Pro Golfer Ken Green Injured

[J.C. Watts]

Pro Golfer Ken Green was injured and his brother and girlfriend were killed when their tire blew out on their RV. I do not know if it were a Prevost but I know a lot of the guys playing have one. It happened in Jackson, MS on Monday. Prevost or not I feel for the gentleman.

[michaeldterry]

Horrible tragedy... I found some early news footage and the "RV" appears to be a plastic coach of some kind (I saw the name "Imperial" under the driver's window). Here's a link to the story and the local news footage: http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12552852?source=most_viewed (The video is near the bottom of the page).

My thoughts and prayers go out to Ken, his family, and the family of his girlfriend.

[hillndale]

Very sad...god bless him and his family.
It looked like a fairly new coach from those pictures. Other than maintaining proper tire pressure, what else can be done to avoid these kinds of situations? How common are blowouts on these coaches? Has anyone ever had a blowout on here and if so how difficult is it to control the coach at highway speed when it happens?

[jelmore]

We had a left steer tire blow out in a mid-90's gas motorhome. I heard it but honestly couldn't tell which tire it was until I stopped and looked. I have no idea why I couldn't feel it. Absolutely no loss of control. Very odd. Very grateful.

[garyde]

I've had blow outs on a Gas RV on front and back. It takes you by suprise and you have to not over react. Maintain a strait heading & don't brake. A good videoon this subject is on the Michelin site.
In both instances, the tires were old and showed cracking on the 'inside' tire wall.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

The SLOWER you are going when a tire blows the less the chance of loss of control. 80 or 60 the choice is ours. The explosion will scare the bajeebits out of you.

[mike kerley]

We had a right front blow on our Beaver Thunder at 70 MPH. Control was there, but I'm glad I was not passing someone at the time, it would have been messy, especially for the vehical that would have been along side us. As Joe says, stay off of the brakes and hope you have a shoulder to slide onto. We met a couple in Wyoming several years ago who rolled there Beaver Marquis after a front tire blew.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I believe the fatal Prevost accident in Las Vegas area a while back was the result of a blowout. Speed may have been a factor. I think Jim and Chris may know more about that one and can share it here.

When we had the tire seminars I admit to being very surprised at how tire pressure affected tire life. We have all recognized the need to check tire pressures and to weight the coach to determine what pressures are correct. But I admit I did not realize that running with a tire that was down on pressure by as little as 20% effectively destroyed the tire. That meant that if I as a driver failed to notice I was down on pressure and drove with a tire down on pressure, from any point on that tire, even after the pressure was restored had the potential to fail catastrophically.

Both Michelin and Goodyear made that point.

The age and condition of the tire sidewalls was also critical. When visible sidewall cracking reached a certain level the tire needed to be replaced.

I think a lot of blowouts can be prevented it we maintain the proper pressures and monitor our tire's ages and cracking. But the video that I think Ray Davis posted a while back showed that if we do get a blowout we need to add power to stabilize the coach before we begin slowing down to maintain control and that is contrary to what we would think.

[Loc]

Tragic news. From the pictures it looks like it was a large Monaco or Holiday Rambler (tag axle).

J.C.,

Certainly a recognizable name. Welcome to the POG. Enjoy all you read, believe most of it and be cautious of the rest. Be prepared for a fair amount practical jokes and ribbing.

Loc

[Coloradobus]

Yes Jon,

Marathon Coach, 740 XLV1Slide, a 2002, was over weight on the front ! We had to run max psi per Michelin when we owned that coach. The photos we received indicated tire wear from under inflation, 100+ degrees air temp on I-15 that day, and speed well over 70. Over-speed, over weight, under inflation, excessive heat, a cocktail for misfortune.:(

[edsaylor]

On October 31, 2004, I had a blowout on the left front tire on my 2002 Liberty coach. I usually drive 64 MPH. Someone pulled along side and pointed down (as they probably saw a bubble on the tire), so I released the cruise to see what the problem was. Seconds later the tire blew! At probably 60 MPH it was all I could do to control the bus!!! I knew not to apply the brakes and forgot about the retarder, so I just faught to keep control and get safely stopped on the shoulder of I-95 at Melburne, FL. Anyone, in my opinion, who drives over 65MPH is NUTS. It took over a year and a half before my left arm stopped hurting! During that time I had very little strength in my left arm and hand. When I purchased the coach some 5 or 6 months eariler, I noticed a slight bump in the coach, but did not think anything about it. When the guy put a new tire on by the side of the highway, he told me he could not balance the tire, so it would bump until I could get it balanced. When I took off, I noticed that my coach was perfectly smoothe now with an unbalanced tire. Long and short--I will not drive a bus with any bump in the coach, as it is probably a bad tire. Also, for safety sake, I really feel 65 MPH is as fast as these coaches should be driven, as I cannot imagine keeping one under control at 75 or 80 if you have a blowout. I am not a small person, and I can assure you that it was all I could do to keep the coach under control!

_________________________________
Ed Saylor 2005 Liberty Elegant Lady

[GDeen]

Wow - that coach came to pieces....

I spent last weekend at the Champions Tour event in Lakeway and saw Ken Green play through a hole we were watching. My brother and I were talking about his regular tour career and how he was pretty salty back in the day. Terrible tragedy.

Jon, if 20% underinflation effectively destroys the rated integrity of a tire, it would seem to be almost imperative to replace all tires on a pre-owned coach - no matter the age or apparent condition.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gordon,

First let me say that the 20% number was repeated by Goodyear in Sevierville, TN and Michelin in Pahrump, NV at two different seminars for POG. Until I heard it from both I just did not really ever think about the dangers of underinflation.

But after hearing it and thinking about it I realize the damage to the tire could be substantial, such as heat damage and tread separation. I can also envision broken belts due to excessive flexing. Kind of scary.

I never thought about my tires prior to my ownership of the bus, but your point is right on the money. How do we know a previous owner always checked and maintained tire pressures? In that context Ed's advice about keeping speeds down to a reasonable level takes on a real significance.

There are a lot of new owners joining POG and if they have not yet weighed their coaches, the starting point for determining tire pressures is to get the coach weighed at each axle with full fuel, full water, empty holding tanks and all the stuff they normally carry in the bus when traveling. From those individual axle weights the correct tire pressures can be determined.

http://www.michelintruck.com/michelintruck/tires-retreads/load-inflation-tables.jsp

But until each owner has installed new tires on his coach, it sure makes sense to drive the coach as though a blowout is about to occur.

[GDeen]

We elected to have all new tires on the steer and drive axles. The tags are the best of the leftover from the prior owner (9/06 dates) so I feel good about our situation given all this.

We need to get the coach weighed for sure but are running higher pressures until such time.

[phorner]

We have all heard the sermon regarding the potential for our tires to develop cracks, thereby severely limiting the useful life, long before the tread is worn out.

For those that may not know what to look for, these are Michelin XZA-1 tires date coded 2003.

[phorner]

Also, what's important to note, is that the cracked area and the date code are on the same tire.

The cracks are most prominent at the bottom of the tire, although I would suspect that the cracking is probably similar around the circumference of the side wall.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

It is probably no coincidence that those tires are six years old which appears to be the number of years the tire manufacturers end all warranty of tires from the installation date.

Six years is NOT the end of the life of the tires in all cases however. Michelin and Goodyear both state that when tires have been in service six years they should be inspected for such things as the cracking Paul has shown and taken out of service if the cracking is determined to be at the point or in excess of their allowable limits.