Another Blowout Report

[2012Coleman]

Well, it happened to me this past weekend too. While traveling home from a week long outing at Wekiva Springs State Park in Fl, a truck hauling pine tree trunks pulled on to the interstate just ahead of me spewing all sorts of bark and wood derbies - 30 minutes from home. I tried to avoid by slowing down, but just when I thought I was OK - BAM! My right rear tire decomposed into the mess you see below.

Luckily, this happened at the entrance to a rest stop and I was able to limp in and park. Unfortunately, I didn't have the means to jack the TT up and change the tire myself - the penalty for this being having to call Good Sam Roadside assistance and wait three hours. This has already been remedied with the purchase of a new jack to replace the old one with a leaky seal.

Luckily, the guy who was dispatched was great and had my tire changed in less than 15 minutes. He mentioned tires with a higher load range would not be a bad idea, although I'm not exceeding my gross weights.

Not a whole lot of damage occurred except for the black fabric directly behind the tire being ripped to shreds and the support for the wheel well skirt twisted, but repairable.

How do you go about fixing the fabric? Is there a source for it? Can you use any kind of tape successfully to seal a patch?

My tires are well maintained and I was running at the correct pressure, but are OEM with a date code that makes them born in 2010, so I'm thinking of replacing the entire set. We are both working folks, so I've put under 10k miles on them.

Have been through all the threads regarding this, and not wanting to start a new tire from china thread - just thought I would inform others to stay away from these types of trucks as hitting the stuff falling off it is clearly what caused my blowout. And hopefully get some good tips on how to fix the fabric underneath.

[PatrickA51]

profdant139 wrote:
I had a blowout on my old trailer -- it tore up the wheel well. So when I got my new trailer, I used gorilla glue to fasten thick slabs of truck mud flaps, cut to shape, inside the wheel well, as a sort of armor. I don't know if it will stand up to a blowout -- I hope I never find out -- but if you are interested in armoring your wheel wells, here is how I did it:

Armor

That's a great Idea. Looks good. I read your post on your blog.
Patrick

[profdant139]

I had a blowout on my old trailer -- it tore up the wheel well. So when I got my new trailer, I used gorilla glue to fasten thick slabs of truck mud flaps, cut to shape, inside the wheel well, as a sort of armor. I don't know if it will stand up to a blowout -- I hope I never find out -- but if you are interested in armoring your wheel wells, here is how I did it:

Armor

[phillyg]

I suspect the tire age had more to do with the blowout than the debris.

[2012Coleman]

darsben wrote:
Mileage irrelevant to the discussion.
Do you keep your tires covered when not in use?
Do you check tire pressure frequently or just look em over and figure they are good to go.
Tire maintenance is important.
Slowing down to avoid debris might have been a good idea but I doubt that "spewing all sorts of bark and wood derbies" (sic) would make a good tire go bad.

BY the way how fast where you going

yes to all your questions. They are kept up to pressure and I also do a visual inspection although I don't have X-ray vision. I'm pretty anal when it comes to stuff like that. I was traveling at 60 mph and slowing. And yes a chunk of wood blew out my tire. I found it inside the tire this evening. Thanks for correcting the spell checker. The camper is also covered when not in use. In case there are doubts about that.

Thanks for the rest of the responses that didn't try busting my chops.

[westend]

Gorilla Tape is one of the best tapes for spun fabric repairs.

The OP was lucky that the steel belts remained intact. When I bought my Starcraft, the drivers side wheel well was missing the top section and the previous tire blowout had spun mud and debris through the kitchen cabinet to cover the load center and sink plumbing.

I replaced the wheel well with a new wood frame and clad the wheel well with high temper steel plate. I used AR300 plate, the stuff they use for garbage compactors and military vehicles. The plate is glued and screwed to the wood frame and sprayed with bed liner. If I have an unnoticed blow out, I won't have to worry about a spinning belt taking out my kitchen or electrical bits.

[Need-A-Vacation]

Glad to hear everything turned out well considering!

Next time you encounter a vehicle dropping debris like that, call 911 ASAP! HUGE TICKET!!! Could have turned out way worse for you or someone else.

Again glad you are ok!!!

[rbpru]

Before the DW and I went out West for six weeks I realized how lucky we had been not to get a TT flat because I did not even have a spare. But this was going to be more than a local jaunt.

So I bought a spare, got out the 5 ton bottle jack and cut some 2x6 spacer blocks. During the walk-through when we picked up TT the service tech showed me where to set the jack to change the tire. I also made sure I could crawl under and wrestle the F-150 tire. Not easy for an old feller. As an added measure I barrowed a small air compressor from my son-in-law.

Sure enough I had a flat on the TV when we arrived out west. Fortunately, the flat was in the campground. Then on the way home the TT developed an annoying slow leak which became a fast leak while we were visiting a museum. Again, I was able to change it. Certainly not much fun but each changes took less than a half hour. Otherwise I would have been waiting for the road service I pay for.

Both the TV and TT flats were foreign object punctures. Sometimes it is luck sometimes it is preparation.

[LarryJM]

2012Coleman wrote:
Well, it happened to me this past weekend too. While traveling home from a week long outing at Wekiva Springs State Park in Fl, a truck hauling pine tree trunks pulled on to the interstate just ahead of me spewing all sorts of bark and wood derbies - 30 minutes from home. I tried to avoid by slowing down, but just when I thought I was OK - BAM! My right rear tire decomposed into the mess you see below.

Luckily, this happened at the entrance to a rest stop and I was able to limp in and park. Unfortunately, I didn't have the means to jack the TT up and change the tire myself - the penalty for this being having to call Good Sam Roadside assistance and wait three hours. This has already been remedied with the purchase of a new jack to replace the old one with a leaky seal.

Luckily, the guy who was dispatched was great and had my tire changed in less than 15 minutes. He mentioned tires with a higher load range would not be a bad idea, although I'm not exceeding my gross weights.

Not a whole lot of damage occurred except for the black fabric directly behind the tire being ripped to shreds and the support for the wheel well skirt twisted, but repairable.

How do you go about fixing the fabric? Is there a source for it? Can you use any kind of tape successfully to seal a patch?

My tires are well maintained and I was running at the correct pressure, but are OEM with a date code that makes them born in 2010, so I'm thinking of replacing the entire set. We are both working folks, so I've put under 10k miles on them.

Have been through all the threads regarding this, and not wanting to start a new tire from china thread - just thought I would inform others to stay away from these types of trucks as hitting the stuff falling off it is clearly what caused my blowout. And hopefully get some good tips on how to fix the fabric underneath.

I had to just do a similar repair, but the tire carcas gouged out the floor area in a couple of small spots that the fabric was covering. What I did was fill in the holes with some of the minimal expanding foam and covered that with some thin clear plastic like you get in items packaged in clear plastic. I then covered all the damaged area in plain ole duct tape followed by several good coats of "PLASTI DIP" to waterproof the area. Finally I bought a sheet of aluminum sheet 2'x2' (.025" thickness) and cut that in half and put that over the effected area so I have about the same protection as I have with the metal line wheel well area proper. You can even buy some much heavier aluminum "Diamond Plate" (.065" thickness) at Lowes/Hd and use that, but that is fairly expensive and I chose the cheaper and thinner aluminum sheet. When I get a chance I will install the other half of the sheet I bought on the other good side of the trailer behind the wheels. The area is subject to being damaged by the tread when it separates because of the direction of rotation of the wheels when moving forward.

Larry

[NanciL]

I can sympathize with you.
In twenty years of hauling a trailer, I have never had a flat or blowout.
Last month on the Tamiami Trail in south Florida I had a blowout.

I put on my spare which had never been used and the next day I bought a new spare.

Then two weeks later on I-95 that spare blew. Try changing a tire in the breakdown lane with tractor trailers flying by at 75 and 80 MPH's

After I changed it to the new spare, I bought another one and was paranoid all the way from there to NC where we live.

I always check the pressure, and constantly do a walk around and feel the tires and hubs for heating while I am traveling.

Before we head out again, I am going to replace the other three tires even though they still have good tread.

Jack l

[Lynnmor]

This may be the tape you want:
Tape

[darsben]

Mileage irrelevant to the discussion.
Do you keep your tires covered when not in use?
Do you check tire pressure frequently or just look em over and figure they are good to go.
Tire maintenance is important.
Slowing down to avoid debris might have been a good idea but I doubt that "spewing all sorts of bark and wood derbies" (sic) would make a good tire go bad.

BY the way how fast where you going

[Jay_Pat]

I've had one blow out.
It sliced up the black material.
With Windex, I cleaned up the black material and covered all cuts with Gorilla tape. Applied with pressure.
Has held up for 3 years, so far.
Pat

[BurbMan]

The mfr put galvanized sheet metal above the tires as a fenderwell. Really kept damage to a minimum when I lost that tire a few years ago.

[DRSMPS]

After a similar incident, I had my wheel wells coated with Line-X spray-on truck bedliner. I feel like it adds some protection to the inner fender. Time will tell I guess. I also purchased a TPMS and replaced my tires with Maxxis tires for piece of mind. I wasn't so lucky and had to change my tire on the edge of a busy freeway.

Sorry, I can't recommend anything for the black fabric that was damaged under your trailer. I know it is a vapor barrier and blocks moisture in one direction while allowing air to breath. You might be able to tape in a patch using vapor barrier tape (the red tape you use on house wrap), but I'm just guessing.

Thanks for sharing.