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.