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Geo19Irv · 02-11-2021, 09:31 AM

2-10-2021 The danger of old tires
I pulled trailers and had flats from nails and things but in 2002 I bought a new class A that had General tires (owned by German Continental). I had two inside duelies blow the side walls out (not at the same time), a tire man described one of them as a “Zipper Rip”.
Three years ago I bought a used 38 foot class A that had tires that where only two years old. One year ago after sitting for a week, at 11pm the passenger-side inside duelie blew out. The next day when I had a new tire installed I could see the side wall had blown a hole the size of a pencil out. Then several nights ago after sitting for a week the other inside rear blows out, again at 11pm on a cool night. Same thing on the side wall (see photo). It turned out the previous owner had installed four new tires but left the old Michelins on the insides of the rear. These tires had plenty of tread but where dated 2011 so the last one was ten years old.
The danger of a sudden loss of air from a sidewall rupturing would be if at 70mph one of these tires had been on the front. If that happens you had better have fast reactions and be able to keep the RV straight or you will be in big trouble.
So old out of date tires should not be kept on the front no matter how good they look. I would chance it on the rear but not on the front.

Jim_HiTek · 02-11-2021, 11:32 AM

Good advice.

Roy-c · 02-11-2021, 11:45 AM

Kind of good advice. 10 year old tires should not be on the rear either. Look up rear tire blowouts. They most often do hundreds up to thousands of dollars of damage to the coach if they blow out while on the highway. They can take out the rear wheel well and damage the interior along with any wiring or plumbing nearby.

Geo19Irv · 02-11-2021, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roy-c

Kind of good advice. 10 year old tires should not be on the rear either. Look up rear tire blowouts. They most often do hundreds up to thousands of dollars of damage to the coach if they blow out while on the highway. They can take out the rear wheel well and damage the interior along with any wiring or plumbing nearby.

Both of the General Tires that blew out as inside duels happened at hi-way speed, they sounded like a bomb going off but luckily they did no damage and did not cause a problem. I slowed down and slowly drove to the next exit and found a tire shop.
They where not old tires and blew out the side wall so the tread did not flap around and do any damage.

D Gardiner · 02-11-2021, 12:28 PM

Out of date tires, yes replace.

With that said, zipper rips (as stated by the tire guy in your post) are caused by running the tire under inflated. The picture you post of the second tire failure looks like damage caused by driving up a curb, such as a parking lot entrance.

The damage, most likely, happened to your tires during the previous owners tenure. Unfortunately, these types of damage rarely causes an immediate blow out. Usually the tire fails months later.

In our case, our tires were brand new. They were just 3 weeks old, when we ran over debris of a semi truck tire at 65 MPH. The RV ahead of me was able to swerve out of its way in time, we clipped it.

We immediately pulled over and checked the right front tire for damage. The tire seamed fine. There was no steering wheel vibration, no pulling indicating an alignment issue,...nothing. We continued on our 3000 mile trip.

Approximately two months later I began to notice a slight audible thumping noise. The noise became louder and over the next few weeks, until the tire was inspected.

Tire techs conclusion, the cords had been damaged by hitting the other tire. The now 3 month old tire was junk and needed to be replaced. He told me that if I had not come in and had the tire inspected, it was most likely going to fail (have a blow out) soon.

Cost, one new tire. But saved the RV from damaged cause by a blow out.