Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

kenmyfam

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
14,385
This happened about 100 miles from home. We felt a slight "bump" but saw nothing, everything looked good in my mirrors and we carried on home. Upon arrival, backed into the driveway, unhitched and when I went to chock the wheels found this !!!!
Now the spare is on and I am getting a new tire before our next trip.
Next time I hear a "bump" I will pull over and check it out !!!
Could have been nasty. Still can not believe we went 100 miles on this !!!
 

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d_saum

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
80
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

Holy Mackerel!!!! Thats amazing! I can't believe it held up all that way. This kind of thing really scares me... I have such an odd tire size/rim combo that if I have a blowout, Im going to be totally stuck!
 

tashasdaddy

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
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Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

that is why air pressure is so important, that tire overheated, low air pressure.
 

Silvertip

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Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

I agree with Tash -- the edge wear is proof of underinflation.
 

fishmen111

Chief Petty Officer
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Feb 1, 2008
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637
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

I agree also. Tread delamination from overheating due to low air pressure.
 

bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
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Mar 5, 2006
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Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

What is the date code on that tire?
 

Rancherlee

Chief Petty Officer
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Jun 6, 2006
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621
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

I've had 2 tires do that, both carsile (sp?) tires. I ALWAYS check inflation before every trip. My 13" one did that and I had a Wide 8" have the whole tread come off in one chunk. It almost like they didn't use enough heat at the factory and the tread never got a good "stick" on the carcass.
 

kenmyfam

Supreme Mariner
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Messages
14,385
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

Hate to denounce the overwhelming "under inflation" theory.
I know it happened about 100 miles from home as we had just left from our last stop of the journey. We stopped to eat, gas up and yes......once again check the tire pressures. I check the axle temperature as soon as we stop and the tire pressures just before we leave after they have cooled somewhat. I use my own known accurate pressure gauge.
Unless of course it developed a leak, stripped some tread from being under inflated and then pumped itself back to the correct pressure before we got home as I checked the pressure in it as soon as i saw it when we got home and it had not lost a thing !! (it still has not)
Having said all this, my first thoughts were that it had lost pressure and started to self destruct.
 

reelfishin

Captain
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Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

Tread separation can be caused by several things, under inflation/overheating, impact or bruising, and multi layer punctures. A tire can form pockets or internal leaks after an impact, often from the inside out. This type of separation usually leads to total, often rapid deflation once the separation ruptures. An external impact can also cause 'tears' in the layers of the tread.

I'm not sure I agree with the age factor 100%, I've had older vehicles, many with original tires and ran them for many, many years on those tires with never a failure. My 1977 F150 had it's original Firestone Custom Radials on it, they were 13 years old when I got that truck with 17,000 miles on it, I drove it for another 23,000 miles over the next 12 years with no tire concerns. I have two trucks that were wrecked and turned into trailers, and those trailers still have the original tires on them, one is over 35 years old, I just towed that trailer 300 miles on the turnpike yesterday with over 1100 lbs on board.
I can't count how many boats and trailers I've towed home, some a good distance with tires that were so badly rotted you couldn't read the sidewalls and never a blow out or problem.
I did have a pair of Firestone 500 tires blow apart in my garage one day, but those were on a parked truck that was no longer used that had been sitting for about 5 years. I had pumped the tires up, after noticing that they had gone down a bit over the years, and about 2 hours later, both right side tires blew apart, about 5 minutes apart. Both tires that failed were those that were exposed to the sunlight on the window side of the building. They had dried out and become brittle where the sun had continually shined.

I think a lot of the problems today with tires may be due to both the application of tires on modern vehicles and possibly to some extent what ever has changed in tires over the past 30 or so years. Why is it that this is suddenly a concern? In the past, we drove till our tires were either bald or too dry rotted to hold air. I can remember it being quite normal practice to just put a tube in a tire that was either punctured or un-patchable or for what ever reason just wouldn't hold air.

I notice a lot of larger SUV's and pickups running on light duty passenger tires, even though they are used for towing and often off road driving.
This is mostly due to the fact that passenger tires are cheaper, and often give a better ride. I've actually found it hard to find a good light truck tire for my truck, which is due for new tires due to dryrot and hardening of the sidewalls. They are 14 years old and have 70% of their tread remaining but have gotten so hard that the ride is unbearable. They also have pretty severe age cracks. They are date coded 1991, but came new on my old truck, a 1992.

I've been searching for an affordable tire for this truck now for over a year with no luck, it seams you either have to pay a premium for a high end tire or run a passenger tire. I can't see paying over a hundred dollars per tire for a 14" tire. I just bought 4 Michelin Hydro Edge tires for my Mercury for $60 each, and had an unlimited selection of tires in the 16" size, but it seams 14" has gone extinct in light truck sizes. The only choices I see so far are Chinese made.

What brand was the tire that failed? I've seen a few off brand trailer tires with tread separation, all were bias ply tires, all showed excessive edge wear but were not underinflated.

I just put a new set of Nanco A78 13 ST tires on a bass boat trailer, which gets very little use, and noticed that if they were inflated to their recommended 35 psi. on a 4.5" wide rim, they bulged not only in the middle but at the edges, a dangerous looking type of deformity. deflating them to 32 psi solved that problem. They are a load range A tire, 2 ply, $18 each. The boat and trailer only travel about a mile on a back road to a local pond once in a while, so high dollar tires would be a waste on that trailer. It never sees more than 20 to 25 mph and the boat only weighs at best 800lbs.
I'm not sure who makes Duron tires, there's no weight rating, no Made in ???? markings whatsoever. I was able to get them from a local trailer builder who uses them on their trailers. They resemble the older Carlisle bia ply trailer tires.

I have seen a good number of Towmaster bias ply tires fail, one local farm supply sells them and they seem to drop like flies.
I've seen everything from unexplained wear patters to complete blowouts. I've had a number of them come in as fully inflated bare casings where all of the tread had come off. I can't say what they had been through or how they were treated.
 

bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,454
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

Driving around on tires that are 35 or even 25 years old is just...well I am not going to say it. I just hope that when you do have your blow out, you are alone and there is nobody in the lane next to you.
 

wayne h

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Apr 29, 2003
Messages
862
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

A+ its not worth the chance for a 40 ish buxs tire . i pack bearings and check tires every year any sign of cracking and there changed .. keeping the sun off your tires will help them last longer
Driving around on tires that are 35 or even 25 years old is just...well I am not going to say it. I just hope that when you do have your blow out, you are alone and there is nobody in the lane next to you.
 

BMOLCHANY

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
224
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

Looks like you had the "Luck of the Irish" on that trip. Too bad I am polish..........
 

reelfishin

Captain
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Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

Driving around on tires that are 35 or even 25 years old is just...well I am not going to say it. I just hope that when you do have your blow out, you are alone and there is nobody in the lane next to you.

I had to pick a boat up Thursday night about 100 miles north of me, when I got there the tires were really bad, too bad to hold air. The problem I had was that no one stocked trailer tires around here, so my only choice was to either run an old set of tires from out back behind the garage or waste cash on a set of passenger tires that were too light.
The trailer did fine coming back on the 20+ year old tires, the boat and trailer were junk, I only wanted the motor but had to take all to get it. I had little concern for the boat or trailer, if it fell off and tumbled into the woods, oh well.
The first thing I did was to hoss the outboard into the back of the truck.
The only parts I saved were electric winch and the boats electronics, (a Ray Marine GPS plotter and fishfinder), (Someone had a 2006 Honda motor on a 1970's skiff full of plywood patches and a bent, rusty trailer. The axle was broke in the middle, it was spliced together with a board and some hose clamps and looked to have been like that for a long time, the tongue was bent sideways about a foot, and had a 2x4 hammered into the end to help support it due to rust.
Either way, it towed fine, even at turnpike speeds. At 3AM there's not much traffic out and not much chance of hitting another car with flying debris. The boat and trailer went to boat heaven and the outboard will find a new home on one of my boats. The original tires and rims were so bad that the owner had tubes in them to try and seal the rusted through rims.

I had that rig up to at least 70, and nothing came off or flew apart. Even the loose, gritty sounding bearings. It looked as if the dust caps had been missing for about 20 years or more. I did tap on a spare bearing buddy and pump in some grease before leaving with it. It ended up that I didn't have to haul it all the way home, an attendant at a gas station thought it had potential and became it's new owner about 20 miles into the ride, so it stayed there minus my wheels and what I had already removed and tossed in the back of the truck.

Getting rid of that mess probably saved me another half a tank of gas coming home too. Those tires are back behind the garage awaiting the next junk boat to haul home for parts.
 

Ret USN CPO

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
135
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

I had to pick a boat up Thursday night about 100 miles north of me, when I got there the tires were really bad, too bad to hold air. The problem I had was that no one stocked trailer tires around here, so my only choice was to either run an old set of tires from out back behind the garage or waste cash on a set of passenger tires that were too light.
The trailer did fine coming back on the 20+ year old tires, the boat and trailer were junk, I only wanted the motor but had to take all to get it. I had little concern for the boat or trailer, if it fell off and tumbled into the woods, oh well.
The first thing I did was to hoss the outboard into the back of the truck.
The only parts I saved were electric winch and the boats electronics, (a Ray Marine GPS plotter and fishfinder), (Someone had a 2006 Honda motor on a 1970's skiff full of plywood patches and a bent, rusty trailer. The axle was broke in the middle, it was spliced together with a board and some hose clamps and looked to have been like that for a long time, the tongue was bent sideways about a foot, and had a 2x4 hammered into the end to help support it due to rust.
Either way, it towed fine, even at turnpike speeds. At 3AM there's not much traffic out and not much chance of hitting another car with flying debris. The boat and trailer went to boat heaven and the outboard will find a new home on one of my boats. The original tires and rims were so bad that the owner had tubes in them to try and seal the rusted through rims.

I had that rig up to at least 70, and nothing came off or flew apart. Even the loose, gritty sounding bearings. It looked as if the dust caps had been missing for about 20 years or more. I did tap on a spare bearing buddy and pump in some grease before leaving with it. It ended up that I didn't have to haul it all the way home, an attendant at a gas station thought it had potential and became it's new owner about 20 miles into the ride, so it stayed there minus my wheels and what I had already removed and tossed in the back of the truck.

Getting rid of that mess probably saved me another half a tank of gas coming home too. Those tires are back behind the garage awaiting the next junk boat to haul home for parts.

Well, how about posting on here when, where and what route you are taking the next time. That was foolishly dangerous and you endangered the lives of others, even if it was at 3 am. A POS trailer as you described above should not have been on a back road doing 30 let alone on a turnpike doing 70.

That is just unf*****g believable!
 

Dave K.

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
437
Re: Speaking of Trailer Tires (Photos)

same, exact thing happened to me about 2 months ago...lost half a tire due to underinflation (now i know that) anyway, yeah doingb about 60, i didnt notice any problem. when i slowed down i felt a bump during the rotation & watched my boat "bob" up & down, then noticed the tire flatten out when the untreaded part met the road. yeah, i limped to the nearest wal mart & replaced it right in the parking lot. btw, ck pressure on new tires as well. my new tire was around 45psi.
 
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