheapest tires they can find on their products. Decided to replace all four tires with something better. I usually don't diss China produced products because my life is full of them, but Trailer King are China bombs.

[amxpress]

I believe you meant Goodyear Endurance tires as their Adavantage line is designed for automobiles, not trailers. Maxxis M8008 are also a good choice.
Whatever non-Chinese tire you choose, be sure to have them balanced.

[solman]

I don't remember offhand but I recall being well within specs for truck and trailer axles.
even if you are little overweight it should not cause such a catastrophic failure

[JimK-NY]

I am curious how much your rig weighs when loaded for camping. Typically there is minimal cargo capacity and it can be difficult to stay within load specs.

Even so I think it is just disgusting if not verging on criminal to put cheap tires on a rig that is going to stress them near the maximum load capacity.

[solman]

Sjm9911 wrote:
Yea, speed and heat along with pressure kills tires. I have heard lots of stories about people putting the pressure sensors in the tires but they don't get warnings of a flat fast enough. I think, like in your car it takes to long for the sensor to read a tire lossing pressure quickly, so you get no warning untill boom. I have also heard stories of the china bomb tires. The truth could be eaither. Unfortunately, flats happen. Hope nothing is too messed up and you get up and running quickly.

Not a pressure loss issue The tire minder system responds to major pressure loss very quickly. I literally heard the tire explode.

[pianotuna]

Glad you are ok.

[Lwiddis]

Sjm, yes, the warnings aren’t fast but at least it provides a way for the somewhat lazy RVer to check his/her tire pressure at the start of a drive.

[wa8yxm]

Reading on the war in Ukraine (NO this is not political)
One of the reasons given for why Russia is not doing nearly as well as one might expect with big mighty Russia attempting to squash tiny little Ukraine.

Chinese Tires. (I told you it was not political)

[Sjm9911]

Yea, speed and heat along with pressure kills tires. I have heard lots of stories about people putting the pressure sensors in the tires but they don't get warnings of a flat fast enough. I think, like in your car it takes to long for the sensor to read a tire lossing pressure quickly, so you get no warning untill boom. I have also heard stories of the china bomb tires. The truth could be eaither. Unfortunately, flats happen. Hope nothing is too messed up and you get up and running quickly.

[way2roll]

bgum wrote:
Speed generates heat. Heat destroys tires. China has always made junk.
You can take the above 3 statements to the bank.

TPMS didn't show any signs of overheating. For the past 2 years I would also manually check the tires for heat every time we stopped - just a habit on my FW. Thinking hubs, brakes, TPMS malfunction, anything that might indicate a problem. These tires didn't heat up enough to cause a problem. Heck they were only warm to the touch after running for hours. They literally just exploded. The tread separated from the tire. I know folks will say it was something on the road, or low psi etc etc. I say they are poorly engineered, poorly manufactured with sub standard materials and too low of a rating for the FW's they put them on. Too many complaints about these tires not to have the tire themselves be the common denominator.

My insurance adjuster had a theory that when cheaper tires sit for longer periods they develop a flat spot that allows the tire to heat unevenly and cause the tread to separate. Who knows. Never happened on any MH I've owned for years and plenty complaints about these specific tires.

[bgum]

Speed generates heat. Heat destroys tires. China has always made junk.
You can take the above 3 statements to the bank.

[way2roll]

Just went through that. 2 blowouts within 5 miles from each other. 2 year old tires with less than 5k miles on them. Always check PSI, always look for cracking. Didn't matter, they just exploded. Never seen anything like it. Tires were made in China and the reviews were horrible and even mention of a class action suit. I went with 4 new G rated tires all around. Funny, insurance guy came out today to look at the damage and said if they were US tires they may have some recourse to get some coverage on the tires themselves and maybe get the company to pay for some damage but the one's made in China they can't do anything about. It's a known problem.

I read the warnings about the tires that came on my FW and decided to save my money and run them for a few years. I gambled and lost. Good news, we didn't have much damage and a low deductible. But it could have easily been much worse.

I feel for ya. Frustrating to spend good money on an RV and the tires are literally ticking time bombs.

[jdc1]

If you have floor vents, be sure to check for damage to the ducting under the trailer. Run a pressure test using the blowing end of a shop vac, closing off all but the two vents farthest from each other..

[Lwiddis]

Could the problem have been a road hazard?