Report your tire blowouts?

[madmaxmutt]

I am looking at the tire choices for my travel trailer. There are SO many threads and complaints about blowouts, it is downright scary making any choice at all. The recall thread sticky is great, but I wonder how many actually get reported to the NHSTA in the first place. I WAG that 9/10 of the people who have blowout change/fix it and move on. I think anyone and everyone that has an RV tire blowout should report it. It will still take forever, but eventually maybe we will see better tires.



https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/Vehicl...nt/index.xhtml

For that matter, maybe all the problems with new RVs should be reported too . . . <canoworms>

[asquared]

Not a bad idea at all.... it us one way to force the hand of rv manufacturers but will only work on a global scale if enough owners from different manufacturers actually do this.

[madmaxmutt]

The only way ordinary businesses figured out they had to secure IT systems was to be publicly humiliated by being hacked. I see this along the same lines. If you see something, say something sort of. I grew tired of counting the china bomb threads. I wonder how many actually reported their issue that they came on here and reported or complained about . . .

[Oaklevel]

The question also is how many have not had blowouts ?????????

I have never had a blowout on factory camper tires or other China made trailer tires on my other trailers.

I know that I am not the only one.

You never hear about those that are trouble free........ (I know know such thing)

And how many supposed blowouts are actually from running over something, or lack of maintenance??

[madmaxmutt]

Originally Posted by Oaklevel

The question also is how many have not had blowouts ?????????

I have never had a blowout on factory camper tires or other China made trailer tires on my other trailers.

I know that I am not the only one.

You never hear about those that are trouble free........ (I know know such thing)

And how many supposed blowouts are actually from running over something, or lack of maintenance??

I totally agree. We have a big (saw on CNN a while back where they are overworked) government agency that IMO should be counting and discerning the facts on this. They then force the problematic party to recall the item, if they rule it is a defect. Without the reports which probably means short of major accidents, they have nothing.


I will also say that they could compare the trailer blowouts to vehicle blowouts to rule out some of the running over stuff numbers. I don't feel a trailer tire should be any less safe than a vehicle tire. Both can cause an accident.

[TN_Cruise_Lite]

What I find amazing is that tire issues nearly ruined Ford and Firestone but our government does virtually nothing about the thousands of import RV tires that fail every year. I know there have been some isolated recalls but this is a huge issue that causes untold accidents and property damage every day.

[dbarr]

Originally Posted by Oaklevel

The question also is how many have not had blowouts ?????????

I have never had a blowout on factory camper tires or other China made trailer tires on my other trailers.

I know that I am not the only one.

You never hear about those that are trouble free........ (I know know such thing)

And how many supposed blowouts are actually from running over something, or lack of maintenance??

One in the last 15 years of ST tires. It was on my 06 Surveyor that I bought used in '11 and I ran it til it popped in the spring of '13...seven years old.
If it hasn't been for buying used the tires would've been ran near bald before the 4th year.

I don't Overload or even come close

PSI is checked regularly while traveling

Inspected for damage every stop

I don't bounce them off curbs and avoid potholes

I don't scrub them sideways hopelessly trying to back up or turning sharp going forward. (It causes stress between the tread and casing)

Something like this tire I found damaged could've been missed easily and blamed on Chinese inferior products
Damage happens and goes unnoticed. This one held its pressure but for how much longer?

In 25 years of driving semis I can tell you the majority of tire failures were on my trailers. Front tires kick up the debris and the trailer catches it.

You ought to see what a wide base 445 tire can tear up.

Light weight trailers are better for the tires I guess.

[madmaxmutt]

Originally Posted by TN_Cruise_Lite

What I find amazing is that tire issues nearly ruined Ford and Firestone but our government does virtually nothing about the thousands of import RV tires that fail every year. I know there have been some isolated recalls but this is a huge issue that causes untold accidents and property damage every day.

Exactly the point.

[aceinspp]

And like ever thing else you say it goes in one ear and out the other. Only way you MAY get something done is call or write your congressman. And that is no guarantee either. I once sent a letter to GM and there standard letter comment was thanks for your interest and we appreciate your suggestions. Big deal. Later RJD

[madmaxmutt]

Originally Posted by aceinspp

And like ever thing else you say it goes in one ear and out the other. Only way you MAY get something done is call or write your congressman. And that is no guarantee either. I once sent a letter to GM and there standard letter comment was thanks for your interest and we appreciate your suggestions. Big deal. Later RJD

I think I know what you mean, but they recall lots of things all the time. It is my understanding that they do that based on the amount of complaints and severity of the problem. If there are no or a very low number of complaints, why would they waste their time?

[aceinspp]

madmaxmutt I agree but this has been going on for a long time so where did the ball get dropped. Sounds like Govt. Later RJD

[madmaxmutt]

Yeah I am not saying the NHSTA process is good, but if they don't get the reports I would expect them to fail. It is the tire maker's and partly the RV manufacturer's fault, but without us reporting the problems to the proper authority the tires just get changed and what is left of the rig rolls down the road.

[Papa GLS]

dbarr
I agree with what you are saying. Over the last 15 years I have owned 1 class A & 4 TT's. Never had a tire failure with any of them. On the TT's I ran the OEM tires & never had a problem. I hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying this, but you usually only see bad reports & rarely the good reports. All of this was addressed in another thread a few months back. I agree that tire failures should be reported to somebody, but it is highly probable that there are far, far more non failure that go unreported. When the manufacturers crunch the #'s on total units sold X however many tires that would total, the number of failures by average would probably be very minimal. As long as they look at it this way, there will be nothing done because the problem , on paper, is not that great. But I do agree that something needs to be done, but the question is, WHAT? BTW, I've never used a TPMS either; oh foolish me. JMO

[madmaxmutt]

Originally Posted by Papa GLS

dbarr
I agree with what you are saying. Over the last 15 years I have owned 1 class A & 4 TT's. Never had a tire failure with any of them. On the TT's I ran the OEM tires & never had a problem. I hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying this, but you usually only see bad reports & rarely the good reports. All of this was addressed in another thread a few months back. I agree that tire failures should be reported to somebody, but it is highly probable that there are far, far more non failure that go unreported. When the manufacturers crunch the #'s on total units sold X however many tires that would total, the number of failures by average would probably be very minimal. As long as they look at it this way, there will be nothing done because the problem , on paper, is not that great. But I do agree that something needs to be done, but the question is, WHAT? BTW, I've never used a TPMS either; oh foolish me. JMO

This isn't really about those that haven't had a problem. I never had a problem with a child seat, highchair or crib but just about every one ever built has been recalled. I never even knew anyone that did. It doesn't matter the percentage. It does matter whether they are dangerous (or not).

[Papa GLS]

Originally Posted by madmaxmutt

This isn't really about those that haven't had a problem. I never had a problem with a child seat, highchair or crib but just about every one ever built has been recalled. I never even knew anyone that did. It doesn't matter the percentage. It does matter whether they are dangerous (or not).

My friend, I agree with you & all of the others whole heartedly. This is a serious problem, especially to those that have experienced these issues & something surely needs to be done about it. My question is what to do. Nothing is going to change unless the industry sees it as a problem, & evidently they don't. So, what's the answer?

[madmaxmutt]

I think reporting the blowouts is the key.

[Papa GLS]

Again I agree, which means whoever has a blowout or other failure needs to report it to the tire manufacturer. I'm sure one manufacturer could care less about the other. Plus it seems as though every manufacturer is having problems. So it is up to us to bombard them with failure reports & hope we have high enough #'s to make a difference.

[gskill]

It is my experience with RVs that the rating on the tires as well as the GVWR of the RV are borderline. If the RV is loaded beyond the rating of the tires, they can overheat causing failure. If traveling at higher than normal speeds, the tire can overheat. If low tire pressure is present the tire can overheat. if the tire picks up a nail or object it can deflate with out the driver knowing and shred the tire. All four of these conditions can cause failure and I have experienced most of these. Last year I purchased a tire monitoring system which constantly monitors pressure and temperature. On our trip this year I had one puncture which the system caught before it totally deflated and ruined the tire and two tires that developed low pressure. Without the system, all three of the tires would have eventually failed and been destroyed and possibly damaged the RV. While the tire manufacturer may be somewhat at fault and the RV factory could have installed better rated tires. Ultimately the owner should understand the limits that these tires will stand and either upgrade their tires or stay within the limits and monitor the tires. I highly recommend a monitoring system.

[Tireguy397]

I spent many years working for a major tire company and I have seen my share of failures. There are many inferior tire manufactures mostly from the Middle East and Asia. However trailer owners are still sometimes their own worst enemy when it comes to tires. This past weekend I was parked next to a humongous 5th wheeler with 3 axles. I watched him as he packed up and noticed one of his tires looked very low in air. I told him about it and with a bit of attitude he told me he had checked them before leaving home a few days before. I asked if we could check them and he agreed. I broke out my trusty tire gauge. The first thing I did was gave the valve stem a field test. That involves spitting on your finger and wiping it on the end. His mouth dropped as he watched the bubbles come out. Tire had less than 10 lbs of pressure. The core had stuck open a little when he checked the pressure. I always keep some spare valve cores and a tool for such occasions and a portable compressor. I made a new best friend after that. Moral is don't take things for granted when it comes to your tires.

[madmaxmutt]

Originally Posted by Papa GLS

Again I agree, which means whoever has a blowout or other failure needs to report it to the tire manufacturer. I'm sure one manufacturer could care less about the other. Plus it seems as though every manufacturer is having problems. So it is up to us to bombard them with failure reports & hope we have high enough #'s to make a difference.

I think the problems should be reported to the responsible government agency (NHSTA). To use an (bad) analogy, your way would be after someone runs into me, I report the accident to that person. My way would be call the cops.