Had my first trailer tire blowout yesterday

[Gene Neill]

The tire was a 15" Karrier LoadStar, load range D. They are rated at 2,540lb capacity each; the boat and trailer combined weigh about 4100, so I was under the max rating by about 500 lbs per tire. The tire was exactly two years old, with maybe a thousand miles on it. The boat stays parked under a canopy in the shade, so no direct sunlight ever hits the tires when they are not rolling.

Temperature was about 80 degrees. I had the cruise control set at 60 mph. I had only been on the road for 45 minutes. Next thing I knew, that tire completely disintegrated.

Lessons learned! I had been very complacent, AKA "stupid", having too much faith that "good" tires wouldn't blow. I was totally unprepared. (Granted, I do have BoatUS roadside insurance, but still). I soon learned that my truck jack was NOT going to get the job done like I always assumed it would, and I didn't even have the right size lug wrench on hand. Fortunately, I was only 25 minutes from home, and my wife was following me in her Jeep. So I soon had a four-way lug wrench and a floor jack, and all was well.

But from now on, the 4-way and the floor jack go wherever the boat goes (on land, at least!). And I may invest in a second spare tire. If this had happened early on a long trip, I would have been spare-less for a long time.

Just thought I'd share, maybe someone will take it to heart and not make my mistake.

 

[rgranger]

Thanks for sharing Gene.... I wonder if you hit something sharp in the road? Glad you didn't suffer any additional damage.

 

[Meriachee]

Gene,
Here's a stupid question, did you check the pressure before going? A tire may look just fine sitting in the yard and be down 10 lbs. It'll get really hot, really fast on the road. This happened about 5 miles from the yard. It may not have been inflated enough, and that is now part of the pre-move checklist.

 

[justsomeguy]

Had my first trailer tire blowout yesterday
Appreciate the heads-up.
Looking forward to mine. Could happen this June...

 

[walt]

Hmmm.. great advice to check my truck jack to see if it would work on the boat trailer to replace a tire. I think I will do that today.. Hopefully the trailer was controllable even with the blowout. I lost a tire once on a single axle trailer from not tight enough lug nuts which was a huge inconvenience but at least the trailer stayed in control coming to a stop.

 

[Benny17441]

Like Meriachee indicates, check tire pressure. A tired rated at 2,540 lbs. only provides for its rated capacity when inflated cold to the maximum load pressure indicated on the sidewall. It also allows for best heat dissipation; an underinflated tire can build up heat rather quickly. Also check the hubs running temperature as excessive heat build up can transfer to rims and tires. Check the code for the tire's date of manufacture to determine its actual age. Also check suspension travel as bolts protruding from the underside of a fender could come into contact with a tire. Keeping two spare tires might be a waste of money as really spare tires seldom see the road. I usually keep a good but somewhat used tire as a spare. Something to get me back on the road to look for a brand new replacement for the blown tire. Stopping periodically to check tires and hubs temperature is essential.

 

[LakeShark]

@Gene Neill now you have the opportunity to upgrade to load range E tires. You wanted new tires this year anyway didn't you? Glad the boat and the driver are all ok. Losing a tire like that is a good warning to us all to never become complacent with our trailers.

 

[Meriachee]

We used to travel with a scissor jack. It was, as we found out the hard way, woefully inadequate to the task of lifting an axle. Luckily the jack for the 350 will do it easily.

 

[BudGates]

Another point that often gets overlooked is to make sure the rim actually fits the trailer. Just after loading my boat back on the trailer I noticed one tire was low. Not a problem, I had a spare and all the right tools. I took the flat tire off just to find out that, although the previous owner had mounted a good spare on the trailer, the rim didn't fit. The bolt pattern was correct but the center hole was too small to fit onto the hub.

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine. He was following me as we were heading to the ocean (a 4 hour trip). All of a sudden he disappeared from view. My wife called to see if everything was okay. He responded that he had had a flat and would catch up to us when we stopped. Shortly there after he called back to say that his spare didn't fit his trailer. We turned around, took him and his blown-out tire to a tire store, then took him and his new tire back to the boat. After installing the new tire on the trailer we returned to the tire store to have the second tire replaced. It was dark by the time we finally launched our boats.

 

[Gene Neill]

@Meriachee ... that's a big 10-4, I never leave the driveway without doing a pressure check. And I stop often to check hub temperatures.

@walt: I'm happy to say the trailer didn't squirrel around at all. It just felt like all of a sudden I was running over something really rough. And of course pieces of rubber were flying all over the place. The trailing edge of the aluminum fender was bent double, but it straightened out easy enough and well enough to not replace it. Also the side marker light was torn off, and I had some skid marks on the hull to buff out.

@LakeShark ... yup, definitely load range 'E' this time around.

As far as brands, I'm seeing Kenda/Karrier, Truckmaster/Provider, and Lion's Head/Westlake. I've never heard of the second two names, anybody have any inside information? The specs look nearly identical, except that the Karrier and Provider tires have a speed rating of 81 mph, vs. 75 mph for the Westlake. All are highly rated at etrailer.com, but there are WAY more ratings on the Karrier. Obviously I'm not a big fan of Karrier right at this moment, but I'm not unwilling to hold my nose and buy them again if necessary.

 

[LakeShark]

When I was looking at tires a few weeks back I was going to try the Truckmaster/Providers from e.trailer. They came rather highly rated on both etrailer and other sites as well as other forums for both power and sail trailers. And the Kenda/Karrier tires did not seem to give much more for the cost. That said in the end I let the trailer shop that just did my trailer work put on a brand they work with that have a load range D rating. However in a few years when these tires are toast I will likely give the Truckmaster brand a try if they continue to have good ratings. Hope that helps and as far as not being happy with Kenda right now remember that trailer tires are only good for a handful of years anyway because of their makeup. Sounds like you got more miles out of your tires than most and normally trailer tires are replaced because of sidewall cracking not tread depth So perhaps it is just time. On the bright side you're not replacing the tire because of a sidewall puncture or something. You definitely destroyed that tire!

 

[CloudDiver]

Thanks for the heads up and warning Gene. My tires are 2 years old also and barley have 300 miles on them at best, maybe just 200. They've been sitting during my restoration and mostly indoors. I'll be sure to check pressures and have the right jack/tool handy in the truck plus my spare.

 

[EV21]

Great Post! Got me to wondering about whether add-on tire monitoring systems might be available. Sure enough, quite a few -- some report both pressure and temp. (One will monitor up to 32 tires.) Surprisingly reasonable considering the cost of the mayhem that could result if a tire gives out. Didn't look for it yet but just occurred that bearing temp monitoring might be available too.

 

[rickff]

I have tire pressure/temp gauges on a camping trailer. I believe they are the single most important
item towing. that said, they would have to be removed for launching as water would finish them.

 

[Brian S]

I launched my boat yesterday. My buddy towed with his pickup, 'coz my Kazoobaru can do it, but I don't like towing so close to, or over, my tow limit. One tire measured correct 80psi cold, the other was 75. But he was rarin' to go, and I knew we would only be going 15 miles, nothing on the highway, so I didn't top it off. If I were doing just myself, on my own slightly slower schedule, I would have gone to the trouble of digging out the car compressor and topping it off. We had no problems. Still, I'll pump that other one up now that I have time and while it sits for the summer. I get super paranoid about having trouble roadside. That reminds me, I should also pump up the spare.

 

[waterpirate]

Pearls of wisdom in this thread. I would add the 6 P's.
Proper
preparation
prevents
Oh you guys know the rest
Eric

 

[Meriachee]

I got a little hand held infrared temperature gauge from a local bulk dealer and use it regularly to test the bearings. Coming from the storage yard to the warehouse this year, about 145km, all of the bearings were within 10 degrees of when I left. The funny thing about that is that the "sunny" side, was uniformly 5 degrees warmer, both tires and bearings. It all goes in the road log book, and is a good way to see trends.

 

[LeeandRick]

I went sailing for a few days and may be late on a response. Excellent answers by all.

Gene you said "about" 4100 lbs. Since you have a single axle trailer I would suggest you weigh the trailer side to side with everything in it including that giant cooler of beer. You may find you are running on the edge of capacity on one side. Our O'Day 23 weighs 400 lbs more on the starboard side when packed on the trailer but sits level in the water when everything is set up.

 

[Rick Webb]

Lug Wrench

I bought a long 1/2" breaker bar and a 3/4" socket from Harbor Freight to use as a lug wrench for the trailer works much better than any of the other lug wrenches I have seen and cheap with the ever present 20% off coupons. I even put one in my daughter and wife's cars to use instead of the nearly useless one that came with the cars.

A couple of pieces of 4X4 are great to use as a chock or to pull the flat tire up onto so you can get the jack under the axle pretty tough with a flat tire on many trailers.

 

[jssailem]

Gene. You know this could have been avoided if you had a bigger boat in the water. You and the admiral could have been in the same car riding to the boat. (Think of the fuel savings and help for the planet). No trailer to park. Just a pleasant drive to the boat and a cruise.

Just saying. Fuel to encourage admiral acceptance for the bigger boat idea.