Tire Valve Stem Cracking

[philh]

TT is just under 2 years old. It's been sitting for almost a year, and I moved it from storage near our B&M to our new residence. Turned on TPMS, and I'm showing 50 PSI 😞 Got out my new Rigid air pump, and filled the tires...

Looking at the valve stems and they are cracked all over the stem. These are the cheap China Bombs that too many have reported "suddenly" blow, causing a lot of damage.

Even tho we will probably only have this TT for another year, I'm biting the bullet and putting on Goodyear tires tomorrow and adding a metal valve stem. We still have a trip planned to FL over Christmas.

[down_home]

WE lost four tires in 08 Possibly on our F150...because the Chinese valve stems did not have any UV protection compounds in the rubber. Distributor replaced all the tires, and stems of course.
I have seen cracked rubber stems on cars but it has been a long time.The "high Pressure" brass tube with rubber cover stems can be a problem too. At a Truck stop in Ky someone stepped on and bend them and they leaked badly.
Replaced them with short stainless bolt in stems. Look good on the aluminum wheels too. Whoever owns our former Wheel now may still have those in the wheels.
Also buy stainless caps if they don't come with the stems with rubber gaskets inside. Do not use the cheap plastic caps.
On our Mh Left front tire was low. The valve was loose and without that metal cap with seal inside the tire might have went flat.
Bought a Snap On tire stem tool $10.00, from a Truck, that happened to be near by, and checked and tightened all of them. This was in Shawnee Oklahoma. Rally at the Convention Center

[jodeb720]

i've had my share of challenges with China Bomb's over the years.
Not once was it due to the stems failing, but the tires inflated correctly but the sun had done it's damage.

The last time I replaced my tires (2019) I replaced them when they were 36 months old. At the time, I asked them to replace my valve stems with Metal versus the typical rubber.

The one difference I've seen is there has been substantially less air leakage while the tires sit idle for a few months. The amount of air lost is about 8-10 pounds over a 4 month sitting.

My next set will be goodyear endurance (I think that's the brand).

oh - just to be clear, before each trip, I check the lug nuts for torque and tire pressure - so I'm within 5% of the rated amount just to be sure they don't blow out due to underinflation. I learned that one on my first trailer the hard way.

[lane_hog]

Find a different dealer next time. I brought brass stems into Discount Tire and they installed them for me without question.

For a cap mounted TPS, I'd never consider using rubber stems. That little cap becomes a lot more weight when it's spinning at 800+ RPM's...

[philh]

Goodyear dealer couldn't put metal valve stems on the wheels... but they did put on a heavy duty rubber/metal valve stem.

Tires look awesome, touch taller, touch wider.

To the claim of never seeing a bad valve stem, owner of the dealership looked at the valve stem, and said "You're lucky, these were not going to last much longer".

TST claims you don't need metal valve stems with their non flow through TPMS. Did they cause cracking, I don't know, but they were worse on one side of the trailer than on the other side. West side of the parked trailer was worse, East side was also shadowed by another TT.

I hated spending the money, but also recognize that we use the TT for long trips. We don't take weekend trips in it. A trip interruption with damage could be quite an issue and easily worth a $600 insurance policy 🙂

[Gdetrailer]

dougrainer wrote:


I am NOT stating it does NOT happen. Just that it is NOT COMMON. WE don't do tires. But, if my customers had that type problem on new units or even USED units, I would hear about it. Doug

You "work" at a RV dealer/shop, right?

MOST folks that get tires on RVs DO NOT ALWAYS "visit" a RV Dealer/shop for TIRES.

In fact, ZERO REASON to do so when you can buy tires CHEAPER at many other outlets.

The tire shop I use has been in the tire business since the early 1920's, it IS what they do, it IS their MAIN business, they deal with tires form wheel barrows, to passenger cars, to SEMI truck tires.. When THEY tell me something about tires, I LISTEN.

I SUGGEST that YOU do the same..

The tire industry KNOWS that there where MILLIONS of suspect stems made and distributed.. They are not "traceable", no one knows how many have been used or where they are.

They CAN be still sitting on unsuspecting tire shop shelves just waiting to be installed yet.

HERE

"Reprinted from The Safety Record, V5, I6; Nov/Dec. 2008

OXFORD, NC-One year after a fatal crash and seven months after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a defect investigation into 30 million Chinese-manufactured tire valve stems that could crack prematurely, Dill Air Control Products has finally announced a recall.

In early December, the North Carolina-based distributor agreed to recall 1.8 million tire valve stems, acknowledging that three models of valve stems, the TR 413, 414 and 418, were manufactured without an additive to protect the rubber from deteriorating under exposure to ozone. The recall covers a fraction of the population that could be affected by the defect. An estimated 30 million tire valve stems were manufactured during the period in question."

That recall was for ONLY ONE importer/distributor, there COULD be more, who knows..

Tire stems are cheap, peoples lives, not so much.

Just "because" you have not seen an issue, does not mean that the issue does not exist.

All rubber tire stems are WEAR ITEMs, they do wear out and should be replaced when new tires are mounted and on RVs that may be 5-6yrs for the average RV owner.

[JIMNLIN]

What one sees with any tire issues inside one dealership is a tiny... very tiny drop in the bucket compared what goes down in the rest of the world out here.
Like those that claim they have never had a ruined tire/blow out/run flat says a whole lot about how little they have pulled a trailer.

[dougrainer]

Gdetrailer wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
I work at a medium size RV dealership. Tens of thousands of customers over the years (41 years) Probably MILLIONS of tires over those years. NOT ONCE HAVE I HAD A CUSTOMER COME BACK AND COMPLAIN ABOUT A FAILURE OF VALVE STEMS. This post is much ado about NOTHING. Doug

:R

Doug, I would have to beg to differ on this.

I HAVE "experienced" a "bad" valve stem that literally blew out in my hand while airing up the tires after sitting over winter..

Those stems came from my local tire dealer and when I took that tire to them to get the stem replaced, they DID inform me that there WAS a active recall on several Chinese made stems..

They didn't charge for the stem, but I STILL had to pay for the demount and remount :M

Had the other three tires plus spare stems replaced..

I make it a point to always replace rubber stems each time I get tires replaced, cheap insurance and rubber stems do fatigue over time and I suspect a lot of folks who have had blowouts on the road it could have been the STEMs and not the tires that were the cause.. Everyone loves to blame the tire brand or where it is manufactured but a simple dirt cheap STEM failure is also suspect but no one even gives that a look.

I am NOT stating it does NOT happen. Just that it is NOT COMMON. WE don't do tires. But, if my customers had that type problem on new units or even USED units, I would hear about it. Doug

[CapriRacer]

dougrainer wrote:
I work at a medium size RV dealership. Tens of thousands of customers over the years (41 years) Probably MILLIONS of tires over those years. NOT ONCE HAVE I HAD A CUSTOMER COME BACK AND COMPLAIN ABOUT A FAILURE OF VALVE STEMS. This post is much ado about NOTHING. Doug

A 3rd vote that there have been problems.

I've lost 2 tires - at high speed - due to old valve stems. Never again will I cheap out.

[time2roll]

dougrainer wrote:
I work at a medium size RV dealership. Tens of thousands of customers over the years (41 years) Probably MILLIONS of tires over those years. NOT ONCE HAVE I HAD A CUSTOMER COME BACK AND COMPLAIN ABOUT A FAILURE OF VALVE STEMS. This post is much ado about NOTHING. Doug

I came back and complained. Sorry it was not your shop. Maybe you source better quality parts. Stems were so cracked at just 18 months they were about perforated. I handed them better stems and they gladly installed them.

[Gdetrailer]

dougrainer wrote:
I work at a medium size RV dealership. Tens of thousands of customers over the years (41 years) Probably MILLIONS of tires over those years. NOT ONCE HAVE I HAD A CUSTOMER COME BACK AND COMPLAIN ABOUT A FAILURE OF VALVE STEMS. This post is much ado about NOTHING. Doug

:R

Doug, I would have to beg to differ on this.

I HAVE "experienced" a "bad" valve stem that literally blew out in my hand while airing up the tires after sitting over winter..

Those stems came from my local tire dealer and when I took that tire to them to get the stem replaced, they DID inform me that there WAS a active recall on several Chinese made stems..

They didn't charge for the stem, but I STILL had to pay for the demount and remount :M

Had the other three tires plus spare stems replaced..

I make it a point to always replace rubber stems each time I get tires replaced, cheap insurance and rubber stems do fatigue over time and I suspect a lot of folks who have had blowouts on the road it could have been the STEMs and not the tires that were the cause.. Everyone loves to blame the tire brand or where it is manufactured but a simple dirt cheap STEM failure is also suspect but no one even gives that a look.

[dougrainer]

I work at a medium size RV dealership. Tens of thousands of customers over the years (41 years) Probably MILLIONS of tires over those years. NOT ONCE HAVE I HAD A CUSTOMER COME BACK AND COMPLAIN ABOUT A FAILURE OF VALVE STEMS. This post is much ado about NOTHING. Doug

[time2roll]

There was a recall some time ago on valve stems cracking and I had some of them. I would not be surprised to see poor quality stems still getting distributed.

I recommend replacing all stems with either high pressure snap in or metal stems. Never get regular car stems on a trailer.

[Dutch_12078]

jjrbus wrote:

The winner so far on damage to the coach from a catastrophic tire failure is $6200. Yes sixty two hundred dollars!

I think the "winners" on that scale would be the folks that blew a front steer tire on their motorhome and ran off the road rolling it over...

[jjrbus]

I use to bring up valve stems whenever anyone mentioned new tires. It seemed like no one ever paid attention so I quit!

The winner so far on damage to the coach from a catastrophic tire failure is $6200. Yes sixty two hundred dollars!