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04-01-2019, 09:25 PM
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#43
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SW FL
Posts: 31,717
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ann n Gene
Chuck, me too, had mine installed today!
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Glad to see you also thought they will do the job. They are impressive.
Looks like we have to make a trip to NIRVC.
__________________
Chuck in SW FL
Digital 2021 Cornerstone "B"
A "Digital" 2019 Cornerstone "B" Traded
A "Classic" 2014 Anthem 42 RBQ---Sold
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04-01-2019, 09:37 PM
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#44
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Stillwater, Ok
Posts: 4,812
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brobox
Glad to see you also thought they will do the job. They are impressive.
Looks like we have to make a trip to NIRVC.
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They really are the first design that I have seen that looks like a common sense, workable design built tough enough to work and be reusable. Price is affordable considering all of this and the research, development and product liability insurance costs that you know are considerable. I say all of this because I thought it was a LOT of dollars but decided that the safety was worth it and it is cheaper than MANY of the “frill” options I opted for in my coach. To boot, in the overall cost and potential saving it is a small price for our safety and peace of mind. Blowing a steer tire has always been my worst fear and this eases my mind on that a lot. All JMHO
__________________
2020 New Aire 3543
2018 Lincoln MKX
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04-02-2019, 06:26 AM
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#45
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SW FL
Posts: 31,717
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Gene, I am sure you have experienced a blowout in your truck ownership days, I know I did on my part time driving during my collage years. Back then I was young enough to handle the getting it off the road and stopped. Today I don't know if I would have the upper body strength to get it safely stopped as I remembered it took many years ago. That is what did not impress me, and I couldn't be sold on the Tyrons. They kept a mangled tire on the wheel (maybe) which still would not help me to safely get off the road. With the RettroBand It gives an inner tire/wheel that I can physically see what it will do to help me get safely off the road with little effort. As we age my upper body strength is not that of the collage kid that once drove a few trucks during summer vacation. I did not have a lot of training back then, and probably most don't have any training today on emergency handling. Glad we could discuss these thoughts, it's helping me my decision easier.
HDGoldie's life threading experience hit's close to home for me, she only lives 20 miles from me, but it can happen to anyone at anytime. Good luck waiting for a tire company to ever take responsibility.
__________________
Chuck in SW FL
Digital 2021 Cornerstone "B"
A "Digital" 2019 Cornerstone "B" Traded
A "Classic" 2014 Anthem 42 RBQ---Sold
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04-02-2019, 10:29 AM
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#46
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 11,531
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Gene
I hope that you never get a chance to tell us how well they worked....
Those may be an addition for me before the big summer trip....
Gary
__________________
Gary and Dee, Zowie and Bowie (traveling cat sibs)
2019 Cornerstone 45B, X15-605hp, Imperial, Spartan K3,
2013 Honda CR-V toad, Demco Excali-Bar II,
Demco Baseplate, Demco Toad Light system, 73 de W5FI
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04-02-2019, 11:37 AM
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#47
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Stillwater, Ok
Posts: 4,812
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Thanks Gary, hope you are right and REALLY hoping they have all your gremlins chased out of you New coach. They keep making them nicer but that is more to case gremlins and then there is the learning curve as they exterminate the bugs that were written into the software.
__________________
2020 New Aire 3543
2018 Lincoln MKX
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04-06-2019, 04:33 PM
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#48
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Posts: 3,122
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I’m eager to see the RettroBand product in person, which I’m hoping to do at the NIRVC Customer Appreciation Rally later this month (April 2019). I’m particularly interested because Amy & I have “been there and done that” with regard to a front tire blowout on a big diesel motorhome. I’ll start by describing (with words and pictures) what happened to us, move from that to lessons learned, and conclude with why I’m so interested in the RettroBand product.
What Happened
On the afternoon of Sunday, July 10, 2016, Amy & I and our K9 traveling companion Lexi were in our 2010 Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, traveling from Indianapolis to Shipshewana. We were northbound on Interstate 69, about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, a few miles from the small town of Daleville. Traffic was heavy but moving at freeway speeds. We were in the right of the two northbound lanes, running about 65 MPH.
A few miles before the Daleville exit, we were approaching the relatively short bridge shown in the first of the photos below. (The photo is a recent image from Google Maps. The orange cones in the photo were not there in July 2016.) Note the short concrete walls on either side of the two northbound lanes of the bridge.
As we were crossing the bridge, we ran over the piece of angle iron shown in the second photo below (which Amy retrieved for posterity after the fact). There was a loud pop as the right front tire went down, followed immediately by the coach pulling HARD to the right.
Fortunately, I had both hands on the steering wheel when the blowout occurred, but even so it took pretty much all my strength to keep the coach from crashing into the concrete wall on the right side of the bridge and the guard rail that was present for a relatively short distance after the bridge. The third photo below shows the end of guardrail.
As we passed the end of the guardrail I had the coach pointed reasonably straight when there was another hard pull to the right. Had I not been able to control that one, the situation would have been MUCH uglier than smashing into the bridge wall or the guardrail. The fourth photo below shows why – a rather deep drainage ditch that would have at the very least put the coach on its side. I don’t even want to think about the injuries that would have occurred had that happened.
Having watched the Michelin video numerous times, I knew enough to not slam on the brakes but simply let the coach slow down on its own. The video also recommends flooring the throttle pedal, but by the time that thought popped into my head the coach had slowed enough that it really wasn’t necessary.
We got parked on the shoulder of the road (such as it was) and got out to assess the damage. The fifth photo shows what was left of the tire. Replaying the incident in my mind, I’m sure the first hard pull to the right was the tire going down, while the second hard pull was the tread layer (most of it anyway) separating from the body of the tire. Yes, it did some significant damage inside the wheel well on its way out.
I’ll spare you the details of what transpired from there, but here is the short version. Coach-Net, which we’ve had for years, tried to help but was ultimately ineffective. (The fact it was a Sunday afternoon was obviously a complicating factor.) I reached out to a friend who spent 40+ years in the truck tire industry who was able to recommended a couple of tire companies in the Indianapolis area. One of them, Indy Tire, had a tire in the size we needed and went out their way to help. After spending about five hours on the narrow shoulder of a busy Interstate, we had a new right front tire mounted and were able to drive the few miles to a large truck stop at exit 234 in Daleville. Once there, I had the guy from Indy Tire replace our left front tire as well, the idea being to have a matching pair of tires on the steer axle. From there, we continued on to Shipshewana, arriving considerably later than originally planned.
Lessons Learned
Reflecting on this unfortunate experience, I realized that even after you take all the recommended precautions to prevent tire failures you’re still not totally immune. And I concluded that rolling down the road at highway speeds with a couple of fingers on the steering wheel while congratulating yourself on how good your coach drives is probably not the best way to travel.
It also hit me that if you're unfortunate enough to experience a tire failure, there are two things you’re going to care about. The first and most obvious is keeping the coach under control. I claim very little credit for being able to do that. We were fortunate to be in the right lane with a bit of room on the right side of the coach when it made two hard swerves to the right. Had we been in the left lane in the same heavy traffic, we probably would have hit a vehicle (one or more) in the right lane. It also helped that we were on a decent stretch of road in good weather. Had it been raining, even a little, we probably would have been in the ditch. I could go on, but you get the idea.
The second, less obvious thing to care about once you get the coach under control, is where to stop while you wait for roadside tire service. We were fortunate to have a shoulder just wide enough for us to park without being in a travel lane, though I will tell you that spending five hours with cars and big trucks blazing by inches away from your home-on-wheels is more than a little disconcerting. Far better would have been being able to drive the coach to the next exit a few miles away, and from there into the parking lot of a major truck stop where we could have parked in relative safety for hours or even spent the night if necessary. That was totally non-viable in our case, since we had very little tire left on an aluminum wheel.
Mitigating the Risk
After this incident, I spent a lot of time thinking about ways to minimize the risk should another tire failure occur. I’d been aware of the Tyron bands for quite some time, but never took the plunge to have them installed because they seemed, at best, a partial solution. In our case, I doubt they would have done anything to prevent the first hard pull to the right when the tire went down, and I’m not sure they would have done much to prevent the second hard pull either. We’ll never know, but that is my opinion based on assessing what was left of the tire. The other consideration is that the Tyron bands do nothing to allow you to drive the coach a few miles (or farther) to a place safer than the side of a busy Interstate.
The RettroBand product, on the other hand, appears to address both concerns – providing much better control if a front tire failure does occur, and allowing the coach to be driven to a safer location than wherever the tire failure happened to occur. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the product in real life and will report my impressions once I do.
__________________
Larry & Amy Beckner
Scottsdale, AZ
2022 Newmar Super Star 4061
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04-06-2019, 05:36 PM
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#49
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 232
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Retro-band
LWBAZ POST,
Larry,
Wow what an adventure. This has helped me get on the list for this safety upgrade.
Also, just curious if you have the "Safe-T-Plus Steering Control" installed on your front end to help dampen sudden steering surge?
Thanks...Gregg
__________________
Gregg & Sandy, Penngrove, California
2016 Anthem 44B Victory Blue
2016 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk 2020 Ford Ranger 4X4 Lariat
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04-06-2019, 07:58 PM
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#50
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Posts: 3,122
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Gregg, you’re right – it was quite the adventure.
To answer your question, our 2010 Tiffin Allegro Bus was on a Tiffin PowerGlide chassis. Safe T Plus doesn’t list a kit for that chassis, so no, we didn’t have one installed when the blowout occurred.
Similarly, our current 2018 Entegra Cornerstone is on a Spartan K3 chassis and Safe T Plus doesn’t list a kit for that either.
__________________
Larry & Amy Beckner
Scottsdale, AZ
2022 Newmar Super Star 4061
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04-06-2019, 08:30 PM
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#51
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Lansing MI
Posts: 2,825
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The two products discussed in this thread have counterparts in auto racing.
The Tyrons are essentially beadlocks which keep the tire beads from coming off of the rim but do absolutely nothing for keeping the carcass of the tire from shredding. It will help keep the tire from coming off of the wheel but it is a very short-term solution and you will probably damage your coach when the tread separates from the carcass of the tire.
The Rettroband on the other hand is essentially a solid innerliner like NASCAR uses on the tracks bigger than mile. It is designed to help keep the vehicle under control if the tire blows out. Is it 100% effective? I doubt it. I an innerliner was 100% effective cars wouldn't hit the wall when they blow tires, but they do. However they are also not 100% ineffective either. At $1,250 per wheel the cost seems excessive for some plastic and a few nuts and bolts. But like any new product the price will come down in time and with a little competition. It will be interesting to see if the trucking industry adopts these. If they do, I'll probably look at some, if they don't there will probably be a reason. Time will tell, but I'll sure as heck keep my eye on them, it is a pretty interesting concept.
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04-30-2019, 09:23 AM
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#52
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Posts: 3,122
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At the recently completed NIRVC Customer Appreciation Rally I had a chance to see the RettroBand product in real life, alongside the Tyron product.
Nothing against the Tyron bands, but when you see the two products side-by-side, each mounted on a real rim, the advantage of the RettroBand is readily apparent. I was also impressed by the simplicity of the mechanism that holds the two halves of the RettroBand together.
The RettroBand on display was the polyurethane model. I'm interested to see or at least learn more about the rubber composite RettroBand, since it seems like that material might be better if you had to drive the coach some distance after a blowout where the tire left rim altogether. I hoping to connect with Rob Craig to have that discussion sometime this week and will report anything I'm able to learn.
__________________
Larry & Amy Beckner
Scottsdale, AZ
2022 Newmar Super Star 4061
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04-30-2019, 09:43 AM
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#53
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,582
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LWBAZ
At the recently completed NIRVC Customer Appreciation Rally I had a chance to see the RettroBand product in real life, alongside the Tyron product.
Nothing against the Tyron bands, but when you see the two products side-by-side, each mounted on a real rim, the advantage of the RettroBand is readily apparent. I was also impressed by the simplicity of the mechanism that holds the two halves of the RettroBand together.
The RettroBand on display was the polyurethane model. I'm interested to see or at least learn more about the rubber composite RettroBand, since it seems like that material might be better if you had to drive the coach some distance after a blowout where the tire left rim altogether. I hoping to connect with Rob Craig to have that discussion sometime this week and will report anything I'm able to learn.
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Larry, guess I missed you at the rally.
I totally agree with you on the Retrobands. I’m having a set installed as we speak. After seeing the real product and the videos I believe the Retrobands are the only way to go. Hope I never have to give them the ultimate test, but I’m sure they’ll prove themselves if needed.
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04-30-2019, 01:56 PM
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#54
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Stillwater, Ok
Posts: 4,812
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Interesting new tire blow out safety device https://youtu.be/mR7jnmV3jxQ
__________________
2020 New Aire 3543
2018 Lincoln MKX
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04-30-2019, 02:28 PM
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#55
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Senior Member
Entegra Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: SW FL
Posts: 31,717
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ann n Gene
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Say What!? What did you order?
__________________
Chuck in SW FL
Digital 2021 Cornerstone "B"
A "Digital" 2019 Cornerstone "B" Traded
A "Classic" 2014 Anthem 42 RBQ---Sold
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04-30-2019, 03:57 PM
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#56
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Senior Member
Tiffin Owners Club
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 1,697
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I thought I saw it somewhere, but can't find it now. How much more weight do these add to the front end? Just curious based on the not too distant previous posts about our full fuel & water Anthems being close to the 17k front axle limit already.
__________________
Dewey & Sharon
Southern Maryland suburbs of DC
2022 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40IP
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