Had a blowout, have a few questions now :)

[alealitha]

So driving back home we had a blowout on the highway. From my perspective as the driver, the truck and RV continued as normal. If I hadn't have heard the BANG, never would have known anything happened.


The front passenger side tire exploded. Right in front of the tire is the middle support leg and from it, the bottom plate was missing. Wondering if it came off and hit the tire causing the blowout, or if the blowout ripped it off. The only other damage was to the black plastic "edging" around the tire. All in all, considering us lucky.


Originally tried using the autoleveler to lift up that side so I could replace the tire, but after weight started being placed on it, the autolever started reporting low voltage and wouldn't continue. RV was connected to the truck & truck was running.


Ended up using my 12 ton bottle jack to lift the side & swap out the tire. Got back on the road, made it home, and new tire on order.


As a cautionary tale to anyone intending to swap their own tire if/when it becomes necessary be sure you have a tool that fits the lug nuts. I was told it was a standard 22mm so didn't give it a second thought. The week prior I had a slow leak (other side, different tire) and when attempting to pull the tire off I discovered my tire wrench wouldn't fit the lug nuts because the tire's clearance between the socket and tire was so small. I bought a 22mm deep socket from Lowes, but it was also too thick. I found a 22mm deep socket from Home Depot that was thin enough to fit. If that hadn't have happened, I would have been SOOL on the side of the road.



So...my questions:
1) I was under the assumption when RV is hooked up to the truck, the truck supplies power to the battery. If so, why was I getting low voltage error?
2) what happens if both tires on a side had been damaged. Only carry one spare. Is it safe to drive on 3 tires? If not, do folks generally keep 2 spares? As close as the tires are, I'd assume if there was debris that blew the first tire, it'd also hit the second right behind it.


Thanks for any comments!
Adam

[NMWildcat]

#1. Most trucks will only provide little more than a trickle charge to the RV battery. So if your RV batteries were low, the large power draw from levelers would definitely cause a low voltage error. Test your batteries.

#2. Lots of folks have limped slowly on three tires to a good pull off location or the next exit. Just beware that there is a high possibility that the remaining tire is now damaged and will soon fail also.

We had three tire failures in one day on 18 month old tires from the factory that were inflated properly. We got really good at using the hydraulic level system to change tires. After the first failure we would drop the trailer and run to the nearest town for a new one. Unfortunately all were very small towns with only one or two of the size in stock. We finally made it to a large town where we bought 5 new ones.

[NavyLCDR]

Also on some trailers, like mine, the nuts that hold the spare tire onto the storage rack are different size than the regular lug nuts. I have 3/4" lug nuts and the spare has 13/16" nuts.

If you have not changed a tire before, do it in your driveway first to make sure all the tools you have will actually work.

[hshaynes]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

Also on some trailers, like mine, the nuts that hold the spare tire onto the storage rack are different size than the regular lug nuts. I have 3/4" lug nuts and the spare has 13/16" nuts.



If you have not changed a tire before, do it in your driveway first to make sure all the tools you have will actually work.

Excellent recommendation.

[Quadna71]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

Also on some trailers, like mine, the nuts that hold the spare tire onto the storage rack are different size than the regular lug nuts. I have 3/4" lug nuts and the spare has 13/16" nuts.

If you have not changed a tire before, do it in your driveway first to make sure all the tools you have will actually work.

Isn't this the most ridiculous thing? I learned this when changing a flat on the highway in the rain, but was very fortunate that I keep a full clip of sockets in the tool bag. What a crappy/conscious decision on FR's part.

[Quadna71]

Originally Posted by alealitha

So...my questions:

2) what happens if both tires on a side had been damaged. Only carry one spare. Is it safe to drive on 3 tires? If not, do folks generally keep 2 spares? As close as the tires are, I'd assume if there was debris that blew the first tire, it'd also hit the second right behind it.


Thanks for any comments!
Adam

I only carried one spare for the longest time. And never had a tire issue for the longest time either. And then after having a flat out on the road, I opted for carrying a second spare.

We originally took delivery of our camper with 5 Castle Rock tires (dual axle + spare) but were uneasy after the number of things we heard about their reliability. So I upgraded the 4 tires on the axles to Goodyear Endurance and kept the new Castle Rock spare. Fast forward to when we had a flat: I pulled off the Goodyear that had a puncture, installed the Castle Rock spare, and then made it home just fine. Once home I ordered another Goodyear (since the other 3 only had about 500 on them) and put it back on the axle. I then ordered a new spare wheel, patched the Goodyear, mounted it on the new steelie, and now have peace of mind of having two spares (both steelies and one new(ish) Castle Rock and one patched Goodyear.

[lwbfl]

Yes, test everything at home! Regarding driving on 3 tires - that will depend on your suspension type AND axle drop. I have an equalizer between the two axle springs so when one tire goes flat, it's forced even harder to the ground by the other axle. In my case, I'd have to chain the empty axle to the frame somehow to limp away. My Airstream had torsion axles and I could easily drive on 3 (don't ask how I found out). My other TTs had standard leaf springs and some dropped enough to prevent it, others didn't.

[stephensatt]

When you go to have the tire mounted , have them check the "other" tire right next to it for damage. All they have to do is take it off and run it on the spin balance machine and you will know really quick. Every blowout I have had rips something out from under the wheel well. I have not had an issue where something in the wheel well causes it. Blow outs are common on RV's. I used to have them almost every long 1000+ mile trip until I stopped buy Class C tires. Only D and E class in my opinion should be put on RV's. Everyone always overloads them.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by stephensatt

When you go to have the tire mounted , have them check the "other" tire right next to it for damage. All they have to do is take it off and run it on the spin balance machine and you will know really quick. Every blowout I have had rips something out from under the wheel well. I have not had an issue where something in the wheel well causes it. Blow outs are common on RV's. I used to have them almost every long 1000+ mile trip until I stopped buy Class C tires. Only D and E class in my opinion should be put on RV's. Everyone always overloads them.

Depends on the weight of the RV. Mine came with load range E but the failures didn't stop until I went with LR G. Much happier.

[RFSims]

Trailering to the lake 50 miles away only one spare. On a trip longer than one day, two spares. I learned when a China bomb went off 20 miles from home and then another China bomb went off 10 miles from home. Luckily I had trailer with same size tire and bolt pattern at home.

[jd4010]

Assuming you don't have one, I'd like to also advocate for a good TPMS on the RV. Several years we had a TT that we pulled behind an F350. We blew a tire and didn't realize it for a few miles......until I had to make a sharp turn and looking in my mirror I saw the tire about gone and the damage to the side of the TT. After that incident, we purchased a TPMS (PressurePro). Great peace of mind especially since we do a lot of traveling at night.

[NavyLCDR]

Originally Posted by Quadna71

Isn't this the most ridiculous thing? I learned this when changing a flat on the highway in the rain, but was very fortunate that I keep a full clip of sockets in the tool bag. What a crappy/conscious decision on FR's part.

All of my vehicles have a collapsible lug wrench + 3x reversible sockets for a total of 6 different sizes, all in a nice little bag. I know what I need on the side of the road, but it's all there in a small package if someone else needs help. (Like they discover they need 13/16" to get the spare off the storage rack!)

[Oaklevel]

I have been towing trailers since around 1983. So far I only carry one spare.

[NavyLCDR]

Originally Posted by Oaklevel

I have been towing trailers since around 1983. So far I only carry one spare.

Personally, I think you should carry a spare axle along with two spare wheel/tire assemblies all strapped to the back bumper.

Or, if you have room on the frame of your trailer, go ahead and mount the spare axle under the frame. Then you can simply take the two spare wheel/tires off the storage rack attached to the back bumper, mount them on the spare axle, and off you go!

[SailorSam20500]

Anther socket you may want to carry, one that fits the axle spindle nut. On my trailer with Dexter 3.5k Torflex axles, it would be very difficult to replace a bearing without one, it also needs to be a thin wall.

[elind]

One thing to think about running with one tire after a blow out. After securing the axle off from of the pavement consider how much the one tire is carrying. A 12,000 lb RV that 4 tires carries 3,000 lb each and now one tire may carry 6.000lb. and the tire is rated 3-4k. How far can you go like this? I did it last year, but I had 10 miles and at 25mph to get there. Food for thought.

[loyda]

You might want to invest in a tire monitoring system

[timfromma]

IMHO the best tools you can have for changing a tire are a bottle jack and battery powered impact wrench.

[alealitha]

Thanks for all the comments!


FYI, both the original RV tire & replacement were load range "F".


Adam

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

Depends on the weight of the RV. Mine came with load range E but the failures didn't stop until I went with LR G. Much happier.

We had failure with a Goodyear tire Load Range E. Went to Maxxis 8008s load range E and no troubles. But with our latest set we went to load range G. No troubles at all in 4 years