Aww, crap! Another blown Freestar. This time...

[sreigle]

We did only 236 miles yesterday. I checked the tires before we left and pressures were correct. No visible problems.

We stopped for lunch after 157 miles and everything still looked good. I didn't check pressure but I never do during the day unless a tire looks low.

Just 42 miles later, at 199 miles on the day, with just 37 to go to our destination, we heard a very loud pop. I looked in the mirror and saw lots of parts blown out into traffic on the very busy big city freeway. We fortunately were in the righthand lane. Cars dodging parts everywhwere. A cop came along and moved all the parts onto the shoulder where I was able to collect them. Fortunately there were no accidents. Good Sam sent a guy out to put on my spare.

I am going to go to a heavier tire, probably load range G (The rims have a sticker indicating a 110 psi rating). We're not over the current tires' ratings but we're close. And we just had a blowout maybe a thousand miles ago. Different wheel, same side. Also a Freestar tire. That one did only minor damage. But this one....

The guy Good Sam ERS sent had to unwrap tread from around the axle. I crawled under this morning and the brake wiring is fine. And there are no faults shown on the brake controller. Probably got lucky on that one.

--on edit-- according to my log, this tire had been on the ground for only 6,394 miles.

[mail2us]

Good gracious Steve, it's so fortunate for you and Vicki you did not get injured...and here you are calmly answering my emails on matters not so significant compared to this. Glad you both are OK.

[sreigle]

Dennis, I would not even had known we had a problem if not for the loud pop and my seeing the broken pieces flying across the road. No sway or nothing. Of all the flats and blowouts we've had on our Montanas, not one ever caused any sway or any unusual movement. We've lost just one truck tire in these past seven years of traveling but we were not towing. I came out in the morning and it was flat.

[bob n pam]

OMG! What a mess. I'm so glad you guys are okay. Looking at your pics makes me so grateful that someone saw our tire bulges both times before that happened to us. We feel much better having the Goodyear G614's on the rig.

[tbhd2]

Like Mail2us said most important thing is that everyone is okay. Hopefully, you can get everything fixed and be on the road soon.

[bigred715]

Sorry about the horrible blowout. Thats a lot of damage! Glad you came out OK and weren't hurt. Do you have the tire pressure monitoring system? Is this a case where with a sudden blowout that it wouldn't have done any good?

[boylanag]

So glad that you and Vicki are OK after that! After reading your post and seeing your pix, I'm gonna have to reconsider my tires now, I guess.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

GULP, messy

Glad you are OK

Whew

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by bigred715

Sorry about the horrible blowout. Thats a lot of damage! Glad you came out OK and weren't hurt. Do you have the tire pressure monitoring system? Is this a case where with a sudden blowout that it wouldn't have done any good?

Correct, with the sudden blowout tire pressure monitoring would have been too little too late. Same with probably all our blowouts although there was one where it might have helped but I don't know that for sure.

Pam, the G614 is what I'm considering. I emailed Lonnie and got a link for tire dealers and am doing some online and email price shopping today. I also have to get in touch with our insurance agent to see about coverage on the damage. I think we have the disappearing deductible on that policy, so we'd have no deductible.

[Pete Hanson]

What a mess Steve. We're certainly grateful that you guys are ok. The one blowout we experienced was as sudden as yours but it didn't cause as much damage. Like in your case, the Monty stayed steady as we slowed down and pulled over. The loud pop was the only way we knew we had a problem. After replacing a small section of the J-Panel we were back in business. I hope you can get your repairs completed without too much hassle.

Pete

[firetrucker]

Whew!! I'm sure glad the three other tires held together. Somewhere here there's a clue about tires that Keystone should be looking at.

Bob

[Art-n-Marge]

Steve,

You certainly did the right things for your tires that day. After you check them in the morning, there's no benefit to checking after you start driving. In using the tire gauge you would release some air just to find your pressure is high because your tires should be from driving. Since you didn't see anything obvious on the outside there's no way to check the inside.

It's great you and your TV handled the problem very well but oh that damage was tremendous - the body work and even parts of the sewer outlet. What a mess. Do you travel with your clear straight pipe and extra valve extensions installed? How did the main sewer outlet fair, will it need replacing too? We appreciate you sharing your pictures since it can teach us so much.

I understand you had the blowout, but I wonder if the TPMS could still have sensed the changes enough to warn you before the blowout. We'll never know for sure, but a TPMS is still on my wishlist, but not being a full-timer the trailer items get postponed all the time because of the stickhouse.

Take care Steve and Vicki,

[pbahlin]

Were both of your blowouts on the driver's side?

Your rig is very similar to mine and I've suspected for a while that the driver's side is 'heavy'. So many posts in here and elsewhere point to uneven weight distribution and driver's side blowouts I'm making it a priority to get left and right weights not just axle weights.

Glad your safe. I'm not going anywhere without G rated tires. The risk is too great to go on tires with no margin.

[pbahlin]

BTW I just ordered a Hawkshead TPMS and for $225 you get the monitor and four sensors. I know that's a minimal system but you can at least get sensors on the four Monty tires that are on the asphalt.

I'm going with that for now and then will order more sensors later. I'd rather that than nothing at all.

[sreigle]

Pbahlin, these last two blowouts were on the driver's side, but prior ones have been on each side. We had our rig weighed on each wheel at the last Fall rally. We're 1050 pounds heavier on the kitchen side. But we're under the tire ratings on each wheel, though not by very much.

Bob, I agree. I don't think these Chinese tires have any room to spare on the ratings and I have doubts whether they're ever tested to the indicated rating. I'll never know for sure but that's what my experience makes me believe.

Art, a TPMS is a good thing and has its place. I'd never try to say otherwise. But in this situation I really do not believe it would have done anything other than tell me the pressure suddenly dropped and by then it's too late. The tire and body parts were blowing out across the highway at the same time a TPMS would have warned me of the pressure drop because it was so sudden. We heard the pop, so we know it was not a slow leak. The TPMS can warn you of a low tire and/or a leak but it's not going to help if it's a blowout or rapid leak. By the time you could stop the rig it's all over but the painful part.

As to your other question, we travel with the clip-on slide valve attached and the clear connector attached to that. Each of those were strapped in place with large radiator hose style clamps, which you can see in one of the pictures. The dump cap was then attached to the clear connector and attached to the dump pipe with the standard umbilical. The entire assembly was ripped from the dump pipe with the clamps between dump pipe and slide valve still in place on the dump pipe with the ears from the slide valve still under the clamps but broken off of the slide valve. I'm not sure that's very clear.

The rim appears to be ok but I'll have to have a tire guy check it to make sure. The prior blowout cracked a rim and we had to buy a new one.

[Delaine and Lindy]

I'm glad there was no injurys and you both are safe. I do believe that the Freestars are just a Mission tire, renamed Freestars. I have Missions on the inclosed Car hauler, which is used for storing, the 3320 John Deere, Gator XUV and the X 540 John Deere mower and never towed over 3 miles one way. I have Freestars on the Equipment trailer and haven't had a issue however I do run a Pressure System on all Trailers. I do think that a lot of Blowouts are cause by a loss of Air pressure and of course we all know that heat build up causes 90% of the blow outs. I wouldn't run a China made tire on a 5th wheel. It would be interesting to see test results of rubber compound in the China made tires??? The later designed Tire monitoring system also will send a warning for a tire heating up. Steve sorry for all the damage to the Montana. GBY...

[pbahlin]

Does anybody know how often blow outs happen instantaneously? Kind of a weird question I know because for most folks the blow out itself is the first time anybody knows something is wrong. But is it true that tires really do this?

It seems to me that something has to be going on with the tire beforehand, even though it's unknown to a driver without instrumented tires. Mechanical systems don't fail instantaneously unless there is a corresponding instantaneous change in the forces around the system.

If we could put little green men inside the tire would they know something was about to go boom well before it goes boom or would they be just as surprised as the driver?

[Bill-N-Donna]

What a mess! You wouldn’t think one tire could cause that much trouble.
Sorry to see where you had trouble but glad everyone is ok.

[rphoward]

All we can say is "wow"!!! Glad you're both okay.

[Jay Bird]

We are glad you guys are ok. That is a mess. Good luck getting your unit repaired

George and Rosetta