Tire blowouts

[Montana_2061]

On my recent trip from Fort Myers, Florida to Vancouver, Washington I had two blowouts on my fifth wheel. Traveling thru Texas and Arizona when the temperature was in excess of 100 degrees and traveling at speeds of 65 to 70 the tires just got too hot. The tires where 16 inch General brand. I had reduced the pressure down from 80 lbs to 70 lbs antisipating that the expansion of air in the tire due to heat would cause the pressure to build. I have learned since that that was the wrong thing to do. With the reduce pressure the tire was allowed to ripple at the pavement which caused additional heat. I've learned that when the temperature is in the 100+ area it is best to keep my speed down below 60 and to keep the tire pressure up to the max 80 lbs. I'd appreciate comments on this. By the way, these blowouts caused $4000 damage to the lower exterior wall of the sliders.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Welcome rmills to the MOC.

Sorry to say this but there are no real comments to be made as you already realized your mistake and a very costly one at that.

[fulltimedreamer]

Sorry for your misfortune, but thanks for sharing so that others can learn. While learning from my own experiences usually works very well, I prefer to learn from others as the consequences for me are less painful and expensive. I hope you were able to get your unit repaired to your satisfaction and hopefully your insurance helped with the cost. My insurance company really likes it when I learn from others experiences rather than my own.

[DHenry]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but thank you for sharing with us your experience. We all can learn from it. Thanks again.

[Thunderman]

quote:Originally posted by rmills

On my recent trip from Fort Myers, Florida to Vancouver, Washington I had two blowouts on my fifth wheel. Traveling thru Texas and Arizona when the temperature was in excess of 100 degrees and traveling at speeds of 65 to 70 the tires just got too hot. The tires where 16 inch General brand. I had reduced the pressure down from 80 lbs to 70 lbs antisipating that the expansion of air in the tire due to heat would cause the pressure to build. I have learned since that that was the wrong thing to do. With the reduce pressure the tire was allowed to ripple at the pavement which caused additional heat. I've learned that when the temperature is in the 100+ area it is best to keep my speed down below 60 and to keep the tire pressure up to the max 80 lbs. I'd appreciate comments on this. By the way, these blowouts caused $4000 damage to the lower exterior wall of the sliders.

rmills,
I also had two blowouts on a trip to the Galveston, Texas area. The tires were three years old and looked great.....but they were not inflated to the eighty lb. psi.(E rated tires) Properly Inflated Tires most important!
Went to the Carolina's and Florida last June, drove at speeds of 62 to 68 mph and had no problem. Tires were properly inflated!
Enjoy!

[D and M On The Road]

*Ouch*! I'm sorry for your experience and sure glad no one was hurt. And like the others have said, we are grateful that you shared your story with the rest of us.

[sreigle]

Rmills, thanks for the post. I suspect your diagnosis is correct. I understand most blowouts are due to excessive heat in the tire. Low pressure generates more heat because of the additional sidewall flexing, or so I understand from those who know about this kind of thing. Add to that the ambient heat, pavement heat, etc. and you have a nice recipe for a blowout. We had the same thing, hot summer day, tire pressure below what it should probably have been, and we blew the tire all over the road. This was not on our Montanas but on the prior Jayco Eagle. We were very fortunate to have no damage to the rig.

[Northstar]

Welcome rmills to our site. We all can learn lessons from each other. So thanks for your post. Keep us posted on your adventures. Happyrving......

[jars]

Blow Outs
We have a 3670 which we pulled out west from Az,Colo,Utah, Id.Or,Wash.Cal.Nev.and back to Ohio. we put 6387 miles on the 3670. I have all steel radials on and didn't have any problems in the heat.
Jars Dick & Nita

[Montana_1774]

mmills: Sorry to hear of your troubles. One very important factor in you troubles is the General Tires. I had five of them on a Dutchman 5er. Over a period of 3 years I lost 4 of the 5 tire. I was in Bangor ME going to San Antonio, TX when we lost number 4. I got rid of number 5 before it could to the same as the other 4. Rest assured the tires were at all times properly inflated. Again, General Tires were a part of the problem.

[toolmanroy]

Our 2005 Montana has Tacoma Trail tires, which after much searching we have found is a private label tire from Cooper. Has anyone had any problems with this tire? There is very litte information about the tires in our owner's pack other than proper inflation, etc. We had the infamous Firestone tires on one of our vehicles and it always pays to know ahead of time if there are problems.

[NJ Hillbilly]

Roy, So far there has not been any consistant problems with Tacoma tires. You are correct that they are a private labeled tire made by Cooper. They are sold under the Parrish brand.

John