Jump to content

What can happen if you have a tyre explosion?


Recommended Posts

I have experienced two "blow out" tyre disintegrations, both in rear tyres.  Fortunately it was not difficult to steer the MH onto the hard shoulder and stop.  This was with our first MH. many years ago and the cause was overloading.

 

We were on the motorway cruising along at about 60 mph but on a long downhill stretch I allowed the speed to build up towards 70 mph and then, with no warning and after less than 30 seconds at 70 mph,  there was a bang and a shudder - something spectacular had clearly happened.

 

I assumed it was a tyre failure because of age or something and replaced with new.  It was only after exactly the same thing happened again a few months later that I realised it wasn't a flukey tyre failure.  I learned about payload and discovered we were substantially overloaded.  The increase in speed, even though it was short, had taken the tyre beyond its load capacity and it blew out.

 

Whether I would have been able to retain control if it had been a front tyre blow out I doubt very much.  Lesson learned, eventually.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

colin - 2018-04-17 11:52 AMI've had two blow outs on a rental van, both where front tyres, big bangs from under the arches as the remands of the tyre flayed against it, but it was a truck with heavy steel arches so didn't do any damage.

 

But did you suffer any loss of control?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

Whatever else you do, especially if it s a front blow out, DO NOT BRAKE SHARPLY!

 

If you do, all the vehicle weight will be transfered forward and the wheel rim will dig into the tarmac.

 

Take your foot off the throttle, dip the clutch and, if there is space, allow it to stop naturally. Centrifical force SHOULD keep in contact with the road until your speed decreases to approx. 30mph.

 

What SHOULD happen and what does, is sometimes completely different.

 

What ever you do, TRY NOT TO PANIC! The above applies to rear driven wheel vehicles to, hopefully, also to front drive motors?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

La Hobo - 2018-04-17 10:03 AM

 

Hi,

 

Whatever else you do, especially if it s a front blow out, DO NOT BRAKE SHARPLY!

 

If you do, all the vehicle weight will be transfered forward and the wheel rim will dig into the tarmac.

 

Take your foot off the throttle, dip the clutch and, if there is space, allow it to stop naturally. Centrifical force SHOULD keep in contact with the road until your speed decreases to approx. 30mph.

 

What SHOULD happen and what does, is sometimes completely different.

 

What ever you do, TRY NOT TO PANIC! The above applies to rear driven wheel vehicles to, hopefully, also to front drive motors?

 

 

 

It is suggested that you should keep the power on until you have full control. There is a video demonstrating this but I can't find it so this will do instead https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/how-to-deal-with-a-tyre-blowout-while-driving

 

The reasoning is that it helps balance the forces better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I've been lucky but in 50 years of driving over too many miles to count I have never had a tyre burst - yet.

 

I have seen the result and damage depends on the type of vehicle, the type of tyre, the speed at the time, the load and the type of bodywork.

 

Tyres generally burst because they overheat and/or are underinflated, structurally inadequate for the task and/or more often perished, possibly at only one location on the tyre, and the perishing may not always be obvious to the naked eye.

 

On a long or fast haul I always put my hand on each tyre as soon as possible when stopping at a safe place to ensure that overheating is not taking place.

 

Simple enough to do but can save a lot of heartache and damage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if you manage to retain control of the vehicle, with a catastrophic tyre explosion/delamination there is still an (unquantified) risk of collateral damage to nearby wiring/brake lines. So it's probably worth giving the underside of the vehicle a quick once over in the area around failed tyre.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

StuartO - 2018-04-17 9:07 AM
colin - 2018-04-17 11:52 AMI've had two blow outs on a rental van, both where front tyres, big bangs from under the arches as the remands of the tyre flayed against it, but it was a truck with heavy steel arches so didn't do any damage.

 

But did you suffer any loss of control?

In both cases it was at around 40 to 50mph on fairly straight road, whilst it upped the adrenaline was no horrendous lack of control and I brought it to a stop with no problems.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you. I put this on because it happens when we left in convoy for a short time afther a festival. It happens at a caravan just before me. I tried to avoid the rubber steel containing parts as much as possible going to the left in belgium having a quick look in the mirror. She managed to have the caravan parked. However later on the caravan should be slept way on to a transporter. And went home whit her slep car. No problem
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I once had a front near side tyre blow out on a 10 ton horsebox. I was doing about 55mph on a motorway and there was an enormous bang and the front nearside seemed to drop alarmingly.

 

I kept the power on until I was sure I had control (couple of seconds in reality) befor braking gently and steering to hard shoulder. Fortunately, only the tyre was damaged other than my wallet for a motorway tyre change!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

michaelmorris - 2018-04-17 1:36 PM

 

Even if you manage to retain control of the vehicle, with a catastrophic tyre explosion/delamination there is still an (unquantified) risk of collateral damage to nearby wiring/brake lines. So it's probably worth giving the underside of the vehicle a quick once over in the area around failed tyre.

 

My son had a blowout on the van he was driving on the M4 and it took out the brakes as well. He just managed to stop it, with gears and handbrake, on the chevrons before the slip road joining from Reading. It put him off driving with only one hand on the wheel :-D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve only had it happen once unfortunately for me it was fatal so I’m sending you this from the other side!

 

Only kidding it actually happened many years ago on a caravan I was towing ar 60 on a motorway. Fortunately I had Tyron Safety Bands fitted and it worked a treat. We’ve retired from motorhoming now but before we did We had them fitted to all the motorhomeds we owned. If your worried then you may decide to have them fitted at least to the front tyres.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, two summers ago traveling on the A7 autobahn in Germany I caught up with a brewers dray. It was a medium sized lorry towing a two axel trailer. Dray was doing about 56 mph, I was going just a mile or two faster so taking a while to get past. I was well over to the left to lessen any bow-wave effect and was just about level with the front trailer axel when "bang" its' tyre exploded. The dray slowed and stopped without a problem,I carried on to the next rest stop to have a look for any damage to the m/h and to fit a clean pair of underpants

Regards David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

In 50 years of driving i've only ever had one actual 'blow out' which was on a motorway around 70mph but in a car. What shocked me more than anything was when i changed it over for the spare, the tread looked pretty good so it hadn't done much mileage, and it was a branded make.

 

By far the most weird experience was driving back from Switzerland for the ferry i felt a strange 'bumping' at the rear. When i pulled over and checked round i found the inner steel bindings on one tyre had given way allowing the rubber to form a large 'egg shape'. I was only 10 or 15 miles from the ferry port and desperate not to miss my slot so carried on though limited to a 20mph drive with the hazard lights on. I made it and changed it once off the ferry at Dover!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an incident on the M23 @ Crawley turn off travelling 70mph last week in my Golf, not Motorhome.

 

Bang, a rattle, and luckily as the tyres are higher end Bridgestone, no loss of control.

 

A small rip in the tyre showing the metal braid and a hole in the rim.

 

Rgds

 

Photo from iPad, not what I expected !

image.jpeg.7280acd654aef353d24204d3f4859249.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just one occasion whehI was in the caravanning mode.

Attempting to navigate around Salisbury bypass heading north, when the caravan attempted to sewrve violently in the traffic, so had vehicle behind sat on the horn, and flashing his headlights .

 

I stopped to see what the fuss was about, and found the vañ was leaning heavily to nearside.

 

Limped the van through the trafficlights, into next available road on left..

 

Moments later traffick warden approached, and asked me not to block the road at that point, but move another 50 yards to a more suitable point.

 

She said tbat she had been alerted by her radio, and the traffic cameras at the lights had spotted the initial congestion.

 

Aa patrol was contacted, and tbey arrived within 15 minutes, jacked up the van, changed the wheel for the spare, and told me where I could find a tyre dealer in the next town.

 

No damage to the wheel arch or van, just the inconvenience of buying a new tyre while on holiday.

 

Tonyg3nwl

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...