First trailer tire blowout

[Do1982]

Hi everybody! I mostly lurk and don't post but today I thought I'd share my first trailer tire blowout. I was on my way home from a 3 day fishing trip on the wisconsin River. Was about an hour from home when I had a full blow out of the driver side trailer tire. Here are a few of things I learned from this. 

 

First I had the very bare minimum on me to change that tire but I was able to do it. My 4 way lug wrench barely got my spare off its bracket. It just wasn't made for it. My bottle jack while compact is a undersized and on top of it leaked its fluid. I used my truck jack. It was missing the crank so I had to improvise with fishing pliers. Not the way to do it. 

 

Next was my spare. It was weather cracked and looked terrible. I was relieved it took some more air. One of those things I always told myself to replace but it "looked fine" on the side of my trailer not needed. I puckered all the way home at 45 mph. 

 

Lastly I felt very exposed changing a tire on a 4 lane 65 mph highway. It was driverside so I was exposed roadside for much of it. All I had were my 4 way flashers. Road flares, highway cones, or reflectors, anything that I could have put up a few hundred feet behind me would have made me feel just a small amount better. 

 

I'm not sure what caused the blowout. Both tires are only a couple months old. Regardless I am going to re-tire again and get a brand new spare. Just wanted to share my experience with a blowout. Happens to us all eventually right.

[Rocketvapor]

Glad nothing got damaged.  

For a driver's side trailer tire, back the trailer off at an angle if you can.  Keep tow vehicle on solid ground but angle the trailer away from the traffic lane if there is room.  Run the flat tire up on the spare to get clearance for the jack.  

I've got most of my towing experience pulling a home made mini camper on the biggest Harbor Freight trailer sold.

Going 1600 miles round trip I carried one spare mounted up under the camper and a complete hub/bearing/seal/lugnuts in the tongue box.  I lost a hub /grease cap once and repacked and drove on home checking hub temperature at every stop.  Now I have a spare for that too 

 

Now I'm pulling my little Bass Raider on a 1500 pound utility trailer.  Have, but haven't mounted the spare yet but only go 2 or 3 miles to a local launch.  I'm thinking of welding a dummy spindle and mounting a complete hub/wheel/tire when I take off on a long trip.    

 

Glad your skill set helped get the tire changed.  

 

 

[Terrance Waters]

2 hours ago, Do1982 said:

Hi everybody! I mostly lurk and don't post but today I thought I'd share my first trailer tire blowout. I was on my way home from a 3 day fishing trip on the wisconsin River. Was about an hour from home when I had a full blow out of the driver side trailer tire. Here are a few of things I learned from this. 

 

First I had the very bare minimum on me to change that tire but I was able to do it. My 4 way lug wrench barely got my spare off its bracket. It just wasn't made for it. My bottle jack while compact is a undersized and on top of it leaked its fluid. I used my truck jack. It was missing the crank so I had to improvise with fishing pliers. Not the way to do it. 

 

Next was my spare. It was weather cracked and looked terrible. I was relieved it took some more air. One of those things I always told myself to replace but it "looked fine" on the side of my trailer not needed. I puckered all the way home at 45 mph. 

 

Lastly I felt very exposed changing a tire on a 4 lane 65 mph highway. It was driverside so I was exposed roadside for much of it. All I had were my 4 way flashers. Road flares, highway cones, or reflectors, anything that I could have put up a few hundred feet behind me would have made me feel just a small amount better. 

 

I'm not sure what caused the blowout. Both tires are only a couple months old. Regardless I am going to re-tire again and get a brand new spare. Just wanted to share my experience with a blowout. Happens to us all eventually right.

Some days are just hard that way but I'm glad it turned out right and you got it home safely,

[Bird]

Something I've learned over many years towing......keep the trailer tires inflated max psi cold.

The main culprit to blowouts is low tire pressure and heat buildup. 

 

Happy you made it home without harm.

[Sphynx]

This is a painful lesson about preparedness that could have ended a lot worse than it did, glad everything worked out and even more glad you are using it as a learning opportunity to be more prepared next time.

 

As far as blowouts, I have blown out brand new tires on my 18 wheeler because of road debris, and because of plain lemon tires, and probably other reasons I can't think of, always looked at tires as a "when" rather than an "if" item.

[K1500]

As others have said, max PSI cold. Also, don’t by China made trailer tires if you can at all help it, and don’t put passenger car tires on it, stick to ST rated tires. Goodyear endurance are USA made and worth the extra money. In contrast, Goodyear marathon are junk. Maxxis are probably the best of the imported ST tires if you are boycotting Goodyear. Finally, replace them every 4-5 years. 

[Tatsu Dave]

I'm kind of on constant ready on this one, have had no problems but try to be prepared. Insisted on a new spare mounted wheel and tire when I bought boat package and got a pull up trailer jack along with a small quick lift hydraulic and Large 4 way lug wrench. Made sure I had the wrench needed to remove tire from trailer mount and keep the pressure checked like I do the trailer tires. Keep on high side pressure wise but you do get more trailer bounce on rough roads with a light boat and trailer. Lucky where I live its all rural and secondary roads so not as hard to get off road, but on the other side of the coin its easy to pick-up something in trailer tires when towing and launching in the willy wacks.  

[gim]

I had both my trailer tires go flat this past season.  Luckily it didn't happen at the same time and it happened both times at home while the boat/trailer was in the garage.  It was a bad valve on both.  But I realized after the first one went flat that I was completely unprepared.  My spare is belly mounted under the hull on the trailer but it requires a specialized lug nut to remove.  Second, my tire wrench for my truck doesn't fit the lug nuts on the trailer tires.  So I had to go buy another wrench.  The second tire's valve went bad about a week after the first, also in the garage.  That one was easy to replace because I had just done the other one and was more prepared with the right tools.

 

My advice is this: make sure you have the right tools WITH you.  I assumed all the tools from my truck to change tires on that would suffice for my trailer tires.  That one could have back fired if I was on the road when it happened.

[GaryH]

Sorry to hear about your mishap but glad you and your trailer/boat are ok. I'm not implying this is you. This is just a observation. I see boaters and campers sitting on the side of the road with blowouts. Many of them passed me a few miles back flying down the road. Now I don't drive slow but when hauling any trailer people have to be aware of the speed rating on there tires and the tire pressure also. Most of the less expensive tires have fairly low speed ratings. Couple this with improper tire pressure and it's a accident waiting to happen. Let's all be safe out there and not learn the hard way. 

[K1500]

I believe most ST tires are speed rated to 65. The Goodyear Endurance (USA made) are speed rating N, which is up to 87 MPH. So, if you want to safely go above 65, you need to pay attention to the speed ratings. This is a major reason why these Goodyear’s are one of the only choices (I believe one other tire has a speed railing above 65).  It’s really hard to stay at or below 65 on an interstate, both from a traffic flow perspective and a driver frustration level. 

[WRB]

The mistake boaters make is they look at the tire tread for wear,like their auto or truck tires. Wear isn't the prime factor for most boat trailers, age is. You should change tires every 10 years max! A few anglers do put on lots of mileage 95% don't wear out tires.

The next thing is keep the wheel bearings maintained and lube up to date.

Tom

[tcbass]

One important point for those that have locked on spare tires with nuts or locks, make sure you also have that lock key or right wrench/socket because you don't want to get a flat and not be able to get the spare off!!!

 

I had a spare tire mounted that was not the same nut size as the trailer tires, that would have been a bummer on the side of the road with a flat tire!

 

 

[Elkins45]

I had a blowout a couple of years ago and it was a doozy. I had stopped for gas about 10 miles earlier and felt the tires like I always do, and they didn’t feel hot.

 

It came apart at 70 mph and without warning. Within the first second of feeling it I looked at the side mirror just in time to see the plastic fender blow apart into big shards. The two metal stubs the fender mounts to were both bent and the rear one was actually torn loose from the frame and had to be welded before I could install a new fender. I stopped at the next big town and bought a new tire because it really makes me nervous to drive very far without a spare.

 

The boat was 10 years old when I bought it. I’m guessing the tires were the original ones. I’ve learned my lesson regarding old tires.

[Do1982]

Thanks for the discussion everyone! I've been catching up on the thread as much as I could. I think you all are right that improper inflation was the likely culprit.

 

Here's a part that I left out of the original story and the list of all the mistakes I did that likely led to the blow out. The trip is about 4 hours from my house. When I left first thing i noted that my blowout tire was a little low and that I will get some air along the way. I waited almost 2 hours on the way up before I put air in it. I had an air guage in my truck but it only went to 50lbs. Thats funny enough because my truck tires hold 85lbs so that whole thing is worthless. It was maxed out but I added air until it looked good. Then I never bothered to try and purchase a proper air guage on the road to inflate them properly. If that wasn't good enough i still went ahead and pulled it down the road like that at 72-73mph.

 

I didn't really think about it at the time but reading the comments And stories here have shown me thats definitely what happened. It didn't matter the tires on it were only a couple months old. I'm usually pretty on top of maintenance and care of my equipment. I honestly thought that since those tires were new they would be fine but all it took was one instance of my own neglect. We can overlook something for years and never have a problem or overlook it once and have issues. Fortunately it was just a tire and no persons or property was injured. 

[tcbass]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

The mistake boaters make is they look at the tire tread for wear,like their auto or truck tires. Wear isn't the prime factor for most boat trailers, age is. You should change tires every 10 years max! A few anglers do put on lots of mileage 95% don't wear out tires.

The next thing is keep the wheel bearings maintained and lube up to date.

Tom

 

 

How often do you change yours?

[Do1982]

18 hours ago, Bird said:

Something I've learned over many years towing......keep the trailer tires inflated max psi cold.

The main culprit to blowouts is low tire pressure and heat buildup. 

 

Happy you made it home without harm.

Think the tire pressure was the primary problem. Then driving 70 with poorly inflated tires was just a recipe for blowout. 

[WRB]

I used Good Year Marathon trailers tire for decades and the boat and trailer was garaged.

I changed tires every 8 years, the last set was 2019 and Marathon was superceded by Endurance. Basically sold my boat this year with new tires.

Tom

[Do1982]

18 hours ago, Sphynx said:

This is a painful lesson about preparedness that could have ended a lot worse than it did, glad everything worked out and even more glad you are using it as a learning opportunity to be more prepared next time.

 

As far as blowouts, I have blown out brand new tires on my 18 wheeler because of road debris, and because of plain lemon tires, and probably other reasons I can't think of, always looked at tires as a "when" rather than an "if" item.

Good way to put it. I spent the day getting 3 new tires including a new spare. Also got a new jack with a case that I can keep in my truck. That case also has room for the tools I need to change the tires and remove the spare. When my next blowout happens I'll be more prepared to handle it. 

[Log Catcher]

Glad everything has worked out okay for you. I bought new trailer tires about two years ago. This was in late winter. About two or three weeks later I pulled the boat out of the garage to check everything out on it. I saw one the new tires was very low. Checked it out and found it leaking around the valve stem. Had to take it back where I bought the tires and got it fixed with no problems.

[Sphynx]

2 hours ago, Do1982 said:

Good way to put it. I spent the day getting 3 new tires including a new spare. Also got a new jack with a case that I can keep in my truck. That case also has room for the tools I need to change the tires and remove the spare. When my next blowout happens I'll be more prepared to handle it. 

Don't forget to grab a reflective vest and a set of triangles to toss out there

[evo2s197]

On 10/2/2020 at 4:04 AM, Tatsu Dave said:

I'm kind of on constant ready on this one, have had no problems but try to be prepared. Insisted on a new spare mounted wheel and tire when I bought boat package and got a pull up trailer jack along with a small quick lift hydraulic and Large 4 way lug wrench. Made sure I had the wrench needed to remove tire from trailer mount and keep the pressure checked like I do the trailer tires. Keep on high side pressure wise but you do get more trailer bounce on rough roads with a light boat and trailer. Lucky where I live its all rural and secondary roads so not as hard to get off road, but on the other side of the coin its easy to pick-up something in trailer tires when towing and launching in the willy wacks.  

^^^ This, I have a tire change kit specifically for my boat trailer in my trucks tool box, the exact socket size, breaker bar just in case, wrench, small floor jack, gloves, flashlight, towel, wheel chock, fix a flat just in case and a little portable road hazard sign along with a 12v portable tire inflator, my trailer tires are replaced every year and the old ones are sold on Craigslist, I've been told I'm crazy.

[Tatsu Dave]

10 minutes ago, evo2s197 said:

^^^ This, I have a tire change kit specifically for my boat trailer in my trucks tool box, the exact socket size, breaker bar just in case, wrench, small floor jack, gloves, flashlight, towel, wheel chock, fix a flat just in case and a little portable road hazard sign along with a 12v portable tire inflator, my trailer tires are replaced every year and the old ones are sold on Craigslist, I've been told I'm crazy.

NO not crazy just prepared for that day one choose's to go

[A-Jay]

On 10/2/2020 at 7:04 AM, Tatsu Dave said:

its easy to pick-up something in trailer tires when towing and launching in the willy wacks.  

My New Favorite Term ~ 

Pretty sure I've been there a time or two my dern self.

A-Jay 

 

[Tatsu Dave]

31 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

My New Favorite Term ~ 

Pretty sure I've been there a time or two my dern self.

Willy Wacks and out in the Puckerbrush are two descriptive terms for areas like this. Its a 45th parallel thing you know  For me it comes right along with cutting and splitting 12 cords of wood each fall.

[A-Jay]

34 minutes ago, Tatsu Dave said:

Willy Wacks and out in the Puckerbrush are two descriptive terms for areas like this. Its a 45th parallel thing you know  For me it comes right along with cutting and splitting 12 cords of wood each fall.

I know it well.

A-Jay