Holy Tire Ply Separation BatMan!!!

[Randy V]

My buddy Dave was towing my trailer up to my house to pick up the wife and I to go racing this weekend. He was a couple of blocks away and called me to tell me that we were going to have to change a tire on the trailer. He had noticed something that looked like it was stuck to the tire - maybe a piece of plastic or something and pulled over. He saw a bubble on the tire.. In just a few blocks getting to my house it had grown to proportions that you would truly not believe if you were not to see pictures..
So - I whipped out the cell phone and snapped some pics...
The tire was making one of those balloon type sounds - you know the ones - the squeaking, stretching, she's gonna BLOW type sounds...

I thought about maybe trying to spear it with something but figured with 55 PSI in the tire, I'd probably end up with something stuck in my forehead..

Then went out to my shop to get a valve core tool and prayed while I reached about the bulge that was growing ever larger to remove the valve core...
I breathed a sigh of relief when I was able to get the core out and move back out of the way...

Now these tires only have a few thousand on them and are going on 4 years old.

We'll be talking with the local distributor to see if any part of the replacement price will be covered.

While I did not measure it while it was at it's maximum, I would say it was just a bit shorter than a foot long by the time I got back with the valve core tool to relieve the pressure...

Well - Here's the pics.. The bulge had also rubbed on the aluminum fender too!

 

[Terry Oxandale]

It's a tumor! Dang! Truly one for the books.

 

[Darrell]

Randy I work in the transport industry and we come across these type of things from time to time. If it happens again your safest option is to climb under the vehicle (after you have raised it) to the back of the tire and drill a hole in the tire with your battery drill. You do not want to be in front of it if it blows.

Darrell DRB #48
LS1 G50

 

[Salina Bailey]

wow!! thats a pretty good one! I have seen that before but only on a backhoe. same noise you described lol so my boss bent down to have a look at what was making the noise, the other operator standing next to him. the rear tire had bulged (tubes) and was growing and it exploded as he bent down to look. It blew him over, he clutched his chest and stopped moving, the other guy, he threw his pack of cigarettes at it and screamed. I was sitting on the backhoe and for sure thought my boss was dead. I hollered at him and he moved so then I yelled at him he better not be dead cause he wasnt getting mouth to mouth from me!! boss was ok, the tire had a cut and the tube pushed it out and then started to bulge like that until it popped. best not to have your face down there for sure, my boss was sore where it blasted him.

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

I lost a brand new 15" trailer tire last year on the way tothe GT40 reunion at Road America. Happened in Cleveland right in front of Burke Lakefront. Tire was brand new, just installed days before with less than 300 miles. We did a proper pit stop on the side of I90 (trucks wizzing by two feet away, of course the blowout was on the road side of the trailer!) with the floor jack we carry, less than 12 minutes from stop to start, but a royal pain and the ladies were not to happy.

Stopped in Elkhart, Indiana to purchase a new spare and the tire people there told us there are almost NO USA made tires anymore. Goodyear has some that are spendy but even Carlisles are made in China.

 

[Ron Earp]

I thought about maybe trying to spear it with something but figured with 55 PSI in the tire, I'd probably end up with something stuck in my forehead..

Then went out to my shop to get a valve core tool and prayed while I reached about the bulge that was growing ever larger to remove the valve core...

Man, you have far more restraint than I. I'd have whipped out a pistol and shot it. Perfect excuse to put a pistol to work!

 

[Randy V]

Goodyear has some that are spendy but even Carlisles are made in China.

Don't know where these were made, but they were the "spendy" Goodyear Marathon trailer tires that were running well within the spec weight / load limits.. I will replace them all.. Probably with Goodyears again but will take a look at Cooper tires to see if they have a 15" trailer tire that's rated as high or higher than these..

 

[Randy V]

Man, you have far more restraint than I. I'd have whipped out a pistol and shot it. Perfect excuse to put a pistol to work!

Yeah - I thought about that - but then thought about what the fine would be for discharging a firearm in my quiet (usually) residential neighborhood...

If I could have waited until last night to do it - no worries at all due to all the illegal fireworks being launched here... :furious:

 

[Brian Hamilton]

That, my friend, is actually an Impact Bubble. Tire separation would actually be on the tread and more of an elongated bubble. That's what happens when you hit a curb and basically cause a blister in the tire, kinda like what happens when you pinch your finger and get a blister. I've been in the tire business for 10 yrs. +/- and I've seen many of these. The Impact Bubble could be cause from anything in or on the road such as a pot hole, big rock, curb as I mentioned before, anything. If your buddy has Road Hazard Warranty on those tires (doubtful if they're trailer tires) then it should be covered. If not, it's not going to fall under a manufacturer warranty unfortunately. Pretty damned impressive though!!! I've seen that before on an F350 Dually on the front tire. Got to be HUGE! We did the same thing you did with the valve core removal tool.

Laters,

Brian

 

[Pat Buckley]

I was towing to Ohio a few years ago and had two blowout in succession - about 100 miles apart. Turns out the Goodyear Marathons I had were subject to recall.....so I replaced all 4 with good tires - Hankooks.

 

[Ron Earp]

Pat, that sucks but somewhat explainable.

I hope all the other negative Goodyear Marathon vibes are just that. I researched trailer tires a couple of months back to find out what was a "good" tire. Very little hard data out there in comparisons, just a lot of anecdotal information. So, I made do and chose the tire with the least amount of bad anecdotal info out there and it turned out to be Goodyear Marathons. Bought four of them in "D" load rating, not the common "C" rating, hoping the safety margin would pay off in a long and trouble free service life.

I'm not sure what country a tire is made in really makes any difference. China has some of the most advanced factories in the world. Unless there is known data suggesting a specific product made in China is failure prone I'm not convinced we can assume things made in China are inferior.

Yeah - I thought about that - but then thought about what the fine would be for discharging a firearm in my quiet (usually) residential neighborhood...

Randy, sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons of an action and then ignore logic. It'd have been worth the fine.

 

[Jeff Young]

Yay, more trailer tire failure.

How come these things last about 2k and blow out at the most inopportune times?

 

[Ron Earp]

Yay, more trailer tire failure.

How come these things last about 2k and blow out at the most inopportune times?

Don't know. But I think even you could get behind me shooting one of the tires on your trailer. I don't know how many fucking race trailer tires I've seen blow up in the last five years, but it is at least one per year. I'd get a lot of personal satisfaction from shooting one.

 

[Jeff Young]

I'd shoot every damn one of the things if it would fix this problem.

It's really one of the banes of racing. TIRE TRAILERS SUCK! Bad.

 

[Cliff Beer]

Last summer I rented a 8X15 trailer from Uhaul to tote a several thousand pounds of broken concrete (my wall and part of my driveway) to the dump. The trailer was riding pretty low but towed OK with my '03 suburban. On the last run I really loaded her down....probably 3,000lbs....because I didn't want to have to come back for another trip. A few blocks from the dump I looked back and saw piles of smoke coming out of the trailer wheel wells. The thing was so low and loaded that the tires were rubbing on the inside top of the fenders and literally melting into goo. I parked...walked over to a nearby tavern and had a beer while the tires cooled down. After finishing a cold one I then slowly drove the remaining 10 blocks or so to the dump and dumped the concrete. On the way back the trailer was bouncing around like crazy because the tires had literally molded themselves into two blobs with one big flat side on each.

Took the trailer back to Uhaul, paid my $19.95 and drove off.

But that's not as bad as a friend of mine about 15 years ago who flew into Seattle to visit and go to a porsche club track day with me. He had rented a Geo Metro (we were both in law school = poor). He wanted to get some track time but didn't want to have the risk of damaging my car, so, he took the Metro on the track and was passed by everything in sight including an old 912 running on three cylinders. After two sessions he had taken all the tread off and was down to the cords. We parked the Metro and shared the 911 for the last session. After things wrapped up we headed back to the rental car agency to return the Metro and the tires had several bulges where the wear went past the cords.

He walked in, paid his $29.99 for the day and we drove off.

So, here's a tip: if you're ever renting anything from Uhaul in Seattle, be sure to check the tires before you drive away!

 

[Maurice Butler]

I have found at this end of the world (NZ), that light truck tires usually handle the pace on trailers, at lot of places will sell you car tires. I don't care what they claim I will stick to the light truck tires as they have never popped (had a few car tires on trailers pop), odd flat but that life.

Maurice

 

[clive]

Agree wholeheartedly with Maurice. Going back years, a group of us have found that light truck tyres on car trailers are about the only way you will avoid problems.

Car tyres just cannot cut it, even though the specs/load rating would appear to be adequate.

Not sure if our light truck tyres are the same as your 'trailer' tyres.

Clive