"New" Coach Front Tire Blowout (long)

[FLgatorgirl]

Well, I was hoping my first post on the new to us 2005 Windsor 40 PDQ would be "woohoo, we finally did it--our first class A", instead it is more like "wow, I am not sure how we survived". My husband, father and I picked up the Windsor at PPL motor homes in Houston on Saturday. The two of them drove Saturday and it was time for me to get used to driving our first class A the next morning on I-12 in Louisiana. I had been driving less than half an hour and doing quite well when the front driver tire literally exploded at around 63 mph.

I battled to hold onto the steering wheel so hard it left my hands and wrists bruised and bleeding. Regardless, because we were down hard on the wheel (no tire left) within about 3 seconds, the wheel locked and we went across the median and stopped with the toad jackknifed behind us completely across the lanes of traffic on the opposite of the highway. Divine intervention gave us a break in traffic, so we did not hit anyone and no one was injured. Just a little beat up, sore and speaking at least for myself, totally freaked out. We were also lucky not to end up either launched into the woods or in the river right in front of us in the median.

I was upset that I could not control it enough to stop in the median, but my father says the fact that I did not panic and rode it out kept us from flipping over. He has driven semis commercially over 3 million miles and said every blowout is different. He has only had two on steering tires, so I hope odds are I never get to experience this again.

To clarify, these were the original Goodyear tires. Tires were very minimally cupped from front end being slightly out of alignment. We planned to address this when we got home. The dealer inspected the tires and each of the three of us looked at them as well. My two biggest RV paranoias are blowouts and roof leaks. There was ZERO evidence of dry rot. Nothing. No checking, no cracks. We would have NEVER left Houston with questionable tires.

The damage to the RV sucks right off the bat, but all that matters is that no one was hurt. The Windsor actually held up pretty well all things considered. Most of the damage appears minor, it's just a lot of stuff that adds up (40 items so far). Prior to leaving Louisiana, we replaced all 6 tires, had the windshield reset (it was coming out from the accident), front end aligned, frame checked and moved the bad wheel to the rear (okay to drive on but will be replaced). We will want a more extensive frame and suspension inspection as there is some vibration on deceleration from the front axle and the front end is not sitting totally level.

We plan on taking it to Alliance Coach in Wildwood Florida as it is around 90 minutes from us and recommended by Monaco. Any thoughts on them or suggestions on hidden damage we should be watching out for?

[RickO]

Wow! I'm so glad that nobody was hurt. I think your father is right too... like the old saying about flying and the quality of landings, any blowout (especially on a front tire) you can walk away from means you did a great job of driving.

I guess it just goes to point out that, no matter how much we prepare, stuff can always jump up and bit us.

Thanks for sharing...

Rick

[pcarrell]

Glad the damage was minor and no one was hurt. While tires may look good the life of a RV tire is Max 6 years. The previous owner could have hit a curb with the sidewall and no visible evidence. In saying that IMHO the most important thing anyone owning a MH can purchase is a Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Don't care what kind just buy one. The next important thing is a surge guard protector. Hope the rest of your ownership is more favorible.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FLgatorgirl Well, I was hoping my first post on the new to us 2005 Windsor 40 PDQ would be "woohoo, we finally did it--our first class A", instead it is more like "wow, I am not sure how we survived". My husband, father and I picked up the Windsor at PPL motor homes in Houston on Saturday. The two of them drove Saturday and it was time for me to get used to driving our first class A the next morning on I-12 in Louisiana. I had been driving less than half an hour and doing quite well when the front driver tire literally exploded at around 63 mph.

FLgatorgirl, I don't want to arm chair quarterback the very scary episode that you underwent and you are to be commended for bringing the vehicle to an uneventful stop,

In the event of a front tire blowout - step on the gas! Yes that's correct, floor the throttle and this will restore directional control of the vehicle enough where you will be able to pick the spot where you want to stop. If you go to the Michelin website they have a wonderful video where a front tire blowout was induced and the video demonstrates how the maneuver can work with consistent results.

We are all quite pleased to see that you walked away from this unfortunate incident.

[Rex]

As you live in Florida, I would take the coach to Josam in Orlando to have the entire frame aligned and checked. They are the best in the country.

Josam Truck Frame & Alignment
8849 Exchange Dr
Orlando, FL 32809
407-438-7020
Josam - Truck Frame and Alignment Specialist Worldwide


They are very reasonable also. I do not work for them or have any interest in the company.

[Barlow46]

X's 2 on going to Josams. Give Barry Hamton a call, they know their stuff and don't waste a lot of time on your dollar.

[moisheh]

Tires on a MH do not have a 6 year life. Actually they do not have a definite life. They might go 6 or maybe more. Michelin wants you to inspect them by dismounting after 7 years. How many miles were on those tires? I am glad you managed to steer it well enough to prevent any injuries to your family. You might consider a Steer Safe.

[HD4Mark]

Wow, that must have been some awful ride. I am happy to hear no one was hurt. Well I guess bruised and bleeding is not exactly not hurt so I hope you are healing quickly. The floor it when there is a blowout is sound advise but hard to do when your first thought is always to brake.

Do you know if the tire pressure was checked before departing? Most blowouts seem to be from low pressure and damage. No telling about damage unless there was an obvious ding in them. We had a blowout on a motorcycle (utility) trailer shortly after purchasing it. The tech that our roadside assistance sent checked the other side and told us it was way low. So much for trusting the dealer that the tires were OK to go.

[FLgatorgirl]

Thank you everyone for your concern. We were definitely lucky and after seeing pictures of the aftermath of a few other front blowouts on RV.net (strangely enough, both Monacos) I realize just how lucky we were to walk away.

To answer a few questions, tires had 46,000 miles on them. The dealer checked the pressure and so did my father. After the accident, the passenger front tire had chunks coming out of it and looked like it would go soon. Hard to say if that happened partially as a result of the accident or not. Pressure on that tire was still spot on when checked the next morning. We normally tow a trailer, so we run with the tire at max pressure regardless.

Two tire dealers that were unsuccessful in locating tires recommending avoiding the Goodyear RV tires if we could find something else. They both stated that there were problems with uneven wear and that they had seen a large number that looked great on the outside and were starting to separate on the inside. That was the guess on what was going on with ours. I know there are pages of posts on RV.net about problems with Goodyears.

We do have a TST TPMS left over from the Class C, although I had a number of problems with it on the C and finally gave up using it. I will give it another shot and try to get it properly dialed in. DH thought it was unnecessary when I bought it, but as I mentioned tires are a huge paranoia for me.

We will work with Alliance Coach to get the frame and such inspected at Josam in Orlando as I know Alliance has to send out for that type of work.

In regards to accelerating as opposed to braking on a blow out, I had previously read about this but had not watched the video (just watched it today). I knew it was considered the best thing to do. However, having been behind any class A for a total of twenty minutes in my life when the blowout happened, I was overwhelmed with the newness of such a big vehicle and kind of adjusting to all of it. Looking at the situation, it is hard to say if gassing it would have been the right thing (although I am certainly no expert). There was a long narrow bridge just ahead of us that would have been a problem. Additionally, I noticed the tires in the video stayed together, ours came apart in full length strips right away (I saw where they landed after the fact). There was nothing left that looked anything like a tire. In any case, crossing my fingers I never get a chance to repeat this to see if getting on the gas is better!!

[PEPPER9950]

Thank the Lord you are ok. It had to be a scary life threatning experience. I just left PPL today getting some minor repairs done and an estimate to repair the damage from a rear blowout last week on I-49. This was my second in 8 years both on the rear.

[Mike Canter]

I second the Thank God you are OK. As we say in flying "any landing you walk away from is a good landing".

I do have a question about your last post....is that right that you are running max air pressure in those tires? Do you mean that you are running the max that is stated on the side of the tire and not what is recommended on the tag inside the MH?

Also, cupping is not normally caused by front end alignment. It is caused by either bad shocks or a tire being out of balance or by suspension wear. I doubt that you have suspension wear but it maybe good to check your shocks and see if there is any oil running down them. After your little adventure it will not hurt to get the alignment checked.

[FLgatorgirl]

Mike-
New tires say max PSI of 125, and I misspoke, we are running 120 front and 110 rear (on our class C, we always ran max pressure front and rear). Tag inside the coach says 115 front 85 rear. I believe we were running the same on the old tires. DH and my father both decided on higher PSI because 90% of the time we will be pulling at heavy trailer. It's our understanding the coach would ride a little harsher with those PSIs and not heavily loaded, but that would be the only negative consequence.

We had the front end realigned and cross alignment checked after replacing all of the tires. The wheel that got damaged was temporarily swapped with a rear, so alignment will be rechecked with new wheel if needed. I will make sure they check all suspension, shocks, etc. Cross/rear alignment was slightly out but still within factory specs and could not be adjusted any further.

[Mike Canter]

That all sounds good. Normally trailer tongue weight doesn't add enough weight to warrant additiona tire pressure. Don't get me wrong because additional tire pressure that is still below the tire max is safe. The only thing having too much will do like you said is to make a harsh ride, lessen the contact patch so life of the tire maybe reduced. What you should do is put the whole rig on a truck scale and weigh each MH axle separately then you can put in the correct tire pressure. Glad all is working out for you.

[TXiceman]

X2 on what Driver said.....

ken