Another blowmax victim

[Richie9180]

I really should have headed to warnings about these junk tires. 2 blowouts in less than 20 miles

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[Richie9180]

Checked the air in all 4 and inspected them before we pulled out. We made it 20 miles from the house when the first 1 let go. The tire service center and I both checked the remaining 3 and the spare they had the correct air pressure and no signs of any issues. We made about 15 miles down the road and the second 1 blew out . 2 roadside assistance calls and 2 insurance claims. I am not happy with dynamic tire or heartland at the moment.


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[Garypowell]

When you have the first blow out it puts all the weight on the other tire weakening it more than it already was.......then it blows.

i know it does not help now but it is why.

 

[jnbhobe]

Looks to me like his blow outs were different axles and different sides of the trailer

 

[Lynn1130]

But then what does one do when a tire blows and you are 50 miles from the nearest place to get them changed out? I have not found a service that will deliver four tires and change out what you have on when one blows. Would be nice if they did but....

 

[danemayer]

But then what does one do when a tire blows and you are 50 miles from the nearest place to get them changed out? I have not found a service that will deliver four tires and change out what you have on when one blows. Would be nice if they did but....

When our GY G614 blew, we called Good Sam Roadside Assistance and they made arrangements for someone to get us another G614, deliver it, and install it at our location. I don't think it would be an issue to have them bring more than one tire.

 

[Richie9180]

They were both on the same axle but different sides. Tires had less than 3500 miles on them and were about 3 years old


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[Garypowell]

Good call Jon!

 

[Lynn1130]

I don't think it would be an issue to have them bring more than one tire.

It might be. When the Tow Max blew on the trailer the tire service was sent from Benson. The nearest Discount or tire store of any size was in Sierra Vista. When the tire blew this July the service came from North Phoenix (50 miles south). No Discount close and we were on the way to Flagstaff area. If you don't care what tires you get or how much you will pay over the covered tire change service that might be true. In most cases people will be forced to continue to the nearest town of any size and while that is certainly not ideal, it is reality.

 

[danemayer]

I asked Good Sam to find me a Goodyear G614, which is what they did. Depending on where we travel, that might not always work, but one of the reasons for having Good Sam Roadside is for assistance with tires.

 

[Lynn1130]

I have Good Sam too. In both cases I made it to Discount with no problem. Depending upon the distance I might try that the next time. Let's hope there is not a next time.

 

[Richie9180]

Well we made it to the campground limping along. The tire service center showed up this morning to replace all 4 tires with new ones and much to my surprise I see more heartland quality control issues. 1 lug stud was cross threaded from the factory. And 2 of the wheels are missing the grease caps. I have had problem after problem with this unit. Heartland needs to look at quality control.


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[tireman9]

Pictures in post #1 are not of Run Low Sidewall Flex Blowouts but show Tread/belt separations. This type of failure can many times be discovered hundreds of miles before the tire comes apart. I have a post on my blog showing how to do a proper inspection and what to look fore and what a belt separation looks like before the tire comes apart.

Many times belt/tread separations are caused by overload and excess speed but the Interply Shear seen on heavy multi axle trailers is a significant contributor to the shorter life (3 years) seen with many tires .

 

[JohnD]

On our way to the Vegas Rally I noticed the rear tires on the Prowler were wearing badly on the inside edges and after the Dexter axle seminar Glen from Dexter came over to our site to have a look-see.



He said that our rear axle has lost it's camber (ie.- flat), which is why the tires are wearing out on the inside edges.

He advised to have the tires reversed on the wheels so that they would wear out on the other side of the tire to get us home.

While having that done in Utah on the way home, the Big 'O' tires store guy in Richfield, Utah discovered while spinning it on the balancer machine the tire that was worn down the worst (right tire in photo above) was starting to separate, so they put the spare on that wheel and the bad tire is now our spare until we get new tires (after we get the axle fixed, of course).

The front two tires are still good, and the original spare has a little wear on the inside tread, but still appears to be in good shape . . .

But no more ST tires for me . . .

Looking for a good 15-inch truck tire to use instead.

Don't want to get 16-inch wheels right now as the axle job and other associated work is already cutting in to our travel piggy bank.

 

[boatto5er]

Maxxis have a good reputation, but they are ST.


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[SNOKING]

John, 15" LT tires are hard to find with enough capacity to replace ST tires. Looking at your picture it appears that you have a lot of space between them. The switch over to 16" rims opens you up to a much large selection for sizes, availability, and quality. If you plan of keeping the trailer for a number of years it is also cost effective over the long haul. I ran XPS RIBs on my SOB trailer for 6.5 years and 45K miles and sold them for $200 on CL. They still had 65% tread left. Date codes on 3 of them made them 7.5 years old, the 4th was 8.5 years old and getting hairline cracks. The guy had an old pickup for garbage dump runs and was tickle pink to get them. I installed Bridgestone Durivas R250's as replacements. Both the Michelin XPS Rib and the R250 have steel ply carcasses (sidewalls) and will age out at 6-8 years way before wearing out.

Steel carcass tires also have low rolling resistance that will help mileage a little bit.

Chris

 

[porthole]

But then what does one do when a tire blows and you are 50 miles from the nearest place to get them changed out? I have not found a service that will deliver four tires and change out what you have on when one blows. Would be nice if they did but....

FWIIW - when I had my blow out on the way to the Myrtle Beach rally, I did my own tire change and continued on. Then while at the campground I had a Goodyear dealer come out, take my 4 wheels-tires back to the shop, they put 4 new tires on and brought them back, put them on the trailer.
The 4 tires were pricey, but the road call, pick up, change, deliver was $50

 

[porthole]

I am not going to attempt to defend HL's quality control, but the frames are delivered from Lippert as rolling units.
Since the skin on your lug nut is already cracked, it appears the lug nuts have been off since the original installation.

A set of 1 piece solid lug nuts would be a good investment. I used these (check for fitment)

Gorilla Lug Nuts 76198

Well we made it to the campground limping along. The tire service center showed up this morning to replace all 4 tires with new ones and much to my surprise I see more heartland quality control issues. 1 lug stud was cross threaded from the factory. And 2 of the wheels are missing the grease caps. I have had problem after problem with this unit. Heartland needs to look at quality control.

 

[Richie9180]

I purchased the camper new never used and I have never removed the wheels or any lug nuts. How do you know the shell didn't crack when we had to use 2 men and a cheater on the 4 way to remove the lug nut? I am planning to upgrade lug nuts and I will be switching to 14 ply tires. No one I talk to has any luck with 10 ply on units of this size. Judging by the number of Towmax tire complaints I can find I guess everyone must be lying about there towing speeds and loads!


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[tireman9]

Well we made it to the campground limping along. The tire service center showed up this morning to replace all 4 tires with new ones and much to my surprise I see more heartland quality control issues. 1 lug stud was cross threaded from the factory. And 2 of the wheels are missing the grease caps. I have had problem after problem with this unit. Heartland needs to look at quality control.

snip

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STRONGLY suggest that you replace ALL nuts & studs as it appears the fools and methods to install wheels the first time were incorrect. Studs can be over loaded and can fail later. "Two men and cheater bar is proof as maos workers can generate 100 - 140 Ft Lbs with regular cross wrench.

Check the torque specs too.

- - - Updated - - -

On our way to the Vegas Rally I noticed the rear tires on the Prowler were wearing badly on the inside edges and after the Dexter axle seminar Glen from Dexter came over to our site to have a look-see.

View attachment 48301

He said that our rear axle has lost it's camber (ie.- flat), which is why the tires are wearing out on the inside edges.

He advised to have the tires reversed on the wheels so that they would wear out on the other side of the tire to get us home.

While having that done in Utah on the way home, the Big 'O' tires store guy in Richfield, Utah discovered while spinning it on the balancer machine the tire that was worn down the worst (right tire in photo above) was starting to separate, so they put the spare on that wheel and the bad tire is now our spare until we get new tires (after we get the axle fixed, of course).

The front two tires are still good, and the original spare has a little wear on the inside tread, but still appears to be in good shape . . .

But no more ST tires for me . . .

Looking for a good 15-inch truck tire to use instead.

Don't want to get 16-inch wheels right now as the axle job and other associated work is already cutting in to our travel piggy bank.

Don't forget to file complaint with NHTSA, They will want to know the DOT of the failed tires. That is why it is important that all RV owners have and keep a record of the DOT serial of each tire. Useful to know if there is a recall too.