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Never thought it would happen to me……
We were in Panama City last week, went down for the Emerald Cruise Car show, and pulled our trailer with a Hot rod in it. Pulled in to Panama City RV Resort, proceeded to our Pull-through site. In order to get in the somewhat narrow site, with overhanging trees and bushes with the trailer behind me, I had to swing way out and, my right front steer crossed the sand next to the narrow concrete pad. I did not realize it at the moment, but the sand was lower than the concrete by 6″ or so. Then, the weight of the bus caused an even more drop off. I went very slowly and gradually turned back up on the concrete pad, and got parked. I looked under the bus at the inside wall of the tire to see if I had damaged it. It showed a slight mark on the side wall. I went to look at where I ran off, and the concrete had the sharpest defined edge of any concrete I had ever seen! That worried me when I saw that. When we were ready to leave to come home, I decided to pull out, and turn the wheel hard to the right, and examine the tire……..I saw the outside edge small tread cut slightly, with a piece hanging off, I cut that off with my knife, so it wouldn’t flap.
OK, it’s Saturday afternoon, where do I get a 365?? Any truck tire service in PC?
After negative contact on any help, I decided to proceed home, staying on 4 lane roads only, not going over 55 mph, keeping a close eye on tire pressure (Pressure Pro), and stopping and checking,….we made it home safe!
Jeff at ETLC was able to help me in finding 365’s. I sent to Jeff’s and had the tires picked up, didn’t want to push my luck driving the bus to his shop.
Below is what I found today, while having the tires put on.
I’m just posting this, hopefully to help others to pay really close attention in similar situations.
I dodged a bullit! I will NOT pull in to a site there again.
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17 Replies
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Whoa!
You got really lucky ! Glad you made it home safe
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Hi Jerry,
Wow, who would have thought concrete would do that to your tire, but thank goodness you looked. It also reminded me to have a knife in the bus sharp enough to cut through something that rugged.
A broader question for me is how often have you found yourself in a park that’s really too small for your coach? And have you found many situations where you got to a park and had to leave based on their spaces?
I ask because I’m new to all this and curious what I have to look forward to?
Harry
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Good catch Jerry, many would not even think to check the tire for damage, it could have been a disaster at interstate speeds.
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Harry,
I know that you didn’t ask me but it got me to thinking about us not finding a appropriate spot at a RV park.
At first I was thinking that it never happened then it popped into my memory. Our previous coach was a 42 ft. Dynasty. It has only happened once that I decided not to stay at a park. The park was just outside Seattle, WA.
The spot was too tight (in my opinion). I just didn’t want to be crammed in, especially, when we put our slides out.
So, in 110,000 miles and 10 yrs. of RVing in two different coaches, it happened only once but there is always tomorrow!
Jerry, you certainly did dodge a bullet. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Safe travels,
Mark
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That also looks like a bad tire/rubber bond on the tire.
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It may be too late but you should consider a warranty claim. If nothing else it will tell you the problem was exclusively a result of the concrete, or a forensics examination may reveal there was already some separation in progress and the concrete cut only revealed or accelerated it.
If I am not mistaken Jeff had a tire with a similar separation on a tire that had not had any physical damage.
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Thanks for chiming in Jon and you told me just what I wanted to know and that’s “don’t spend your awake time worrying about it”! And that’s good information by any standard.
Harry
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This tread separation has happened to me twice in two years on a 365 tire. Both times the tire was “new”. Date code within the year and less than 10 k miles. Was also lucky that defect was in outer tread rib. Gotta inspect those 365’s, especially the steers. These splits go all the way down the sidewall.
Good luck on any warranty from Michelin, did not hear from them on either claim
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Had exact same thing happen to me this summer with a 365 on my tag. Picture shown was identical to mine. Thankfully I caught it before it created a major problem.
1984 96" with 8V92TA
(remodeled Liberty Coach)
Greenwood, MO -
Is this sort of failure common with other sizes and/or manufacturers? A little voice in the back of my head is whispering, “Maybe this is related to the 365 production shortage?”
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Harry, no, I always look at Satellite views, and reviews, if I’m not familiar with the RV park I’m going to, to avoid that happening. Especially when I am traveling with my stacker Trailer.
If the concrete had been level with the ground like most are, this wouldn’t have happened. But in sandy areas, that’s about impossible due to the sand.
I really think the design of the narrow tread on the edge of the 365 is a bad design. I don’t think it would have been a factor with a 315.
Something else I noticed is, I have put 20,000 miles on the 365’s I just took off. The steer had worn 3/32nd from new, and the tag had worn 5/32 from new. So, that tells me the dragging of the tag when turning, takes a beating. Also, that narrow tread I mentioned just gets ground off because it’s flimsy being on the edge.
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Harry asked: “A broader question for me is how often have you found yourself in a park that’s really too small for your coach? And have you found many situations where you got to a park and had to leave based on their spaces?”
Based on my personal experience, here’s one “resort” that I won’t be recommending to my Friends.
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Despite their claims some RV parks are not suitable for larger coaches.
Early on when we actually used fat RV books like Woodalls we learned to read the “code”. It was unusual for any RV park to list length limits, but we quickly learned to avoid those that did not list 50 amp, or those that had a lot of sites without water or sewer. It was a safe bet they were built when travel trailers were all small single axle units and a big Winnebago was about 20 feet long.
Now use the “Big Rigs” book which is pretty good, or we do a Google search as mentioned above and look for clues using the earth view.
But when it comes right down to it we have to be the final part of the decision making process and on a couple of rare occasions my gut told me the RV park or site being offered might not work out and I asked if they could run me to the site in their golf cart so I could see if it would work. Things like big boulders to keep rigs off the grass or posts in the ground protect the RV park, but they can do a lot of damage so I would rather head down the highway than risk the damage from an RV park that is not friendly to large rigs.
I don’t need a hook up so bad I am willing to accept a risk. If enough potential guests turned around and drove away the RV park would probably fix their problems so I consider my efforts in that regard as a community service.
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Remember the PC map, your fellow PC members have been there ahead of you.
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Jerry,
I washed the coach yesterday from top to bottom (not the roof) as we are heading out today on a 2,000 mile trip westward. I checked our tires and all looks good but I can definitely see that the edge of a 365 is vulnerable if all the weight is concentrated on the very edge. The 315 doesn’t have that close-to-edge tread.
Safe travels,
Mark
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