Blowout Sat night required a grinder to change the tire

I tow 10k about every 3 weeks on a 1700 mile round trip and have been doing this for a couple of years now. Have had 9 blowouts (most occur with the tire 'dome-ing' outward which results in terrible vibration) in the last 6 months and typically I slide my 20 ton jack in and replace the tire in 5 minutes flat. However, this blowout resulted in the tread completely unraveling until it wrapped around the axle. I got the tire/wheel off but couldn't get it out of the way. I had a battery powered grinder but only 1 wheel so I couldn't get the tire completely cut off the wheel before the cutoff wheel exploded. Thankfully, this happened at 9;15pm so I was able to drive 20min to Lowes and back with a 5 pack of grinding wheels so that I could finish cutting the tire off, pull the wheel, then put the new spare on.

I weigh in every trip so the 10k trailer only sees about 9500 lb so it isn't overloaded. The tires are rated to that as well but I have recently shifted both my trailers from load range D to E and none of the E's have blown yet. Already started shifting my replacement spares to G but the cost is $185 mounted compared to $85 apiece on the E. The tire shops like to blame me for running max cold inflation pressure but I have had worse luck running less than max inflation.

So new required tool for me when towing is a battery-powered grinder plus a 5 pack of cutoff discs.

 

glad you (and hopefully all others around you at the moments of blowouts) are safe!

1. so i'll go off of your description of a 2006 tundra with a max tow capacity of about 7k lbs. already at a bad start.

2. considering load ratings of D rated tires being so low, it doesn't surprise me at all you're blowing tires. E rated may not be much better considering your trailer setup, but I may be wrong on that too. (i'm going off an assumption you're buying trailer rated tires, although i've never known tires on a trailer with a capacity of 10k to have anything lower than E. if not not...terrible call on your part to put typical "truck tires" on a trailer. they're not the same.)

3. i'm going to side with the tire shops on the pressure rating. there's a reason it says exactly that on the sidewall and stickers...."MAX PRESSURE COLD"

i'm strictly speculating, but it seems you've made a few mistakes in your towing days. glad you're making it out safely.

but as I tell my children.....
"What's the good thing about mistakes?"

in which they respond....
"We learn from them."

 

Nah, I tow my 16' flatbed with the 2006 Tundra. Typically just a Kubota L2350 or a B1750 so I think that generally keeps me within the towing capacity. I have weight tickets for those loads, too.

For the 22' 10k enclosed car hauler I have been using my 2001 F-350 diesel (that I really want to replace with a 3rd gen Tundra). So everything within spec with weight tickets to back me up. The trailers came to me with the D rated trailer tires which say they can carry the weight. Every time I am under the capacity of the trailer. I do this just in case DOT gets an idea to stop me and ask me why I don't have a CDL. Lot of stories lately from guys hauling loads just like mine getting $1,000+ tickets.

As far as the max pressure cold that is what I press them up to. The D and E all say 80 psi so when I know I am at the rated trailer capacity I press them to 80 psi cold. I have been hauling periodic loads since 2008 and where I see the worst blow outs is when I run UNDER the max pressure but with rated (or over) capacity. From what I think I know this causes the sidewalls to flex more which causes the heat to build up. Everyone I know that tows seriously tells me to run max cold pressure when at capacity. Only the tireshops try to shed responsibility for selling me china-bombs by telling me to run under max capacity. Always looking for expert opinions in this area so maybe I have a bit to learn.

Out of the 9 blowouts recently:
7 (including the spare which is really bizarre) blew by popping out into a dome shape where the tread doesn't lay flat but rather looks like a donut. I can always tell because the ride immediately becomes harsh with heightened vibration. I don't understand the dynamics here but 5 occurred on an empty trailer. The spare never saw a load but did it on the spare holder on the side of the trailer.
5 were Greenball ST225/75R15 high speed radial trailer tires that were 2 years old with only 10k miles on them. Will never buy Greenballs again!
4 were ST235/75 that I forget the name of but also radial trailer tires and came stock on my enclosed car hauler. I have no idea why Pace built a 10k trailer and put D tires on... I immediately bought 4 E tires and have been keeping them as spares. As an experiment I have been running the Ds to see how long they would last. I check them at every gas/bathroom break and replace as soon as they show problems. On this run it ran fine for 500 miles.

I suspect the 2 that blew out and completely deflated are from potholes but I am not completely sure.

I guess my point was to encourage those who tow a lot to add in a battery-powered grinder. I already carry the 20v max Dewalt system so have spares onhand. Just happened to have the grinder with me this time but didn't think to include spare cutoff wheels. I also called a tow truck who when I described the problem told me he couldn't help me. I also called a tow truck in 2008 with a similar problem who couldn't help me. In my limited experience tow trucks help with broken down vehicles, not with trailers. In my opinion when you start towing you put yourself on a very windy corner where it is up to you to fix your own problems.

 

Do you think there's a possibility of the trailer axles being bent/bowed? I'm halfway pulling at straws aside from accusing the maker of the tires for building faulty/poor/cheap/sub-par tires (which seems you've made that judgement of one already). Seems odd that you'd have so many blowouts in such a short period.
If I did long hauls as often, I'd prob have quite a few battery powered items for backup like air compressors, battery jumps, power tools, etc. Especially knowing that tow trucks don't seem to like to help, which is odd to me, but maybe there's a reason

 

I once had a farmer-built 30' steel deck flatbed that was a deck-over with 3 mobile home axles that I converted to twin 10k axles 10 years ago. Unfortunately the spring perches that I re-used were slightly off when I measured from the front pintle. This could be confirmed by the trailer dog-legging when it was towed down the road. It was also too big for my F-350 and tended to push me around on the highway. I never tested it to full capacity but I am sure those tires would have really struggled on long distances.

While I don't think my current axles are bowed I do wonder if my spring perches are slightly off, too. The trailer tows straight but sometimes I seem to think that 1 or 2 tires heat up differently than the rest (but never consistently). Measuring from a ball hitch isn't nearly as easy as measuring from a pintle so I haven't really pursued it. I remember a trailer add-on where you could make very small adjustments to the spring perches without welding and drilling. Of course, the counter argument is that on this enclosed car hauler I have had to replace every single tire position from the 4 D rated to the new E rated.

This one from etrailer only allows 1/4" adjustment and don't think mine are off nearly that bad:
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Le...FJdzh4_UZnhpaL603_j9W7uU76QJjsHRoC59QQAvD_BwE

The other kits allowed smaller adjustments but I didn't see them with a google search.

For me I think I am finished with the large loads of trailers at max capacity. This is the 7th time I have moved my family over the last 20 years and I accumulated a lot of tools and farming equipment (I really think I have moved over 120k in total over the last 2 years from Virginia to Alabama). I really expect all the future loads to be in the 7k range and only 200 miles each way so haven't put too much thought into it. But with the 22 year old tow vehicle (even the 2006 is 17 years old...) I always carry an assortment of tools.