Community Forums

BlueThunder4 · 09-27-2019, 07:46 AM

Last weekend while detailing our coach I was applying 303 dressing to the front tires and the sunlight caught what to me looks like a potential “bulge” on the sidewall. Having a hard time determining if this was always there and just a normal variant from where the tire was constructed and the belts come together or if it’s a sign of impending failure/blow out. I have read and compared several like pictures and descriptions and it’s about even on normal vs defective. Tires have build date of 33rd week of 2016. I’m thinking I’ll just replace all the tires for safety but wanted other opinions as well, would you consider this normal or would you replace? I noticed this also to a lesser extent on the other front steer tire. Coach is not overloaded as cat scaled numerous times and pressures always set to 87 psi and monitored for psi/temp via TPMS.

**Spdracr39** · 09-27-2019, 07:51 AM

Question is how many miles do you want to drive while worrying about it. I don't think any response here is going to give you peace of mind. If your confidence in them is gone it's time to change them.

Finance · 09-27-2019, 07:58 AM

Hard to be certain from the photo, but all tires have some minor deformation where the belts overlap. Stop in at a tire store and look at some new comparable tires to compare to yours and you’ll have a benchmark.

Mudfrog · 09-27-2019, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finance

Hard to be certain from the photo, but all tires have some minor deformation where the belts overlap. Stop in at a tire store and look at some new comparable tires to compare to yours and you’ll have a benchmark.

Maybe even better, take the rig into a reputable tire shop and let them look at the tires. Hard to tell from the pictures but from what I can see, I'd bet they're fine.

momdoc · 09-27-2019, 12:59 PM

Take it to a tire shop (Shop that does trucks and RVs) for advice.

Otherwise replace it.

Tha_Rooster · 09-27-2019, 05:49 PM

Hard to believe even a Goodyear having problems on a 3 year old tire.

gmc70 · 09-27-2019, 06:29 PM

It is really hard to tell from a picture but from what I see from the pictures is belt separation. I had a tire that I did not catch years back and the side walls went at about 70 MPH. Not a pretty sight. I did not change underwear just bought new. I would get to a good tire dealer [not a pepboys or some national chain] and have them take a look. Like I said belt or side wall separation at highway speed is not nice.

KiteSquid · 09-27-2019, 06:47 PM

Call Goodyear ASAP

BlueThunder4 · 09-27-2019, 08:34 PM

Thanks all, I will take it to a truck tire shop. I’d rather error on the side of caution but also didn’t want to just throw away money if it was just me overreacting and nothing really wrong with them. I’ll try calling Goodyear too but I’m guessing they will look for a way to pass the blame on and say it’s not a defect in their tire.

Ray,IN · 09-27-2019, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueThunder4

Thanks all, I will take it to a truck tire shop. I’d rather error on the side of caution but also didn’t want to just throw away money if it was just me overreacting and nothing really wrong with them. I’ll try calling Goodyear too but I’m guessing they will look for a way to pass the blame on and say it’s not a defect in their tire.

Contact Goodyear after you have it inspected. It appears to be belt separation, as gmc70 suggested. Take more pictures JIC, even if you buy new tires, KEEP those tires until Goodyear makes a final determination, as they will want their tire inspector to make a judgement.

P.S. I sent a PM to Tireman9 asking him to view your pictures and weigh-in.

FatChance · 09-27-2019, 09:10 PM

Do you feel lucky? Well do you, punk? (Clint Eastwood)...

Tireman9 · 09-28-2019, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueThunder4

Last weekend while detailing our coach I was applying 303 dressing to the front tires and the sunlight caught what to me looks like a potential “bulge” on the sidewall. Having a hard time determining if this was always there and just a normal variant from where the tire was constructed and the belts come together or if it’s a sign of impending failure/blow out. I have read and compared several like pictures and descriptions and it’s about even on normal vs defective. Tires have build date of 33rd week of 2016. I’m thinking I’ll just replace all the tires for safety but wanted other opinions as well, would you consider this normal or would you replace? I noticed this also to a lesser extent on the other front steer tire. Coach is not overloaded as cat scaled numerous times and pressures always set to 87 psi and monitored for psi/temp via TPMS.

Really difficult to tell from the pictures. The best thing you can do is to place a straight edge across the suspect area of the sidewall. If the undulation is a depression, that is normal and is the location of the body ply "splice" or overlap.
If however, the undulation is a single bulge outward then you should have the tire inspected by a Goodyear dealer AT ONCE. Any Goodyear dealer can do this inspection. A bulge out many times is an indication of a broken cord due to impact.

The pictures don't have what I would consider "normal" bulge due to impact but again it is difficult to tell.

You could check out the pictures and the posts on my RV Tire Safety blog using the index on the left and select "Impact"

Tireman9 · 09-28-2019, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueThunder4

Thanks all, I will take it to a truck tire shop. I’d rather error on the side of caution but also didn’t want to just throw away money if it was just me overreacting and nothing really wrong with them. I’ll try calling Goodyear too but I’m guessing they will look for a way to pass the blame on and say it’s not a defect in their tire.

In my 40 years of experience, I have found most tire dealers attempt to do the right thing. In this case, ANY Goodyear dealer would know the difference between a depression and a bulge. The only difficulty would be if there were two depressions near each other (within say 3" to 5" apart) then the location between the two depressions might appear at first glance to be a bulge.

A 12" ruler is many times the best tool available.
An impact break can be confirmed with an inspection of the tire interior as I show in my "Tire Autopsy" post.

A walk through any parking lot will reveal that most tires have one or more depressions of 1/8" or less. The cleaner and shinier the tire is the more visible these slight irregularities become.

BlueThunder4 · 09-28-2019, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tireman9

Really difficult to tell from the pictures. The best thing you can do is to place a straight edge across the suspect area of the sidewall. If the undulation is a depression, that is normal and is the location of the body ply "splice" or overlap.
If however, the undulation is a single bulge outward then you should have the tire inspected by a Goodyear dealer AT ONCE. Any Goodyear dealer can do this inspection. A bulge out many times is an indication of a broken cord due to impact.

The pictures don't have what I would consider "normal" bulge due to impact but again it is difficult to tell.

You could check out the pictures and the posts on my RV Tire Safety blog using the index on the left and select "Impact"

Thanks! I will be taking to a Goodyear Center next week to see what they say. I heard back from GY customer service and they asked that I take it in for eval. They said if they are unable to offer assistance to have that store call their customer service number and reference a case file number they created for me. I can’t think of any impact the tires could have had other than the normal interstates we have driven. Hoping GY stands behind their product as I’ve used them for everything in the past from muscle car rebuilds, to our trucks, cars,etc. would be disappointing to for them to say too bad you’re on your own.