Blowouts !

O.K. I think this might belong in this dept. Tires are close to wheels. So the thread Jon started about tires started me thinking. What is it like to have a BLOWOUT on one of these buses ? Who has experienced one out there. Im sure front is worse than rear. My last motorcoach was a Kenworth T600. I had a BLOWOUT on the right front at 70 mph. The coach handled good at that speed untill I slowed it down and got over on the side. Only mistake I made was applying the brakes during the last 50 feet of stopping. Ground a flat spot on the wheel. Always coast the last 50 feet if the Blowout is on the front. If the wheel had not been damaged a new tire could have been installed right there on the side of the highway. With a damaged wheel I had to be towed. Btw it was a Michelin.

Do a search Jim. If my memory serves me right I think JPJ related the excitement of a rear tire letting go and taking out a holding tank or holding tank fitting plus other damage. As much as I respect Peter's opinions I'm sticking with my tire age replacement plan because apart from the risk of loss of control (which I think is minimal) I think there is a huge risk of doing a lot of damage by a disintegrating tire including tearing out brakes and airbags.

Jon,

You are correct on the damage part. I had three blowouts on my American Eagles, all on the rear. Not only does the noise scare the crap out of you, but the damage to the underside of the coach can be substantial. I spent many hours repairing the damage.

BTW, the reason for the blowouts was the coach manufacturer would not listen to the chassis builder and put undersized tires on the coach. There was a huge class action lawsuit and between my insurance company, Goodyear and American Coach they paid for new tires and all the damage.

John Knollmaier

Jon, Couldnt find the blowout thread but your thread about valve stem extensions was very helpful

Ditto, all the above.

The Carnival Vendors here at Beaudy's weekend sales events are touting tire pressure sending devices ( $50 per tire ). These send the info to a dashboard device ($150.00) with lights on it depicting the location of each tire on the coach and the towed vehicle. If pressure drops it will blink at you and give you the location. Has any one of you bought onto this system? It's very expensive smoke and mirrors, but if they work it may be of some value.

I believe Joe has a tire monitoring device. $50 per wheel seems a bit low, but perhaps I'm remembering wrong. The unit a friend installed had to be installed / strapped to the inside of the wheel with a large strap, positioning so that the sensor was opposite the valve stem (I guess for balancing).

But, as I remember when looking at such devices, the total came to over $100 per tire, maybe as much as $150?

I ran into someone on my last visit to Liberty that had gone through a front blowout on his Country Coach XL and said that it handled fine. But that's when he learned that they had sold him a coach with dump truck tires on it (a brand new coach if I remember correctly). Country Coach refused to swap the tires for the ones Prevost usually uses and he couldn't just buy them because they had also switched rims, which made it so the normal tires would not fit without replacing the rims as well. He ended up selling the coach and getting a Liberty... but the guy who bought his old coach was at Liberty on that day, so I saw the coach. (I think Steve was parked right next to it when he came in to pick up his new coach).

I saw a video on the Michelan web site (I'm pretty sure that's where it was) and said you should punch the accelerator to the floor if you get a blow out because, the more you slow down, the more difficult it is supposed to be to control... so they said to speed up until you figure out a safe spot to stop. They described the physics of it all, but I don't remember the details.

Ben,

Lets hope neither one of us ever has to test this, but I'll not speed up if I have a blow out. I'll not hit the brakes, and will slow down gradually, but certainly will not accelerate.

I had a right front blow on our Beaver Thunder at 70 mph, not exciting but it sure tears up the fiberglass wheel wells and anything else close to it.

I think the key is to stay calm and keep it "dirty side down" (unless your Jon and both sides are equally clean).

Mike K

Harry We have Pressure Pro by Dorian and I love it. Sensers are valve stem caps 50$ each. and the dash unit was also as you describe. Best 750 bucks I spent in a long time. It was The cost of 1 michelan and it pays for itself the first time it goes off. I wouldn't even concider running my "older" tires like I am without it. I will NEVER have another camper without it. It will pay for itself over and over again.

Ben, wow.