A tire “blowout” is actually from a puncture, run-low situation or cutting impact.
Sometimes people report, “I had a blowout. I always check my air, so I know the tire was ‘defective’.”
I sometimes ask what the “defect” was, but have yet to have an RV owner point out the physical evidence of the claimed “defect”.
Careful examination of a so-called tire “blowout”
Here is the result of my examination of a tire that was presented as just a “sudden blowout” with a claim that the tire “must have been defective.” This is what the tire looked like when I got it:
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We can see the severe damage to the tire tread area in picture #1
In the next two pictures we can see the puncture to the air chamber which allowed air to leak out.
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Here we see the small nail or steel filament from the inside.
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In picture #4 between the two arrows, we see the “rutting” caused by the wheel flange digging into the lower side of the tire. This is evidence of many miles run with significant loss of air.
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In picture #5 we see the cut steel filaments along the “break” seen in the tread in picture #1.
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In the last picture we see more cut steel filaments. Note the lack of the “cup / cone” configuration normally found in steel that has failed from being flexed or from overload or stretching.
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My diagnosis of cause of tire failure
My conclusion was that the tire was run while not properly inflated for many hundreds of miles due to the puncture and a lack of proper maintenance.
This would lead to weakening of the tire structure. Hitting some sharp object, the weakened tire was cut and the tire suffered a fatal failure.
In my opinion, this tire did not exhibit a “defect”.
Roger Marble
*****
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TPMS is your friend. Tire age is your enemy.
Chinese will blows are another culprit.
Sorry any tire can fail if run low on air. “China Bomb” term came about when in 60’s 100% of the tires were made in China.So when an RV tire had a tire failure for any reason, it was always a tire made in China because that was where almost all the tires that were on RVs came from. This is not proof of cause and effect. I could just as easily blame the workers in Indiana as all being incompetent because almost all problems were found in RVs made in Indiana. Correlation is not proof of causation. I could also say that RV owners who fail to check their air pressure in the morning of every travel day are responsible for failures because they buy cheap tires.
Well JB’s comment just illustrated what I came here to say. Xenophobia is another culprit for the claims of defective tire. People love to blame others.
Yep…as one also learns from Roger, Chinese tires sold in the U.S. must meet the U.S. standards. Roger has done testing personally and he can disclose the results (and does in one of his classes).
Great sleuthing!
Thank you, Roger! 🙂 Helpful and instructive discussion of a failed tire. Thanks again, have a great week, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂