High Temps and Tire Failures

[Searchers]

We counted 7 vehicles on I-5 northbound only that had at least one blown tire today in the approx. 110 mile stretch between Williams and Redding CA. Air temperature was 112 degrees in that part of the Sacramento valley, and I can only imagine what the road surface temp was. Four of the vehicles were trailers, two were passenger cars and one motorhome had both a left front and left rear outside dual shredded. Be careful out there!

[Montana Sky]

When coming home on Friday I ran across temps that were 106 air temps and you could see the heat rising off the pavement. I stopped every so often at the rest areas along the way to give the truck and all the tires some cool down time. They were pretty warm to the touch. Glad that we made it home with no problems.

[sreigle]

The stopping idea is a good one and I plan to keep that in mind for us, as well. I'd also bet at least most of those with the blown tires were running either underinflated or overloaded, adding to the heat in the tire. Just a guess but I'd almost put money on it.

[Montana_2785]

I know that several people here have and like the Doran tire monitor that screws onto the valve stem. The system I'm lusting over is SmarTire.

http://www.smartire.com/

It has a module that is mounted on the rim (a pain because you have to dismount the tires to install or install when you put new tires on). The really nice thing is that in addition to pressure, it monitors tire TEMERATURE.

In fact, it will monitor temperature compensated tire pressure.

For instance for a load range E tire with cold inflation of 80psi, in hot weather with the heat generated by traveling at 70mph will raise the tire pressures up to 110-120psi or higher. If SmartTire sees that it is currently at temperature X and the pressure is lower than it should be AT THAT TEMPERATURE, it will sound an alarm to let you know that the tire pressure is too low.

For Doran, it will tell you that your tire is at, say 105psi. But if you don't know how hot the tire is and that it should really be at 115psi at that moment, then you really arn't any better off than the person with no tire monitor at all.....

Just My NSHO.

BTW: SmarTire also has high temperature alarms as well. All alarm points for pressure and temperature are user settable.

Eric

[Montana Sky]

I am sure keeping the tires on the coach at 80 psi as well as the truck is probably what saved me from having a blow out. I just run full 80psi in both the truck and coach all summer, rather be safe than sorry.

[DHenry]

I was talking with a person that had tire sales experience and he was telling me that you should be sure that you have your tires inflated properly before leaving on your trip and if your tires are running hot add another 5lbs. of pressure.

[RMccord]

Is slight over inflation better than under inflation or normal inflation to keep temps down? My 335RLBS has 15" wheels and a max of 65psi which is right where I keep them. We are leaving on a long 17 day trip Aug 5th. I will have my Doran monitors in by then. Hopefully they would alert me to pressure buidling up too much due to heat> Is that one of the indicators I would want to watch for?

[CountryGuy]

We ran yesterday in the midwest heat wave. Our truck thermostat said it was 105 outside, for humans you could add a bunch more to that number for heat factor.

We saw one truck that had just blown a tire all over the road, including a 1 foot by 2 foot piece of flat sheet metal that came from somewhere, maybe the truck?? He was adjusting a mud flap that had been pulled up above the tires, when we went by. Al had to play dodge em with the debris on the road.

Saw at least 3 cars/SUV's, etc. with flats.

Al checked our tires for pressure before we left yesterday AM and also checked the lug nuts with the torque wrench. All the numbers were perfect, tires cold, etc.

We ran at about 55 MPH all day, did not make frequent stops as suggested here (not a bad idea tho).

We had no trouble, but it was a bit scary. He did check the tires several times when we did stop with his little electronic heat gauge (sorry, I don't know the proper name for this instrument) and he told me that the numbers were OK, but on one stop the tires on one side of the rig were 10 degrees hotter than on the other, from the effects of the sun hitting that side.

OH, and not sure why, but we got FAB gas mileage yesterday. Not sure if it was the Iowa gas (high ethenol levels) or the heat, or the fact that we really kept the speeds down, but we got almost 9 MPG, which is great for our gas eating Montana hauling machine. (this is not intended to start a gas vs diesel war/discussion, just an observation! )

[Montana_2785]

quote:Originally posted by CountryGuy

[...]

We ran at about 55 MPH all day,[...]

OH, and not sure why, but we got FAB gas mileage yesterday. Not sure if it was the Iowa gas (high ethenol levels) or the heat, or the fact that we really kept the speeds down, but we got almost 9 MPG, which is great for our gas eating Montana hauling machine. (this is not intended to start a gas vs diesel war/discussion, just an observation! )

DING DING DING... We have a winner!!! Wind resistance increases with the CUBE of the speed!!!! With that in mind, it should be pretty obvious that when you tow a brick wall behind you that speed (or lack thereof) is really critical to good gas mileage.

Eric

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by CountryGuy

He did check the tires several times when we did stop with his little electronic heat gauge (sorry, I don't know the proper name for this instrument) and he told me that the numbers were OK, but on one stop the tires on one side of the rig were 10 degrees hotter than on the other, from the effects of the sun hitting that side.

I use a similar laser temp probe and have noticed the same effects from the sun. I also notice I have one wheel on the Montana that consistently runs a few degrees warmer than the others. I figure the brake on that one must be slightly tighter. I never did figure out what a "normal" temperature should be but by now have a good feel for what is normal on ours. I am very glad I bought this temp probe a couple of years ago.