first blowout

[danimal53]

middle of a cool day (this past sunday, central NY state) and raining, only going about 40-45mph. Checked tire pressure before we left (about 125miles into the drive). Felt quite the rumble, and could see smoke in the passenger mirror. Wow was that tire destroyed! can't figure out how to post a photo, but ****.

I thought I was fully prepared for this, had 2 jacks, a spare, 2 inflators, lug wrench.

Was getting started when I realized...lug wrench for my TV is 3/4. TT...13/16. So 1/16 of an inch cost me a couple hours! I knew they were different sizes, but forgot until it was needed. Called AAA and being a holiday weekend, in the middle of nowhere, it was going to be a couple hours wait. A police officer pulled behind us to check on us, and we explained what was up. An AutoZone was only 2miles away, and he offered to drive my wife to get the right lug wrench! So we were back in business....and literally as I lowered the jack, all ready to get back on the road, the tow truck pulled behind us.

Very grateful nobody was hurt, no real damage, and a big thanks to a very friendly officer!

I'll now be lurking the forums figuring out what new tires to buy. current tires are about 2.5yrs old, this one blew at about 10,500 miles. The rest of the drive home was about 1,000 more miles, so my spare now has 1,000 miles, and the other tire 11,500.

[rbpru]

ST, LT or even the lowly P rated tire. I would like to see the DOT data on the failure rate of each type.

I would also be interesting to see why they failed.

[All_I_could_aff]

So here's a few shots of father in laws Westlake tires on his Accord. Turns out they are only 6 years old by the production date, I thought they may have been even older. They look to be in nice shape, but he drives so little these days, probably less than 15,000 miles on these.

I know they are nothing great, but these ones seem to be serving him well, as have the ones on my camper for 2 years now. Far better than what was on it when I bought it 6 years ago

[myredracer]

^^^ Now I have a headache trying to figure out who said what to whom and about what. Ya'll oughta use CAPS for more emphasis, lol!

"They are all built rock solid with great care and workmanship..." You mean just like a previous brand new TT we had that got replaced under warranty? The whole flippin' TT! Sure... 🙂

Since this has drifted a bit (as per normal):

While a blowout has to be a shocking experience, I once got hit in the windshield right in front of my face with about a 3" rock. BAM! Scared the livin' sn*t out of me and thought someone shot at me. A dump truck had just left a gravel yard down the road after picking up a load and I guess it wasn't properly covered. The truck I were both doing about 40 mph so the hit was the combined force of the rock doing about 80 mph. This was shortly followed by another hit - having to pay a $300 deductible to replace the windshield.

[Ralph_Cramden]

Huntindog wrote:

Ralph Cramden wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

Ralph wrote:
I run ST's on a small fleet of equipment / tool trailers and would not consider anything else. Out of 6 to as many as 10 of those trailers on the road at a given time over 15 years, I think we may have had 10 or 12 flats in at least a half a million miles. That's saying a lot with some of the dummies we have pulling those things around at times, good help is hard to find. Every one was due to picking up a nail or screw at a site or some other type of damage we brought on ourselves. When we need tires on those trailers they go down to the local tire guy and he puts on whatever ST's he has in stock, usually imported I would Imagine. I don't waste time monitoring what they are as I am not afflicted with RVFOCTD (RV forum obsessive compulsive tire disorder). I do know we have some Carlisles on two trailers right now, that I personally towed to a site last week.

Those are the only kind of trailers that STs should probably be run on. A blowout will not cause the kind of catastrophic damage on them that it commonly does on a RV. So you can go cheap, with little consequences if it doesn't work out.

Maybe, but from what I've seen personally when RV's are severely damaged from a flat tire (I prefer to not say blowout) the driver went a few miles or more at speed before realizing the tire had shredded to pieces.As many have reported (myself included) One cannot always tell by feel that a tire has come apart. Heck I even lost a wheel once due to a spun bearing, and didn't find out till I got home.Perhaps get a TPMS? I bought the TST system and it works quite well so far as well as being fairly accurate on pressures and tire temps. It might even detect a bearing going bad with its heat monitoring. They usually notice when they see the debris trailing off. I've fixed a couple trailers for others. If the manufacturers would at least use some more substantial materials we would not have a damage issue. My 2017 Rockwood has ABS plastic wheel wells.Don't get me started on RV build standards.
I tend to over build things myself... I guess I would probably build a really heavy TT Why would I, nothing to really discuss? They are all built rock solid with great care and workmanship........almost an example of perfection.
MUHAHAHAHAHAHA It also had exposed raw luan plywood (the outer lamination bottom edge)which would of taken the water off the wheel soaking it up like a sponge, but that's another story.


That does not apply to a single axle rig I suppose. But as I said I have never had a flat on an ST that I could not prove was due to something other than loss of pressure due to a puncture or other road hazard, curb hit, etc.

Maybe just luck?

[Huntindog]

Ralph Cramden wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

Ralph wrote:
I run ST's on a small fleet of equipment / tool trailers and would not consider anything else. Out of 6 to as many as 10 of those trailers on the road at a given time over 15 years, I think we may have had 10 or 12 flats in at least a half a million miles. That's saying a lot with some of the dummies we have pulling those things around at times, good help is hard to find. Every one was due to picking up a nail or screw at a site or some other type of damage we brought on ourselves. When we need tires on those trailers they go down to the local tire guy and he puts on whatever ST's he has in stock, usually imported I would Imagine. I don't waste time monitoring what they are as I am not afflicted with RVFOCTD (RV forum obsessive compulsive tire disorder). I do know we have some Carlisles on two trailers right now, that I personally towed to a site last week.

Those are the only kind of trailers that STs should probably be run on. A blowout will not cause the kind of catastrophic damage on them that it commonly does on a RV. So you can go cheap, with little consequences if it doesn't work out.

Maybe, but from what I've seen personally when RV's are severely damaged from a flat tire (I prefer to not say blowout) the driver went a few miles or more at speed before realizing the tire had shredded to pieces.As many have reported (myself included) One cannot always tell by feel that a tire has come apart. Heck I even lost a wheel once due to a spun bearing, and didn't find out till I got home. They usually notice when they see the debris trailing off. I've fixed a couple trailers for others. If the manufacturers would at least use some more substantial materials we would not have a damage issue. My 2017 Rockwood has ABS plastic wheel wells.Don't get me started on RV build standards.
I tend to over build things myself... I guess I would probably build a really heavy TT It also had exposed raw luan plywood (the outer lamination bottom edge)which would of taken the water off the wheel soaking it up like a sponge, but that's another story.


That does not apply to a single axle rig I suppose. But as I said I have never had a flat on an ST that I could not prove was due to something other than loss of pressure due to a puncture or other road hazard, curb hit, etc.

Maybe just luck?

[All_I_could_aff]

He's a frugal man, and doesn't drive very far anymore. Just to the grocery store and butcher shop every day for fresh food, and unfortunately to chemo treatments twice a week.

I doubt he does 2000 miles a year these days

[Ralph_Cramden]

Huntindog wrote:

Ralph wrote:
I run ST's on a small fleet of equipment / tool trailers and would not consider anything else. Out of 6 to as many as 10 of those trailers on the road at a given time over 15 years, I think we may have had 10 or 12 flats in at least a half a million miles. That's saying a lot with some of the dummies we have pulling those things around at times, good help is hard to find. Every one was due to picking up a nail or screw at a site or some other type of damage we brought on ourselves. When we need tires on those trailers they go down to the local tire guy and he puts on whatever ST's he has in stock, usually imported I would Imagine. I don't waste time monitoring what they are as I am not afflicted with RVFOCTD (RV forum obsessive compulsive tire disorder). I do know we have some Carlisles on two trailers right now, that I personally towed to a site last week.

Those are the only kind of trailers that STs should probably be run on. A blowout will not cause the kind of catastrophic damage on them that it commonly does on a RV. So you can go cheap, with little consequences if it doesn't work out.

Maybe, but from what I've seen personally when RV's are severely damaged from a flat tire (I prefer to not say blowout) the driver went a few miles or more at speed before realizing the tire had shredded to pieces. They usually notice when they see the debris trailing off. I've fixed a couple trailers for others. If the manufacturers would at least use some more substantial materials we would not have a damage issue. My 2017 Rockwood has ABS plastic wheel wells. It also had exposed raw luan plywood (the outer lamination bottom edge)which would of taken the water off the wheel soaking it up like a sponge, but that's another story.


That does not apply to a single axle rig I suppose. But as I said I have never had a flat on an ST that I could not prove was due to something other than loss of pressure due to a puncture or other road hazard, curb hit, etc.

Maybe just luck?

All I could afford wrote:
Ralphie, I will try to get the Manufacture code off my own Westlake trailer tires this weekend, just to compare. Now that I'm thinking about it I believe my father-in-law has a pair of West Lakes on his Honda accord and I may see him this weekend as well. If so I will try to get the code off of those as well. They are probably manufacture date of close to 10 years ago

LOL, they must be **** good tires if 10 years old?

[All_I_could_aff]

Ralphie, I will try to get the Manufacture code off my own Westlake trailer tires this weekend, just to compare. Now that I'm thinking about it I believe my father-in-law has a pair of West Lakes on his Honda accord and I may see him this weekend as well. If so I will try to get the code off of those as well. They are probably manufacture date of close to 10 years ago

[Huntindog]

Ralph wrote:
I run ST's on a small fleet of equipment / tool trailers and would not consider anything else. Out of 6 to as many as 10 of those trailers on the road at a given time over 15 years, I think we may have had 10 or 12 flats in at least a half a million miles. That's saying a lot with some of the dummies we have pulling those things around at times, good help is hard to find. Every one was due to picking up a nail or screw at a site or some other type of damage we brought on ourselves. When we need tires on those trailers they go down to the local tire guy and he puts on whatever ST's he has in stock, usually imported I would Imagine. I don't waste time monitoring what they are as I am not afflicted with RVFOCTD (RV forum obsessive compulsive tire disorder). I do know we have some Carlisles on two trailers right now, that I personally towed to a site last week.

Those are the only kind of trailers that STs should probably be run on. A blowout will not cause the kind of catastrophic damage on them that it commonly does on a RV. So you can go cheap, with little consequences if it doesn't work out.

[Ralph_Cramden]

All I could afford wrote:
Westlake

Interesting......

Those are from the highly regarded Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Company LOL, equal to maybe Michelin I assume, but they do not list any ST trailer tires anywhere. For a good laugh go to that site and click on the contact us or find a dealer links.

Westlake ST tires are distributed by Lionshead Tire and Wheel out of Goshen IN exclusivly, possibly or probably made by the above mentioned Chinese maker for Lionshead.
Lionshead however is listed as the manufacturer at NHTSA.

Now I have to go get the plant code from the DOT number off our Rockwood out of curiosity .


As far as the ST / LT debate I'll stick to the advice given to me a few years ago from a retired Goodyear engineer. LT tires are not made for the sidewall loading that a trailer tire is subjected to when you do a sharp turn with multiple axles. That advice has served us well.

I run ST's on a small fleet of equipment / tool trailers and would not consider anything else. Out of 6 to as many as 10 of those trailers on the road at a given time over 15 years, I think we may have had 10 or 12 flats in at least a half a million miles. That's saying a lot with some of the dummies we have pulling those things around at times, good help is hard to find. Every one was due to picking up a nail or screw at a site or some other type of damage we brought on ourselves. When we need tires on those trailers they go down to the local tire guy and he puts on whatever ST's he has in stock, usually imported I would Imagine. I don't waste time monitoring what they are as I am not afflicted with RVFOCTD (RV forum obsessive compulsive tire disorder). I do know we have some Carlisles on two trailers right now, that I personally towed to a site last week.

[Huntindog]

RCMAN46 wrote:
Not speed or sun rot.

The tire failed while carried as a spare inside the trailer.

Then it was repeatadly curbed HARD!!:BJust kidding. We were having a little fun.

Seriously, this is not the first time an ST tire pic like this has appeared on this forum... In fact it is all too common.

My tire problems ended in 2006, when I finally gave up on ST tires. I noticed that my TV tires were much more reliable, and they go everywhere my TT does and more. So I put LT tires on the TT just like what is on my TV.. Problem solved.
I no longer have to blame myself for not taking care of my TT tires.. No more saying a prayer over them on every trip. No more checking the pressures at every stop, no more rubbing them with baby oil every night. No more watching my speed, or worries about curbing.


My LTs just flat out work. Just like a tire is supposed to. No muss, no fuss. No excuses necessary for why they failed... As they don't.
You too can have good tires. You just gotta wanna make the jump away from STs.

[RCMAN46]

Not speed or sun rot.

The tire failed while carried as a spare inside the trailer.

[Huntindog]

Lynnmor wrote:

RCMAN46 wrote:
I was in favor of Maxxis 8008 until I found this.

Tire was inside my trailer as a spare. When I went to check pressures on my tires before a trip I found this.

The tire still had 65 psi which is sidewall marked cold pressure.

Image posted with Imgur and direct BBCode in post.

Obviously you drove over 65 MPH. :W

No, it was sun rot.:B

[Lynnmor]

RCMAN46 wrote:
I was in favor of Maxxis 8008 until I found this.

Tire was inside my trailer as a spare. When I went to check pressures on my tires before a trip I found this.

The tire still had 65 psi which is sidewall marked cold pressure.

Image posted with Imgur and direct BBCode in post.

Obviously you drove over 65 MPH. :W