My first trailer blowout

[Rich Stern]

Was heading up I-85 to Lake Hartwell today, boat in tow. Got the dogs in the truck, enjoying the beautiful weather and an easy drive. Traffic was moderately heavy heading north, but not bad.



Start to feel a vibration from the trailer. Figured it was the 18 wheeler that just blew past me on the left. But the vibration isn't letting up. About 5 seconds go by, and I see just a bit of smoke from the right rear of the trailer. Maybe one of my bearings was going, start looking for a good place to pull over. BANG! I look just in time to see tire tread flying off the back of the trailer. And I'm now riding on the rim. Got over into the shoulder, found a place to tuck in halfway behind the edge of the guardrail, relatively protected from oncoming traffic.



By stroke of luck, I had just purchased a farm jack a couple of days before and had it in the truck. Needed it. With the spot I was in, on the rim, with the wheel in the grass off the roadway, I couldn't get my truck's bottle jack under the frame. Lifted the trailer a bit with the farm jack, got the bottle jack under the trailer frame, got jacked, got the rim swapped with the spare, got on my way.



In addition to having the farm jack, I was lucky I had the spare tire lock key, too. It's been on the boat keyring for three years, never thought about it, but needed it today. And I had just topped off the air on the spare tire last week.



The trailer tire that disintegrated only had a few thousand miles on it. Don't know if I hit something, or picked up a nail. Gonna get a new tire, and replace the remaining tire as well, just in case.



Been a long time since I had to change a tire on the highway. Alls well that ends well.

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

Yeeoow Rich, glad all of you are ok! Also a good thing you were prepared too. Sure makes a bad situation a smidge bettter.

 

[Dan J.]

Glad to hear it turned out okay! Sure puts the "pucker factor" into overdrive though, huh??!! :lol: Holler if I can help. (I'm just off Exit 17.)



Check out this toad and new lake record for Lanier:
http://www.hammondsfishing.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1012

 

[Rich Stern]

Carlos, one to the other blessings was that Jeanne had my son, her mother, and my nieces and nephew in our SUV. She pulled up behind me as I was changing the tire.



Dan, yeah, it's scary to have a blowout in traffic like that, but the trailer didn't do anything wild. One of my fears about a single axle trailer has always been excessive sway with a blowout or bad bearing. Didn't happen. Trailer stayed where it was supposed to, and the rim held up ok too. I'm sure the folks behind me enjoyed the sparks. Thanks for the help offer!



That's a monster striper!

 

[Rich Stern]

double post..

 

[JP Heintzman]

Glad to see all ended well Rich. I always carry a two-ton floor jack in the truck and it's more than paid for itself ($29.00) as those bottle jack are one step above worthless and very dangerous as far as stability is concerned. Be safe out there!



JP

 

[Jim B]

I do the same thing as JP. I have a sears one that is 2.5 tons that came in a nice plastic case on sale for like 30 bucks. It really saved my butt last year when i scorched a bearing 3 plus hours from home and had to fix it in a parking lot. That was the first time i have ever eaten a bearing and thankfully i had the parts and knowhow to fix it to get home. Come to find out that the bearings they used in my trailer were doomed from the start. Cheap china made junk that was not heat treated properly.





Rick what kind of tire was it that failed? My trailer had some pos "Trail America" tires on it and after only two years they were all dry roted and were and accident waiting to happen. I ended up replacing them with good years and i can already tell the difference on how the the trailer goers down the road.

 

[Bill McElroy]

Rich...glad it all worked out well for you. Reminds me of a story Woo told me a few years ago...he was on his way to MI. for the Mustad Classic, pulling his boat, and his wife, Patty was driving at the time....somewhere on the Ohio Turnpike I think he said,....anyway,..he was just sitting in the passenger seat, and he noticed a whole tire and rim pass them on the road!! He thought, "WTH?!...that looked like one o'my tars!!...the daggone thang came offn the boat trailer,...rim and all!!" :blink: They drove the rest of the way to MI. on 3 trailer tires!! :wacko: The techs at the TM service ctr here replaced the studs, and get it all back together for the trip home! They were lucky!

 

[Greg Meyer]

Real glad it all worked out....

 

[Teri C.]

Glad you are ok, Rich!

 

[Mini]

good to hear it turned out ok. could have been ALOT worse!

 

[Rich Stern]

Jim, the tires were Trail Master brand. They were OEM on the Fisher trailer. They looked great, with very little tread wear.So much so that I had high (and false) confidence in them. Always kept them properly inflated. It's entirely possible that I picked up a nail or something else, but to go from a good, inflated tire in my driveway, to tread flying off the rim 20 miles later...not much confidence.



The trailer is down at the local tire store right now, getting the bearings checked and a new pair of tires.

 

[Jim B]

I can blame you for not having confidence in them Rich. A blowout at speed can be a pretty scary and dangerous thing on a single axle trailer. I know one of mine, possibly both would have failed this year had i kept running them. They have very few miles on them but were all cracked down to the cords in the sidewall. I cover them when not in use and they still didnt last. nitro used to package good year standard on the nitro trailer on 18' and bigger. This time around they went with the lowest bidder and it shows. I replaced them with good years because i have had excellent service from them in the past. I hate good year car tires but for some reason thier trailer tires have been great for me.



My Father had carlisle traielr radials on his boat and he had 4 tread seperations in one summer. He only trailers about 1000 miles a year tops. He replaced those with good years and his problems went away.