tire blowout blew hole in wheel well

[munimula]

i suffered a blow out on the streetside rear tire of my '78 excella 500 yesterday. the event blew a hole in the wheel well and wiped out most of the pluming under my center bath sink.

any suggestions on how to repair the gaping hole in my wheel well? sheet metal, plastic, or aluminum?

i'm sure this repair has been discussed here but my search for "wheel well" comes up empty.

and yes...i also just ordered four new tires.

--dave

[Condoluminum]

Dave-

Sorry about blowout.. Makes one wonder if electronic sensors are worth the money... I did quick search on tire+damage and found several of the threads of others who have had wheel wells torn up by tire failures.. You could try other combos of tire+well and tire+sewer and probably find them all...

Good luck, and hopefully your insurance company is a good one..

John McG

[ticki2]

Dave , sorry to hear of your mishap . Apparently you and yours are OK , that's the most important . I can't help with a replacement liner but if it's just a patch you need perhaps a wheel well liner from a auto or pickup at a junk yard would do , most are made of plastic nowadays . Just for edification , what brand and type of tire blew out ? Good luck

[munimula]

Thanks for the replies. I was riding on tires i knew not much about. they came with the trailer when i bought it back in '03. i kinda feared this event every time i've gone out on the road. visually the tires looked fine - no cracks and plenty of tread. but after inspecting what was left of the blown tire it was apparent the rubber was dried out.

this was not a side wall blowout but it exploded across the tread. i don't know the brand - i will be back at the trailer tomorrow to install four new tires and will gather that info then. i'm going with copper radias as replacement.

if i didn't hear it and see debris flying behind me i would not have stopped as i didn't feel a thing. i was doing about 60 MPH on the NYS Thruway in 80+ degree temps. After I changed out the flat the spare looked low on air - so i took it slow to the next rest area. i checked tire pressure on the other three and they were all at 70psi (hot).

cold i'm pretty sure i had 65 psi in them - was this too much for a '78 excella 500 (31 footer)?

--dave

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by micsupply

if i didn't hear it and see debris flying behind me i would not have stopped as i didn't feel a thing. i was doing about 60 MPH on the NYS Thruway in 80+ degree temps. After I changed out the flat the spare looked low on air - so i took it slow to the next rest area. i checked tire pressure on the other three and they were all at 70psi (hot).

cold i'm pretty sure i had 65 psi in them - was this too much for a '78 excella 500 (31 footer)?

--dave

It would only have been too much if you exceeded the max inflation recommendation on the side wall. Did you look at the date of manufacture on the tires? That would have given you a good snapshot of the age, although not truly the length of time those tires were mounted.

Folks buying used trailers need to look at this. I was at a rally two weeks ago with a first time trailer owner who bought a 34' unit from a member of our WBCCI GSL unit. He told me that the previous owner told him to buy a couple of tires every few years, put them in the front axle and move the other two axles back one position. The oldest tires being in the rear.

I got down and looked at the dates on those rear tires and found that they were manufactured in March of 2000. One tire had a sidewall crack that ran completely around the tire, about an inch or less from the wheel. We had a long talk and he will most likely replace those rear two and perhaps the center axle tires. We couldn't find a date on them, probably because the stamp was on wall of the tire that was mounted toward the insides.

Boy this is really scary when folks give out advice like this.

Jack

[overlander63]

You could probably get a fiberglass kit from an auto parts store, and patch the hole with the mat and resin. put a piece of the resin-soaked mat over the hole outside, then when that dries, go inside the coach, and patch the hole on the inside the same way. If you want it to look "purty" and protect the fiberglass patch somewhat, you can spray on some rubberized undercoating over the patch inside the wheelwell.

[Tarheel]

I like Overlanders approach, I would use the epoxy system (west system) just because I am familiar with it and it adhears to plastic better than polyester. Back it up with some material on the inside and a piece of saran wrap then remove it when cured and put on a layer or two from the inside should be as good as new.
I did spring for the tire sensors and they saved me on the first trip out. Had a blowout on I-95 and got to a stop before the tire came apart. Well worth the bucks in safety and peace of mind.

[munimula]

You guys are good. I never thought of fiberglass. i will add pictures of the damage tomorrow.

[GO Bob]

Make sure the tire dealer puts on steel valve stems. On high presure tires the standard ones do not hold up. My inlaws have blown two this year on a trip going to and home in their SOB. Luckly stopped before to much damage.

[munimula]

Originally Posted by GO Bob

Make sure the tire dealer puts on steel valve stems. On high presure tires the standard ones do not hold up. My inlaws have blown two this year on a trip going to and home in their SOB. Luckly stopped before to much damage.

thanks - after reading ALL of the thread titled tires...tires...tires, i picked up that bit of advice. i'm going with radials over bias - correct?

[munimula]

here are three of photos of the incident...



from the inside...


from the outside wheel well

[SilverToy]

Mic -

WOW!!! That looks like major carnage. Photo perspective perhaps? Then again, maybe not. Glad to hear that all are allright.

Sorry to see the damage, but THAT is repairable. If something had happened to anyONE, that would have been horrible!

All the best going forward!

Axel

[enduroryda]

Wow, That's scary stuff....We had a thread going on about this a while back...

search---- A Tale of Woe

That would have blown out my gas line for sure

Hope you get it fixed soon!

[basecamp]

I'm losing confidence in trailer tires from all the stories I read. I had the impression that they last longer than truck tires because trailers sit for long periods of time. When I picked up my used 8 year old trailer a couple of years ago the first thing I did was to replace the 'C' range with 'D' range Marathons.(when my 96 was built Airstream used 'C' range on the 30' Classic) About 3000 miles later I picked up a nail which can happen and luckily I pulled over to get a Big Mac walked around the trailer for a visual and found a flat very hot tire. I personally would not keep trailer tires longer than 3 years. Goodyear is apparently developing a new version of the Marathon. Is there a study out there that can tell us what the most dependable trailer tire is? I can't imagine it to be a Marathon. I know of another Airstream owner that had the same mishap, street side rear tire blew out all the sewer plumbing and damaged some of the aluminum. Consider yourself lucky the aluminum wasn't damaged.

[clancy_boy]

Not a pretty sight. Part of the reason I will be going with all new running gear. New axel, old one is original 1966, new brakes, current ones work but are questionable, and new rims as I have three right now but none match (?). Tires are cheap maintenance every 2 years and I will rotate to my flatbed trailer for the rest of their life.

Hope the damage is all repairable and yopu get back on the road soon.

[bryanl]

There was an idea floated a while back to have the feds put expiration dates on tires - 7 years. Conservative estimates run only 3 - 5 years.

It is the sitting that is one of the big problems with trailer tires. Some of the stuff that is in the rubber needs to be worked with in-use flexing in order to reduce age effects.

A study I have seen indicates that sunlight exposure was not the primary problem. This was based on the fact that the inside tires of duals had the most problems.

The biggest cause of tire failure is lack of air pressure. Keep them inflated to sidewall max cold rated PSI.

A lot of older Airstreams will show wheel well and skin damage from blowouts. It is one thing to look for if purchasing an older trailer.

[Nye Thatcher]

I thought I would pass along some informatation as the tire looks like a Marathon. I know of two cases where Goodyear have stood behind the tire and repair. Your tire might qualify. Worth a try. GOOD LUCK