Sailun Blowout

[MCTalley]

Note: Before commenting, please read to the end of the post. I have answered a bunch of questions that people will inevitably ask (and that have already been asked from my post on Facebook).

Not sure if I'm the first one on the forum to post about a Sailun tire failure (not that I'd rather be the first), but here is what I did this afternoon:

The front, driver's side tire on the trailer blew out just after we crossed the Mississippi River on I-10 westbound in Louisiana. I was able to fairly quickly get to a shoulder (about 1/4 mile travel distance) to find this:

Here's the tire dismounted. Note that the tread area stayed intact and even the inboard sidewall still looked fine.

Here's a close-up of what I assume was the initial blow-out part of the tire:

And now to the details and answers to questions:

Q: Was there any damage to your trailer?
A: No, fortunately the tread portion of the tire held fast through the whole incident (see tire pictures).

Q: How fast were you going?
A: At the time of the blowout, 55 mph (the speed limit on the bridge).

Q: OK, but how fast do you usually travel?
A: Typically 65-67 mph.

Q: How old are those tires, though?
A: The date code on the blowout tire was 2814 (28th week of 2014), so just under 4 years old.

Q: How many miles were on the tire?
A: Looking through my records, we had put almost exactly 40,000 miles on the trailer at the time of the blowout.

Q: Was the tire nearly bald? How did the tread look?
A: There is probably literally at least 1/2 of the original tread left on the tire and it was worn evenly all the way across.

Q: Are you running a TPMS?
A: Yes. It gave absolutely no warning.

Q: Right, but what are your settings?
A: I'm not sure on the high temperature setting, but the low pressure setting is 95 psi. It only started beeping after the blowout.

Q: Are your trailer tires balanced?
A: Yes.

Q: What pressure are you running in the trailer tires?
A: 110 psi cold.

Q: When was the last time you physically inspected the tires? Did you see any evidence of bulging sidewalls or anything?
A: I do a walkaround every time we stop. I usually (but not always) take my infrared thermometer along to check bearing temps. I didn't see anything suspicious today.

Q: When was the last time you curbed that side of the trailer or specifically that tire?
A: I can't even remember when. It definitely wasn't today.

Q: But your trailer sits still on a lot in Florida a lot, correct? Are the tires on that side constantly in the sun?
A: Our trailer does sit on our lot in Florida quite a bit. The sun shines on the opposite side of our trailer the whole day. Also, I cover the tires when we are sitting still.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Note that I am in no way knocking the Sailuns at all. There's probably a 90% chance that this blowout was caused by something physical happening to the tire at some point in its life (either by me or the transporter that brought to trailer to our selling dealer), the other 10% could be that it was just a faulty tire (on its own, not the brand as a whole).

Though we aren't typically on a tight schedule on our yearly trip west to visit family, in this case we are. We'll end up losing a day's travel, at least, waiting for tire stores to be open on Monday. I've decided to replace four of the tires with Goodyear G614s, primarily because Goodyear can get them same day and get us on the road. I don't have the luxury of waiting for someone to deliver Sailuns to a local dealer (I'm in the Lafayette, LA area) and get them installed.

Since I have (1) a blown out tire, (2) the other tire on that side that will now be a bit suspect due to carrying half the trailer's axle load (albeit for a short distance) and (3) my spare already has a plug in it from a previous puncture, I'm figuring on picking up 4 Goodyears and keeping the best looking Sailun (from the other side of the trailer) as the spare.

 

[RickL]

Based on the limited amount of visual data and having dealt with tires for well over 35 in the industry my initial guess is something compromised the integrity of the inner liner. I would bet that somewhere with in the area of the larger hole (90 degrees) there is a puncture in the face or shoulder area.

 

[MCTalley]

Based on the limited amount of visual data and having dealt with tires for well over 35 in the industry my initial guess is something compromised the integrity of the inner liner. I would bet that somewhere with in the area of the larger hole (90 degrees) there is a puncture in the face or shoulder area.

Possibility. I might look at it more closely tomorrow morning (it's in the bed of the pickup truck) out of curiosity - an activity definitely better suited for a leisurely Sunday morning instead of sitting on the side of a busy interstate in 94 degree weather.

One extenuating factor, and it might or might not be easy to pin this event to it, is that less than 10 minutes prior I had to lock up my brakes to avoid rear-ending a police car that was pulling over a speeding motorist and decided to suddenly come to a near stop in my lane instead of moving over to the shoulder as I would expect.

 

[FMC]

Goodyear g614!

 

[NYSUPstater]

40,000 miles is darn good on a RV tire and being 4 rears old, you also did pretty good. I wouldn't fault Sailun as others said, a something affected the sidewall. I'm guessing if you could have, you would have gone with Sailun's again, but totally understand time schedule and needing to get going and what is avail albeit $$$ (GY).

 

[porthole]

Not sure if I'm the first one on the forum to post about a Sailun tire failure (not that I'd rather be the first), but here is what I did this afternoon:

Sometimes first isn't so good. AFAIK, we were the first with a Goodyear G-114

There was nothing left of the tread and most of the sidewall. And we had damage.

Mine were 4 years, 8 months and 22,000 miles, but the date code was 5 years and a month.

BTW, my TPMS did not alert until after the blowout and then it was stuck at 70 PSI - with no tire.

 

[danemayer]

I think this is the 2nd Sailun failure we've heard about here.

AFAIK, no TPMS will give advance warning of a "blowout" where all air is suddenly lost. If there's tire damage from a road hazard, for example, or a weakness from a manufacturing defect, the tire can fail, losing all air almost instantly. I'd guess most of the sidewall damage in the pictures below occurred after loss of air.

The TPMS will let you know if there's a gradual loss of pressure, in time to pull over and investigate. Picking up a nail or screw would be a typical example. Without a TPMS, you won't notice the tire losing air pressure until the sidewall collapses and the tire completely fails.

A few years ago our TPMS went off because one of the truck tires was losing pressure. There was a fair sized lag bolt in the tire.

When our trailer G614 threw off its tread, the TPMS showed a pressure decrease from 125 to 115 PSI. Not enough to trigger an alarm and pressure remained stable at 115. I saw the change in pressure on 1 tire but didn't realize the tread had unzipped until we stopped for lunch. Btw, we probably went 100 miles without any tread and the tire held.

Goodyear paid for campground delivery and mounting of a replacement tire and paid for body damage repair and paint.

 

[porthole]

I wasn't suggesting the TPMS would warn of a blowout prior to the blowout. My point of it was, i had no loss of pressure prior to the blowout, and my TPMS still read 70 PSI - with no tire.

 

[RickL]

Just my opinion but temperature is a better measurement or impending failure in most cases then air pressure. As pressures decrease the temp will rise as the rolling resistance and tire jounce increases. Both of these will cause the temps to rapidly rise. Depending on the speed it can happen within feet.

 

[avvidclif]

I wasn't suggesting the TPMS would warn of a blowout prior to the blowout. My point of it was, i had no loss of pressure prior to the blowout, and my TPMS still read 70 PSI - with no tire.

If it's like mine when it looses contact it shows the last known pressure (IIRC). At least the Sailun was polite and just destroyed itself and not half of the trailer or the rim.

 

[MCTalley]

At least the Sailun was polite and just destroyed itself and not half of the trailer or the rim.

That it did. Can't complain.

As an update, we're back on the road rolling on two G614s on the off-door side and two original Sailuns on the door side. The spare is back in place (another Sailun). The local Wingfoot Goodyear dealer in Scott, LA had two G614s in stock when I called at their 7:30 AM store opening. He said bring the rig on in and they'd take care of us.

We were on the road a little after 9:00 AM. He had six more G614s on order, but said the earliest he would have them would be tomorrow morning, and he couldn't guarantee that. Two tires were all we needed to head on up the road, so we went with those.

When we get to our destination (if nothing else goes awry) near Tacoma, Washington early next week, I'll work on getting two more G614s to replace the door side Sailuns. I'll keep the best Sailun (which was originally the spare) for the spare tire.

 

[tireman9]

I wasn't suggesting the TPMS would warn of a blowout prior to the blowout. My point of it was, i had no loss of pressure prior to the blowout, and my TPMS still read 70 PSI - with no tire.

Interesting comment on TPMS reading. have you ever done a test of the TPMS system & sensors you are running? i.e. Unscrew one sensor and check how long it takes for the monitor (in the TV) to sound off. I would think it should be in the 1 to 3-second range. Then screw sensor back on and see how soon it reports the correct pressure to the monitor.

Repeat for each sensor.

What is the construction of your Salrun tires? It says on the tire sidewall, number and material in Sidewall and number and material in tread.

This does not look to me like a "normal" belt separation. BUT since it is completely in sidewallI look for signs of running with low inflation (setting aside the TPMS questions) I don't see the evidence i would normally expect to see.

- - - Updated - - -

I think this is the 2nd Sailun failure we've heard about here.

AFAIK, no TPMS will give advance warning of a "blowout" where all air is suddenly lost. If there's tire damage from a road hazard, for example, or a weakness from a manufacturing defect, the tire can fail, losing all air almost instantly. I'd guess most of the sidewall damage in the pictures below occurred after loss of air.

The TPMS will let you know if there's a gradual loss of pressure, in time to pull over and investigate. Picking up a nail or screw would be a typical example. Without a TPMS, you won't notice the tire losing air pressure until the sidewall collapses and the tire completely fails.

A few years ago our TPMS went off because one of the truck tires was losing pressure. There was a fair sized lag bolt in the tire.

When our trailer G614 threw off its tread, the TPMS showed a pressure decrease from 125 to 115 PSI. Not enough to trigger an alarm and pressure remained stable at 115. I saw the change in pressure on 1 tire but didn't realize the tread had unzipped until we stopped for lunch. Btw, we probably went 100 miles without any tread and the tire held.

Goodyear paid for campground delivery and mounting of a replacement tire and paid for body damage repair and paint.

Was that 10 psi loss very slow? I know there are some TPM systems that have what they call Rapid or Fast air loss warning where they warn when the pressure drops from the high hot pressure with something like 5 psi in 3 seconds so you are not waiting till you have a 25% loss below your set point pressure. Might do a detailed read of your TPM manual.

 

[danemayer]

Was that 10 psi loss very slow? I know there are some TPM systems that have what they call Rapid or Fast air loss warning where they warn when the pressure drops from the high hot pressure with something like 5 psi in 3 seconds so you are not waiting till you have a 25% loss below your set point pressure. Might do a detailed read of your TPM manual.

I don't know how fast/slow the loss of pressure was. I didn't get an alarm, so it was probably gradual. I periodically check the display and noticed the one reading was off. Here's what the TST manual says:

"When the sensors detect a fast leak itwill send this information to the monitorimmediately. The corresponding tireicon and the reading flash immediatelyand the fast leakage icon will be turn on..."

 

[MCTalley]

What is the construction of your Salrun tires? It says on the tire sidewall, number and material in Sidewall and number and material in tread.

This does not look to me like a "normal" belt separation. BUT since it is completely in sidewallI look for signs of running with low inflation (setting aside the TPMS questions) I don't see the evidence i would normally expect to see.

I think you may be mixing up porthole's comments with my pictures? He mentioned he had Goodyear G114s and his monitor stuck on 70 psi. I have the Sailun that blew out the sidewall. My TPMS did, in fact, show 0 psi pretty quickly (obviously after the air pressure loss from the blowout).

As a point of update, the tire store tech speculated I probably ran over something that punctured the sidewall from the inside, though neither of us really took a good look at the tire to verify. I didn't see anything specific when I looked over the tire the day before as it was sitting in my truck bed.

 

[porthole]

have you ever done a test of the TPMS system & sensors you are running? i.e. Unscrew one sensor and check how long it takes for the monitor (in the TV) to sound off. I would think it should be in the 1 to 3-second range. Then screw sensor back on and see how soon it reports the correct pressure to the monitor.

Repeat for each sensor.

Yes I have

 

[tireman9]

I think you may be mixing up porthole's comments with my pictures? He mentioned he had Goodyear G114s and his monitor stuck on 70 psi. I have the Sailun that blew out the sidewall. My TPMS did, in fact, show 0 psi pretty quickly (obviously after the air pressure loss from the blowout).

As a point of update, the tire store tech speculated I probably ran over something that punctured the sidewall from the inside, though neither of us really took a good look at the tire to verify. I didn't see anything specific when I looked over the tire the day before as it was sitting in my truck bed.

Ok I was thinking external sidewall damage. Yes it can take some close (even microscopic) examination and time ti find the evidence some times.