New Tires

[rwess]

After 20 years of towing travel trailers, I had my second blow out last week. We were coming home from the beach after about 300 miles of 4-lane and interstate highways we got off the interstate. We stopped for a restroom break and I also checked my trailer tires. I always look at them, kick them and place my hand on the center hub on each trailer tire every time we stop, and I always inspect them and check tire pressure before each trip. After about 40 more miles of 4 lane 65 mph highway I had to stop for a traffic light. Two young gents motioned for me to put down my window. One asked me if he knew I had a blowout, no I didn't. Pulled over and changed tire.
My trailer is an Open Range weighing about 9,000 lbs. loaded. The tires were Triangles. I bought the trailer 4/2011 new. I was planning on replacing the tires after this camping season. The mfg date on the tires were 16 Jan 2010. I always kept the tires covered when stored.
Put a new set of Maxxis 235 80 16's E rated tires on today. Purchased them online from Discount Tire. I would have put LT's on, however, I only plan on keeping the camper thru next camping season and then replacing it.
Any blowout on any highway is a pain, but only 2 in 20 years and on our 6th camper is not bad. Make sure that you have everything you need to replace your tire if one were to blowout and practice a tire change in your driveway. On the side of the highway is not a good place to learn how to change a trailer tire!
Both of my blowouts (on 2 different campers was the right rear, door side). I wonder if there is any thing significant about that particular tire position?

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

A lot of people on this forum are using the term "blow out" incorrectly; including the OP.

I can tell by the description from the OP that he did not have a "blow out." Having a blow out is an explosive event. The tire casing fails all at once and all of the air leaves the tire at once. It's very loud and very violent. Much like a cannon going off.

The OP more than likely had a leak caused by a nail or screw or whatever. He had a puncture that deflated the tire slowly. This caused the casing to heat up to the point of failure. The casing fails and sometime can cause serious damage to the trailer when it comes apart. Much, much, much different than a blow out.

The reason the right rear tire is the culprit most of the time is because that is where the trash on the road goes.........to the right side. The reason it happens to the rear is because the front will fling up the nail or screw and throw it into the rear tire where it punctures it.

This is the reason most people incorrectly think that ST tires are junk. They think they just "blow out" when in actuality the tire picks up a nail and they don't know it. They keep on driving until the casing fails from heat damage but they "think" they had a blow out.

A TMS will go a long way to preventing this kind of stuff.

[gmw_photos]

Alabama Jim wrote:
I have ST's on my 14 month old trailer and one tire is slick. The other 3 have depression on the inside edge. Seems unusual to me, but I have put about 10,000 miles on them in 14 months. What do you folks think?

Some more specifics please ?

Make/model/weight of trailer ?

What are the axle capacities ?

Tire make/model/load range/inflation ?

Sounds like there is possibly an overload situation and/or a bent axle. There are several solutions to issues like these, but to make good recommendations we really need more details.

[Lynnmor]

Alabama Jim wrote:
I have ST's on my 14 month old trailer and one tire is slick. The other 3 have depression on the inside edge. Seems unusual to me, but I have put about 10,000 miles on them in 14 months. What do you folks think?

I think that you have China Bombs on cheap bent axles. I replaced my junk with heavier axles and made in USA LT tires, now 10,000 miles is nothing.

[krobbe]

2Macs wrote:

Question: I purchased a new TT this year. The tires are filled with nitrogen. I asked a knowledgeable individual about keep the tire pressure up with no nitrogen available. His response was nitrogen was just air, so, don't worry about it. What do others think?

Air is made up of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% other gases.
Free air has the best bang for the buck and is readily available.
But, I heard using Helium can increase your payload. 😉

[Bears_Den]

My TT is 3 yrs old and the tires were originally filled with nitrogen. They are checked before every trip and topped off with air. No problems thus far.

[JIMNLIN]

Its recommended ST tires be changed every 3-5 years so you got your monies worth and then some out of them.
Of course many RV trailer owners time out before the tires get many miles and dry rot sets in.

Good point on knowing how to change a flat tire while on the road. I'm on the old mother road (US-66) daily in a 65 mile stretch. I probably average twice a month stopping and helping someone with some type of tire issue on some type of trailer. And most of them are not equipped to do so.

[2Macs]

You should replace your ST tires every 6-7 years regardless of wear. You get longer life when you cover them from the sun whenever you are not towing.
I replace my tires with Maxxis. It is the only brand I will use.

Question: I purchased a new TT this year. The tires are filled with nitrogen.
I asked a knowledgeable individual about keep the tire pressure up with no nitrogen available. His response was nitrogen was just air, so, don't worry about it. What do others think?

[Alabama_Jim]

I have ST's on my 14 month old trailer and one tire is slick. The other 3 have depression on the inside edge. Seems unusual to me, but I have put about 10,000 miles on them in 14 months. What do you folks think?

[JCR-1]

I had two blow outs within 5000 miles of each other. They were Karrier tires supposedly 8 ply (1600 rated) and both went out at doing 60 mph. They were on 13 inch rims and the trailer dropped quickly but handled OK as I came to rolling stop. The rims were bent to hell. Fortunately Walmart had my size but only in 6 ply rating (1360 lb rating). They seem to be holding up better then the Karrier 8 ply tires and they have a much lower load rating. I wonder if I got a bad batch because they both blew out within 5000 miles of each other on an 8000 miles trip.

[Mark_and_Linda]

I just changed out my tires a month ago...never had a blow out except on my truck. Tires had 16 K on them but the dry rot got them...tread good. This was near Dublin, GA on the interstate.

[Lynnmor]

rwess wrote:

Any blowout on any highway is a pain, but only 2 in 20 years and on our 6th camper is not bad.

Both of my blowouts (on 2 different campers was the right rear, door side). I wonder if there is any thing significant about that particular tire position?

On average, having a blowout every 10 years would not be acceptable for me.

A rear tire will have more punctures due to the tire in front of it standing up debris. The right side is subject to more roadside debris. Ask any rural mailman.