Posted 2015-10-04 8:31 PM (#164953) Subject: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Member
Posts: 28 Location: Miami, FL
The 3 blowouts I've experienced in the last 6 years have always been at the recommended tire pressure.Never have I had any problem at all when under inflating from 5 - 12 lbs.This includes ST first, that I eventually changed thinking it was the inferior ST, & later with the LT that I replaced them with.Any thoughts or similar experiences?
Posted 2015-10-04 8:44 PM (#164954 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Expert
Posts: 1989 Location: South Central OK
Could it have anything to do with the heat you experience down in Florida? Do you only check cold tire pressure or do you also check "running" temperatures as well?
Posted 2015-10-04 8:57 PM (#164955 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Expert
Posts: 1989 Location: South Central OK
Is it the same tire location that blows out? When you hook-up and load your trailer have you checked that it sits level? Are you traveling at speeds that are beyond your tire speed rating? Do you tend to drive on the shoulder and pick-up road debris? Are you rotating tires regularly? Are you doing a safety inspection at every "fuel break" along your trip? Is your tire gauge calibrated correctly?
Posted 2015-10-04 9:47 PM (#164956 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Expert
Posts: 3853 Location: Vermont
Originally written by arielremos on 2015-10-04 11:31 PM
The 3 blowouts I've experienced in the last 6 years have always been at the recommended tire pressure.Never have I had any problem at all when under inflating from 5 - 12 lbs.This includes ST first, that I eventually changed thinking it was the inferior ST, & later with the LT that I replaced them with.Any thoughts or similar experiences?
Posted 2015-10-04 11:49 PM (#164958 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Member
Posts: 28 Location: Miami, FL
Thanks ALL for the inputs. Very valid questions, points & suggestions.It does get very hot down here but we do camping from NOV to MAR. Distances are relatively short (between 2 - 6 hours max) & incidents (@ different locations) have happened before 1st fuel stop.I'm very cautious about speed.Tires in all 3 incidents were a year to 2.5 years old.The LT's are BF Goodrich Commercial AT's & they sent me a brand new tire - great warranty. The ST's were OEM (Tomahawk) which I was told were Chinese.[The trailer is a 3 horse 8' wide (8' short wall) LQ Bison Stratus.]
Posted 2015-10-05 12:56 AM (#164960 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Expert
Posts: 3853 Location: Vermont
Remember a brand new tire CAN BE OLD based on its manufacturing date...that is why you have to check those codes...tires can sit in warehouses for years...
Posted 2015-10-05 5:04 AM (#164961 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Member
Posts: 11
Location: The Nederlands Europe
Originally written by arielremos on 2015-10-04 9:31 PM
The 3 blowouts I've experienced in the last 6 years have always been at the recommended tire pressure.Never have I had any problem at all when under inflating from 5 - 12 lbs.This includes ST first, that I eventually changed thinking it was the inferior ST, & later with the LT that I replaced them with.Any thoughts or similar experiences?
3 possibility's 1 the damage to tires have other cource then to much deflection by to low pressure for the load.2 The lower pressure of 5-12 psi you sometimes had courced damage to tire , wich came to blow out at later time when you had the recomended pressure.3 The recomended pressure was already to low for the load on the tires that blew.Where it always the same tires?ST tires are calculated in their maximum load for lower speed ( 65m/104km/h) then LT tires ( 99m/160km/h mostly) . This gives more deflection so heatproduction and damage border closer .A little overloading or to high reading of your pressure-device then makes the deflection in the danger-sone.If you ever are able to weigh the trailer by tire( pair) or second best by axle, and you give me the details here , and also from tires the maximum load and loadrange and speedcode ( oh mo you already gave ST with 65m/h as speed for wich the maxload is calculated), I can calculate a save pressure range for you.
Posted 2015-10-05 5:23 AM (#164962 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Member
Posts: 11
Location: The Nederlands Europe
An example to my former post.Asume you have axles weighed 5000 lbs eachYour tires give maximum load 2500 lbs AT 50 psi.Then looking in list it would give 2500lbs a tire ( if single load so 2 tires on one axle) .So 50 psi needed.But now The weightdivision on the axle is 48/52%, wich is often seen.Then on one tire 2550 lbs .And your pressure device gives 5% to high pressure so in real you filled 48.5 psi in the tire cold.Then roughly calculated this is for about 2380 lbs.And now it gets tricky , this gives 2550/2380=1.0714 times as much surface on the road and I concluded from that in time that deflection is 1.0714^2= 1,148 times as much deflection so about 1.148 times as much heatproduction per cicle of tire.To put it blunt, the tire can bare 2500 lbs AT 50 psi and then if you drive faster then 65m/h it produces to much heat so rubber at places hardens and damage in next bendings so deflections, an after a while blowout.With about 15% more heatproduction a cicle the tire begins to damage already at lower speed .Again estimated at 1/1.148 8 65m/h=about 56.5 m/h This together with a high ambiënt temperature can explane the damage done to your 3 tires.3 tires lost in a short time cant be a coincidence to my opinion
Posted 2015-10-05 10:50 PM (#164974 - in reply to #164953) Subject: Blowouts at recommended pressure
Veteran
Posts: 183 Location: riverside ca
I think you are experiencing correlation rather than causation. I have run a lot of tires and had plenty of blow outs but I always run at max tire pressure, the tire will run cooler. this will make the tire last longer. I find that even with quality tires, 3 years is about all you want to use them, at least for me based out of southern California. Dont take my word for it, by an IR thermometer and try different tire pressures drive 15-20 minutes and take the temp. ?heat is the enemy of tires, so the less heat you can get the tire to build up the longer it will last. The other thought is how fast do you drive? this also has an impact on how hot the tires get.. faster is hotter
Posted 2015-10-07 3:40 PM (#164993 - in reply to #164953) Subject: RE: Blowouts at recommended pressure
New User
Posts: 3
Location: Vass, NC
We purchased a used Featherlite that was ten years old. We had numerous blow-outs at the same tire location (left front) over several years. I talked to two Featherlite dealers, alignment people and tire people to try to find out what was going on. After the last incident in VA, the lug nuts were sheared off of the wheel and the trailer ended up at a specialty trailer place out of Richmond, VA. I asked the owner what the problem was and he said, "Your axles are worn out". After all of the people I had consulted and spoke to he was the first person who told me that. I was able to "limp" the trailer home to NC. Sure enough, after some checking I found out that torsion bar suspension axles do "wear out". I ordered a new set from Dexter ($2500 for the set), mounted them myself and have not had one tire issue since, going on five years now.
Blowouts at recommended pressure
