[Beginner]

Tire Failures are not all of a sudden. They are a progression of events that lead to the tire coming apart. Gun Powder, Black Powder, dynamite, TNT and Nitro Glycerin and all “explosives” do not explode, they burn very fast. To verify this just as a Battle Ship Ordinance Man or reloader.
This sequence I was allowed to witness through the use of a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).
One of the major problems of steel belted tires was getting the rubber to stick to the steel wire that the belts are made of. Heat greatly aggravates this problem.

The progression towards tire failures that we are experiencing is as follows:

1. Tire overheats: This is caused by driving the tire at a speed faster than its Speed Rating, out of balance tire, out of balance brake drum (running gear) both of which will cause the tire to “bounce” down the road causing the sidewalls at the heavy spot to flex much more than the rest of the sidewall area causing heat to build up at that spot much faster than the rest of the tire, and running the tire under inflated.

2. The rubber reaches its failure temperature: At this point the rubber starts to release the steel belt from its grip allowing it to slip.

3. The belt slips: As the belt slips at some point it tears inner bladder and causes a leak. This leak causes a decrease in the air pressure in the tire. This causes the sidewalls to start to flex more severely causing heat to build up faster.

4. At some point the temperature of the tire gets high enough to cause the rubber to release completely and the tire starts to come apart.

What can we do?

Slow down to 55 MPH or buy better tires.

We do not need tires that will carry a thousand pounds more than what we have, that only beats up our trailers, we need tires that will stand the heat of our driving habits.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration engineer that I talked to the Speed Rating is a very good gauging rating to use. The higher the Speed Rating the better.

I emailed the RV Safety & Education Foundation about a recommendation in one of their safety booklets recommendations that we run along with traffic. I pointed out that the tires that were being recommended were only speed rated for 65 MPH but on the Interstate System the posted speed limit often exceeds that.The person that answered me acknowledged the discrepancy and took it as an item to address. He also said “Just as a side note his is one of the reasons we see many towable manufacturers going to LT rated tires.”Some of us have taken the time to search out suitable durable replacements for the ST tires and have stopped having troubles. Some have emailed me stating that they have only used LT tires on the Airstreams and have never had problems. http://www.airforums.com/forums/f40/carlisle-tire-failures-28806-2.html
Post #17 states that he changed his Commercial T/As only after figuring out that they were 18 years old, and they were P metric.
The answer is simple folks,
Slow down to 55 or buy better tires.
Beginner