Suffered a Blowout

I bet 80% of the folks towing travel trailers are exceeding the speed rating of their trailer tires.

 

Best of luck on repairs OP, my last one earlier this year got totaled out from some tree damage.

Picked this up last weekend, 2019 superb shape. Discovered after I got it home the rear axle is bent flat (no curve as designed) and the tires are canted inward. Noticed the interior tires were fairly worn compared to the front set, initially thought the bearings needed adjusted as they were loose but the problem was bigger than that. Got a new axle on order and need to replace asap and set of 4 new tires. Looks to be an easy swap so I'll do it myself, shops are busy and crazy expensive. Right now I'm getting 8ply trailer tires, would like to get 10ply though for the added stability. Thought I'd share, check axles when looking at trailers/campers!

 

When buying a trailer, check the “payload” rating. The amount of stuff the trailer can handle being loaded into it. Sometimes it’s really low, like under 1000#. That means they chose the bare minimum axle capacity for the trailer. Say the trailer is 6200# dry. Two 3500# axles would work, but only provide 800# of payload or stuff in it. So you’re basically running around fully loaded all the time. Most trailer suspensions are pretty cut rate too, and very few feature shocks. The axles take a beating. Higher payload equals higher rated axles.

 

I read posts on here all the time “I drive 80 so I don’t get run over”. I usually drive 55-65mph SO I CAN MANUEVER AND STOP when I need to. I’m in the right lane. Go around if you need to drive faster. I’ve never been run over yet. Weird. Not to mention my prior trailer had the 65mph rated tires on it. New one has passenger car tires on it that are rated higher for passenger vehicles. Not sure if it’s the same on a trailer.

 

Most trailer tires are only rated for about 65mph. And most travel trailers are heavily loaded constantly. It's not like a utility trailer that's empty half the time.

Go slower. I used to live right off the interstate. Lots of people with blowouts, flats, and bearing issues would park on the end of my street for repair. It was almost always some type of camper.

 

Yep, and it makes sense with smaller trucks like the 1st gens a couple of us in this thread have. I've towed my trailer with a 98 Tacoma, and now my 02 Tundra. The Tacoma was a manual 5-speed. No 5th gear when towing, and if you push higher than about 65-70 in 4th gear, you're running really high rpm. So 65 is about perfect. In the Tundra, no OD when towing, which means 3rd gear, and same issue. 70mph is as fast as I'll go based on the rpm I'm comfortable cruising at.

I just got Hankook trailer tires for my truck-bed trailer (that often carries my slide-in camper) and I'm interested to see how they do. So far I've only ever used tires from companies I've never heard of before, that only make trailer tires. I went with Hankook hoping they'd be the same quality as Hankook truck tires. We'll see.

 

Also the last owner did not have the WDH setup right, riding too high in the front. He had a Tundra DC too, ironically. But when I hooked it up to my truck and it was riding heavy on the rear axle. Has two 3500 axles, but one set was taking majority of the weight. That and if they overloaded the trailer probably factors as well for the rear axle bending.

 

Trailer tires follow the same speed rating letter chart as car tires do. The Kendas I just installed on my utility trailer are "N" rated which is 87 mph. I'm not saying I tow that fast but just like I don't want to run the tires or axles at or near their weight limit all the time, I don't want to run a tire near it's max speed all the time. When I rebuilt my utility trailer I also upgraded to slightly heavier springs, thicker shackles that have greaseable bolts, and rubberized equalizers which allow the axles to work a little more independently. All of it was overkill for the 2500lb SXS it hauls but it's insurance that I'll have trouble free trips and it's also good to know that if I need to haul something heavier I'll still have plenty of headroom. I pulled it over 1200 miles on its maiden voyage a few weeks ago and it towed like a dream.

 

It’s really hard to beat a Goodyear Endurance trailer tire.

Watch your speed. as mentioned above, trailer tires aren’t made to go 100 mph. I roll with the semis…

Maintain your pressure! More tires die due to this than a lot of other issues. Low pressure makes heat. Heat kills tires. Use a TPMS system. They’re about the price of one tire these days. Worth it.

Your trailer likely came with crap tires. Replace them with quality! Yeah, a couple manufacturers use GY Endurance as OEM. Those are good. The rest are shit.

Your trailer came with tires that barely cover max load on your trailer. If you’re lucky…. You can likely bump up one size and have a much more robust tire. For example, my TT came with 205/75-15 LRC tires. I put on 225/75-15 LRD. 3/4” taller, and about 1/4” wider. Huge improvement for capacity. I made sure I had an extra 3/8” room between top of tire and the floor.

Did I mention a TPMS???

 

My first little single axle enclosed had biased ply tires rated for 62 mph. They wore funny and needed to be replaced after a year. I didn’t know much about trailer tires at the time but never would have guessed that the speed rating was so low. I knew the guy from whom I bought the trailer; he’s always got a hot rod pickup of one sort (tuned diesel, SC tundra, 700 hp 3.5 ecoboost, etc) and doesn’t dawdle driving down the road.

I got a little education from the tire shop when I brought it in for new tires. They chuckled when I told them I had no idea why they were wearing like that: unbalanced biased ply tires that are barely rated for the trailer, with variable weights and highway speeds…

Like @Chad D. I try to put over-rated tires on my trailers now. You can usually get a C or D rated tire in the same tire sizes for a negligible price difference. My travel trailer got new shoes in November - including the never been used spare - and I went with D rated tires on 3.5k axles. Same with my 7x16 enclosed the year before. And I always ask specifically about the speed rating if I have to buy tires in a hurry (as opposed to shopping them out ahead of time and knowing the speed rating): 81 mph minimum and keep towing speeds around 65-70 mph. I have them balanced annually as well. This has worked well for me. Blowouts are the worst.

 

*Thinking about my 4 y/o factory TT tires now *

Looks like a halfway decent tire from the manufacture though.

Rainier ST 225/75 on 15's, single axle. D load range, the tire is good for 2535lbs.

I'd like to try an AT truck tire, but I doubt I can find one with that high of a rating. Probably just end up getting the GY Endurance soon.

 

Verify, but you probably have room for 235/75r15 tires, slightly taller and wider and much better availability in LT options. These are what I plan to run next year to replace my 4yo Westlake ST tires.

 

I’ve had a few sets of those Rainier tires - always as a factory set, always in a load range C. I always believe that they would blow up on me, but I wore one set clean out, and another set well past its expiration date (long story, but they spent most of their life sitting). No failures. As I replace them, I step up a load rating, but I have been surprised that they aren't as horrible as I assumed them to be.

 

This is a great share. I hadn't heard of them, but had my setup balanced when I had the mobile installer mount my Goodyears on the TT. Balanced wheels and the CRE3000 suspension has completely changed the way the camper rolls down the highway and removed a lot of vibration and almost all side stepping/hopping on the amazing MA and New England roads we have.

What you guys are talking about on this second page of the thread is all the stuff even my kids notice when we are hauling the camper all over the place. They can spot a poorly configured WDH from a mile away. They shake their heads at obviously overloaded vehicles bombing down the highways. They understand the scales and how/why we are calculating the numbers, and they fully understand how to assist in the pre-departure checklist, to include the prep the night before and how/why to verify everything in the morning. Hell, they even know how to pack bearings and adjust the drum brakes and they can tell me if they think I have the brake controller set too high or low, just on how it behaves from their rear seat perspective. I wish 1/2 of the weekend haulers on the roads were as aware as these kids are. It doesn't change the fact that accidents happen, but awareness of the baseline, monitoring for deviation from that baseline, and general preventative maintenance goes a long ways towards mitigating the risks.

And I can't explain how much value a TPMS brings. Insight in to temps and pressures is where it is at and the alarms are pretty responsive to changes.

 

Yeah, thanks for the share! The concept reminds me of the old BBs/pellets in the off-road tires trick, but I like it being self-contained. And you are correct, the cost is pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things, and they are self-contained. Nice looking product, added to my list of futures, for sure.

 

Will do, thanks

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on them and been pleasantly surprised.
I don't have a ton of miles on them but they are wearing great

 

Just ordered a full new set of Goodyears for our TT today after reading this so we are good to go for our upcoming Father’s Day trip. I feel like I would have been testing fate as they still “ look” like they are in decent shape but I know they are probably due to be replaced. I would rather be camping than stranded on the side of the road or waiting for roadside assistance. Not to mention getting my family and myself there and back home safely which is most important. Thanks OP for sharing your story and helping to keep us aware of these types of things and prevent them before they happen. Hope your repairs are easy and not too expensive.

 

I worked for a trailer dealer in florida for about 5 years. The recommendation we always made with enclosed trailers and campers were to run bias ply tires. When they come apart they don't destroy things like the radials do. Saw many a customer swap from the radials to bias ply after ripping off fenders, enclosed trailer skins, floor panels and other damage from the radial belt. I've run bias ply for years and never had an issue. Just food for thought.

 

I didn’t really pay attention, but is that for a set? Or per balancer?

 

Well then…



I might just have to pick up a set…

Interesting… I’ve had nothing but trouble with bias ply tires on my trailers. Curious to know why, though those tires are long gone.