Community Forums

oh oh · 05-30-2016, 11:44 AM

Lowes has a air compressor that runs on 110 or 12 volt. That,s work good. It's small and easy to take along

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brulaz

That's a really good point.

Guess it's a good idea to check the date code of ALL the tires when buying,
used especially.

Curious what the brand was of the new load range E tires?

One is a Hercules Power STR. The other is a Westlake Super ST. I haven't heard of either brand, and they might not have been brands that I would have chosen, but they were my only options. That said, they look like decent tires. I just Googled them and the Hercules has a 4 star rating on Amazon and a 5 star rating on trailer-wheels.com. The Westlake also has a 4 star rating on Amazon. No guarantees of greatness, but gives me some hope that they are ok tires.

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mtn Dave

I am in the process of replacing my 3 year old marathons with maxxis 10 plys. Have not had any problems yet, but don,t want to push the issue. one tire article said ST tires loose 20 to 30 percent of there strength at 3 years old!!!

Yikes!

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IdahoBob

What a horrible experience to have to go through! But thankfully no personal injuries.

I thought I had really bad blowout and stranding stories but you have one upped me! I've never had two simultaneously failed tires and haven't destroyed a wheel. But I'm not through trailering yet!

I believe your wheel is the same as on our rig. They are made by Tredit. Probably one of their T07 models.

Bob

I just googled the Tredit T07 and that looks like the one. Thanks for pointing me the right direction! I'll check on cost with the local ORV dealer but this will give me the option of price shopping. Terrific!

1bigmess · 05-30-2016, 01:41 PM

Everything technical about tires that I know to be as close to up-to-date info I learned from Tireman9.
RV Tire Safety

No mention on his blog about ST tires losing a large amount of strength relatively quickly, but that doesn't mean it isn't true in some way.

1bigmess · 05-30-2016, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oh oh

Lowes has a air compressor that runs on 110 or 12 volt. That,s work good. It's small and easy to take along

I have one. It's slow, but good. If I needed to replace this one, I'd get another, which wold be easy with the Lowe's satisfaction guarantee.

If you run it too long, it will shut down due to high temps, but then after it cools some, it will run again. It has a 50% duty cycle, no more than ten minutes run time at a stretch according to the manual. I've ran it harder than that, and it still does a good job. It can be set for a particular pressure, you can start it and walk away, and it will shut off at the preset.

But it's an inflator, not a compressor, technically speaking.

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

I'm very happy for you that there doesn't seem to be any damage to the trailer. Now stop depending on stopping and using your heat gun to detect problems and go get a TPMS system that could tell you if you are having problems while the tire might still have plenty of air in it.

Yes, as I said in my post, no more trips until I get a TPMS. I've narrowed it down to 3 models and will select and purchase one this week.

And as noted in my post, I fully believe that a TPMS would have notified me in time and prevented the damage to my wheel. And probably the other tire as well. I could probably have just put on my spare and been on my merry way. Fortunately the second blow out was loud enough that I heard it and pulled over immediately. Probably before the TPMS would have gotten my attention.

But NO MORE TRIPS without a TPMS, that's for sure!

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

Tireman9 recommend a 15% load cushion on tires. Makes sense, but one can only know if this exists, or would be helpful, if one already knows the loading on their tires in the first place. I believe that most don't know, they've never weighted their wet, loaded, and ready to camp rig.

Fisher99 said he had to plug one tire. Seems to me that tire loading might not be high on the list of a cause of OPs early problems in this case? Of course I could be wrong.

Overloading the tires was definitely not the problem.

Skeetsbo · 05-30-2016, 01:58 PM

Sorry to hear about your tire issues. I'm sure you'll get it resolved. Here's a possible link on the wheel. They carry others styles used on Outdoors RV'S in stock.

Trailer Parts - Trailer Tires & Trailer Wheels at Wholesale Prices

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oh oh

Lowes has a air compressor that runs on 110 or 12 volt. That,s work good. It's small and easy to take along

I haven't looked at that one, but the problem with most small 12v compressors is that they take forever to blow up a completely flat tire (after plugging the tire, for example). Since I'm already carrying my Honda generator, I'll just toss my portable Sears 3 gallon compressor in the back of the truck and I should be good to go.

1bigmess · 05-30-2016, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fisher99

Fortunately the second blow out was loud enough that I heard it and pulled over immediately. Probably before the TPMS would have gotten my attention.

Be sure to look at the TST stuff. They sponsor a forum here, and their customer service is top notch.

The sidewall failure blowout would not have triggered an alert by my TPMS system until the sensor "sensed" the loss of pressure. Some things are really darned hard to prevent. The others that you experienced would have caused an alarm when 10% of the tire pressure had been lost. Your idea to make sure you have a TPMS system will hopefully help you as much as it has helped me enjoy towing and travelling a little more.

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

Be sure to look at the TST stuff. They sponsor a forum here, and their customer service is top notch.

The sidewall failure blowout would not have triggered an alert by my TPMS system until the sensor "sensed" the loss of pressure. Some things are really darned hard to prevent. The others that you experienced would have caused an alarm when 10% of the tire pressure had been lost. Your idea to make sure you have a TPMS system will hopefully help you as much as it has helped me enjoy towing and travelling a little more.

TST is one of the 3 that I am looking at, along with Tire Minder and EEZTire. One of my major criteria is how quickly they are able to alert you to a massive loss of air. If it isn't pretty darn quick, then you are still likely to sustain wheel or bodywork damage during a major blowout. I'm currently working on a spreadsheet with comparison data from these 3 vendors.

powderman · 05-30-2016, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

Tireman9 recommend a 15% load cushion on tires. Makes sense, but one can only know if this exists, or would be helpful, if one already knows the loading on their tires in the first place. I believe that most don't know, they've never weighted their wet, loaded, and ready to camp rig.

Fisher99 said he had to plug one tire. Seems to me that tire loading might not be high on the list of a cause of OPs early problems in this case? Of course I could be wrong.

I have never seen a lot of extra capacity on tires as the unit comes from the factory. My fiver only had C rated tires which was barely capable of handling the rated load. I went up to load range E and problems went away. You just need to make sure your rims can handle the higher air pressure required.

fisher99 · 05-30-2016, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderman

I have never seen a lot of extra capacity on tires as the unit comes from the factory. My fiver only had C rated tires which was barely capable of handling the rated load. I went up to load range E and problems went away. You just need to make sure your rims can handle the higher air pressure required.

That's a good point. The stock Goodyear Marathon Load Range D tires say 2,540 lbs at 65 PSI. The Load Range E tires that they installed say 2,830 lbs at 80 PSI. I just looked up the specs on my wheels and they are rated for 2,830 lbs at 80 lbs, so should be fine with the Load Range E tires. I do wonder a bit about the additional bouncing the trailer may take at the higher tire pressures, but perhaps that's nothing to be concerned about.