exploding trailer tires

[cdhd2001]

I will never buy a Carlisle trailer tire ever again. My 5th wheel blew out 3 brand new less than 1k miles Carlisle ST D 15" tires. I upgraded from 15" to 16" wheels and am running the same 245/75R16 E rated tires that are one my 3/4 ton. Finally showing some dry cracking after 5 years.

 

[Joe1]

I remember reading about 20 years ago where a farmer in the mid-west and his son were filling a large tractor tire with air when it exploded and killed the both of them. Apparantly the farmer had patched a very old and brittle farm tractor tire and was trying to set the bead with a lot of air pressure (around 100 psi) when the old tire failed and killed the both of them. For some reason that story stayed with me. Most tractor tires are pretty low pressure and under normal circumstances they wouldn't blow up, just blow out.

We have a neighbor with an old tractor from the 40's and he claims the tires are the original. They are old and brittle with some of the cleats broken off and they just don't look safe but they hold air.

 

[rback33]

Give you three guesses what happened to my wife on the way to the show and the first two don't count..... Was glad I had a tire in the shed I could have mounted on Sat after I drove up so I had a spare coming home...

On the way back i came across two trailers pulled over, one with a blow out... found out after i stopped she had blown one on the way to the show, but did not replace before heading home... she had nothing to put on... she was about 30 min from home and I was little over an hr....guess whose spare was the only one available that fit.... I put it on an prayed God would take care of me since I helped take care of her... it worked.... she brought it back to me the next day with a couple of steaks... never met her before in my life, but trusted her to bring it back.... I would want someone to do that for my wife if it came down to it... I only need to buy 8 tires right now..lol 4 trailer and 4 car.... thank heavens my escrow analysis dropped my house payment 125 bucks a month....

 

[Renze]

About the underrated tires, most light truck and Van tires are rated for 170 km/h.
If they are for trailer use, they usually can take a 5 to 10% higher load than at their rated speed. I dont think any authority would approve a trailer with tires that are rated less than what's on your license papers. At least, that's the law over here.

Indeed there are a lot of unspeakable chinese brand tires, in Holland we call them "chewing gum tires" because the rubber is usually so soft that you can actually hear the road chew your tires away...

 

[JoeinTX]

"rocking a long in rd gear...~ 20 MPH.... when BLAM.. sounds like a bomb went off and the wind shield is pelted with stuff.... right front tire had blown.... "


Having nothing to do with the topic, but your post made me think about one of the most harrowing tractor moments I've had. I was piloting the ol' MF 98 in one-pass discing/seeding several years ago and as I came to a swinging corner I had a wheel rim failure that got my attention. Standing up, to get a better view of the turn, I had a 40 year old chrystalized front right rim take a squat. Well, there I am laying literally across of the steering wheel as the old Detroit hums along while the right front wheel hub wallows itself out and digs into the soft ground as I'm frantically trying to right myself and throw the hand-clutch out of gear. Got it all done, but, we had a serious moment or two as the tractor took a notable dive and I had to wrangle around to get us all stopped.

And, like the above, I was probably lazing-back on the seat thinking about Friday night a few moments before it happened.

 

[sandman2234]

LoneCowboy,
Sorry to hear about your troubles with tires. Having run in excess of a couple million miles pulling a trailer, I can attest to two things. Most tires are damaged when they are run low on air pressure. Most manufacturer's put the lowest grade of tires on a trailer that they can get away with( including myself). I built a two axle car hauler to haul 2 conversion vans back in the early 90's. I put load range G tires on it. Owner changed the air pressure to 32 pounds for the first trip(DUH!!) and blew two almost immediately. He replaced them with E range which wouldn't hold the weight of the first ones, so he was constantly buying tires. He finally took my advise and purchased 5 of the heaviest load ranges tires he could order and made it policy to check the air twice a day. His tire woes got better, but never went away, as the trailer needed 3 axles, but he didn't want to part with that much money.
A nail can ruin your day even if you make it home without blowing the tire if you run it low.
David from jax

 

[Joe1]

Sandman:

You make a good point about tire pressure.

In 1982 while working for the Feds, I drove a 1981 Chevy Malibu enforcement vehicle complete with a police package which included 6 ply Goodyear police tires ($105.00 each). One night after running for about 20 miles at 85 mph, I heard a bang and pulled over. I had blown about a 8 - 10 inch long piece of the cap off of one tire from sidewall to sidewall and was down to the inner steel band.

When I took it to Goodyear the next day, they said that they were having a lot of problems with these tires which they couldn't understand because these were their best tires. Their thought was that the tires had very stiff sidewalls so they always looked like they had enough air even when they were underinflated. The heat buildup from highspeed runs caused sidewall flexing which caused the tires to overheat and they failed.

I was pretty thorough about checking the vehicle and maintenance, but admit other than visually looking at the tires (which looked ok) I never checked the pressure, that is until this eye opening incident.

I had a dual rear tire go flat on a motorhome before a trip. I always check the tire pressure before going on the road and although the tire looked OK, it had leaked down to zero because of a leaking valve stem. Had I not checked it, the other tire would surely have failed from a 100% overload.

I do learn from my past mistakes.

 

[Jimbrown]

I gota pull my 3 horse goose neck to Phoneix and back on Sunday. Its 105 in the shade I just know I am gonna loose one tire I just hope it ain't two.

 

[rback33]

I gota pull my 3 horse goose neck to Phoneix and back on Sunday. Its 105 in the shade I just know I am gonna loose one tire I just hope it ain't two.

Better take a spare spare...

 

[sandman2234]

A spare spare and a tire pressure guage. Plus some extra time to sit in the shade and let the tire cool down somewhere along the way. Running at night is the best option during too hot days.
David from jax

 

[rback33]

A spare spare and a tire pressure guage. Plus some extra time to sit in the shade and let the tire cool down somewhere along the way. Running at night is the best option during too hot days.
David from jax

I loved running at night when I drove a truck.. less crazies to deal with, cooler...lots of good reasons

Do it whenever I can still.. even when I ran local hauling crude I worked at night during the summer to avoid the heat.. slept during the day...

 

[Jimbrown]

Yep but....... I am gonna see if I can pick up a spare spare tommorow I doubt anyone has 8 hole 16 in stock...And its kinda hard to dicker horse trades in the middle of the night unless of course you happen to be a rustler.

 

[sandman2234]

Eight lug 16's are easy to find. In fact if you were closer I would give you two, as my truck runs bud wheels and singles don't work.
David from jax

 

[Jimbrown]

Got a brand new one and a used LT235 85. Im ready let the suckers blow. Now if i just had a battery powered impact wrench

 

[thatguy]

I will try to never buy another Carisle tire again.. We got a new popup camper and had a blowout on one of the first trips.. Moved spare onto the axle and bought a spare, and a spare spare... The next summer we had the other original tire and the original spare blow separately during a trip home from Myrtle Beach.. Total damage to camper was almost $800....

Filed a claim with carlisle and they passed it on to Goodyear, who actually made the tire them... Goodyear covered the damages luckily..

Around here you can pretty much ONLY get Carlisle trailer tires if you want it today..

Brian

 

[LoneCowboy]

arrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhh
Another trailer flat today
I have 3 trailers (red, white, black (don't ask ))
The red one was the exploding one in the first post, all 4 new tires. The black dump trailer had like 5 holes in one of it's tires a week ago, another new tire and now today, the white trailer (brand new in April) has a freaking hole in one of it's tires (load range G, i'm sure they are cheap, not )
Hopefully they can patch it.
Drove real slow on the way home, it would hold 60psi, but not 110psi.

 

[Dougster]

arrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhh Another trailer flat today I have 3 trailers (red, white, black (don't ask )) The red one was the exploding one in the first post, all 4 new tires. The black dump trailer had like 5 holes in one of it's tires a week ago, another new tire and now today, the white trailer (brand new in April) has a freaking hole in one of it's tires (load range G, i'm sure they are cheap, not ) Hopefully they can patch it. Drove real slow on the way home, it would hold 60psi, but not 110psi.

Don't feel so bad Brian. I had my share of trailer tire problems this weekend. I blew out both tires on the left hand side of my brand new Downeaster dump trailer... on the highway no less!!! And right in front of an unmarked state cop radar trap no less!!! Nobody was hurt and the trailer went right back into service an hour later with wheels & tires off my equipment trailer, but the cop ticketed me anyway for a "marked lanes" violation. Apparently, he did not like how close I came to him pulling over out of traffic as fast as I could. $100 fine (which I will definitely fight) and countless dollars to be lost on insurance points if this charge stands.

Reasons for the blowouts? Not entirely clear, but several prime suspects. Turns out that my Downeaster came with two different brands of wheels and tires... mounted one brand per side... which may have been braking very differently. The trailer had clearly been pulling to the left... with the left side tending to lock up first as I adjusted and set my brake controller. I never noticed the wheel and tire brand difference before this weekend's incident. Loadstar on one side (left) and Duro on the other (right). The loadstars blew out. The Duros held.

Also... no more ST225/75R15D tires ever again. I never trusted or wanted those skinny, ugly, undersized tires on either trailer and now I have paid the price for caving in on El Cheapo, crappy 10K trailers when I should have bought 12K trailers. Both of my trailers are getting upgraded to same brand 235 wide, 16 inch tires ASAP. Load range E if I can get them, otherwise load range D. Just not sure what type, aspect ratio and brand until I can do some serious investigation.

Did the two different brands/treads really lead to the blowouts? Who knows. I did instinctively apply the brakes to slow down when I saw the radar trap ahead... even though I was only going 55 MPH. Did the left side lock on me and blow? Quite possible I'm afraid.

I also found glass buried deeply into one tire... although it will never be known if this caused the first blowout or if this was something I ran over after the blowouts over in the breakdown lane. Regardless, once the first left side tire was gone, the second one on that side could not take double the load and blew out right behind the first. Nasty business!

This was my first trip on the highway at 55 MPH with a full rated load. Never again. I bought the wrong dump trailer with the wrong tires... two different brands worth I'm afraid. I'm certainly going to do the best I can with bigger, higher-rated tires... of the same type & brand... but I believe my initial compromise on trailer rating and price led to this mess and I'm thinking that a much higher quality dump trailer may be necessary for my long-term safety.

Dougster

 

[Renze]

Hey guys, dont we have international tire ratings ???

If you refer to tires as "load range G" i think you guys dont have a clue about what it means, and i'm not surprised to hear all this tire horror...

The cipher/letter combination stands for a load index ( example: LI 128 means 1800 kg per tire) where the Q stands for, i think it was 160 km/h max speed.
You may install high speed tires under your trailers, but that has very little to do with actual load carrying capacity.

Compare this chart to what's under your trailer, then re concider your judgement on those "cheapo" trailer tires
Goodyear-Load Index
p.s: "load range D" ??? tires are certainly not advisable for other than slow traffic and farm use

 

[Jimbrown]

Those ratings do not apply to trailer tires. Trailer tires are rated by the manufacture and never tested by the DOT ( in the US anyway) that is exactly why I never buy trailer tires. If they come on my trailer I replace them with LT tires everytime I ruin one which is not long for the junky made in China trailer tires. I have (Unfortunately) horse trailers that came with 235 85 16 trailer tires both have no name tires with no such ratings anywhere on the tires they just give a ply rating, number of plies and and a load range that the manufactuer assigned the tire. Who knows what they are really capable of carring. One of the brands does not even have the required date of manufactuer code at least not to US standards it may be in chinese. Pure junk.

 

[California]

Exploding Chinese tires have joined the toothpaste and pet food recalls. Google on 'Chinese tires recall' for many news stories. This one about a US lawsuit says the Chinese government-owned tire factory stopped including the tread-separation component in their tires.

Chinese Tires Are Ordered Recalled - New York Times


Renze - letter designations in the US are an old (and partly superseded) US standard that is different than Europe. To oversimplify, 'B' was a common 2-ply car tire, 'C' was a 4-ply heavy duty car or SUV tire, and the higher letters mean higher pressure and weight capacity for commercial applications. These aren't speed ratings like the European system.