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Blown Tire- not having fun
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For what it’s worth last month I left Florida on a Monday and was in Breckenridge, CO by Wednesday and having the pressure pro brought a lot of peace of mind while traveling long days in warm weather. Great being able to instantly see all tire pressures and temps. In my opinion it’s one of my favorite additions to the bus. Of course it’s no substitute for visual inspections or just common sense. But if you drive long stretches it sure is nice knowing your tire stats while on the move.
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This is what I believe caused the damage to my tire. I think I hit the very far right end of the driveshaft as I passed over it. The tanker truck in the left lane had just passed over it and I saw the drivehshaft and had 2 seconds to try to avoid it.I did pull to the right and tried to center it under the bus, but I guess I just needed to go a little further to the right. Was busy looking in the mirror, so to busy to get it perfect.
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The chap in the MH to your left seems to have great faith in both the braking ability of his coach and also his reaction time. Looks a bit close to the car in front to me.
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The photos don’t necessarily show the real story. The car might have been following the tanker and pulled out in front of the motor home so he could pass the tanker. Or as Andy states the motor home driver could have been pushing the car up the road.
What is a given is that we need to keep a lot of space between us and the vehicle ahead. Stopping distance is an extremely good reason for that spacing, but a greater distance also provides an opportunity to avoid road hazards we cannot see until the vehicle ahead passes over it.
Unfortunately despite our best efforts we are going to find ourselves unable to avoid an accident or road hazards. Nobody ever can anticipate a driveshaft is suddently going to show up in his lane of traffic, and if it does all the planets have to be aligned to avoid it. The lanes along side the coach have to be clear of traffic. The hazard has to be sitting still, and our brain has to compute the hazard exists, rapidly have us verify we have no traffic along side of us, and then our brain has to decide if we should make an evasive move, hit the brakes, or keep on our existing course. Even when I did everything right, I had moved to an adjacent lane to avoid a large tire tread, the car tailgating me accelerated sharply when I changed lanes, and he hit the gator and kicked it sideways into and under my coach. Some days you cannot win. Andre had one of those days.
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In response to the comment from the UKGuy, Heck yeah that MH in the #1 lane, a good indicator of bad judgement, is following way too close to that itty-bitty little car in front of him. In the USA the lane skip lines are cycled every 40 feet. The skip is 10′ and the gap is 30′. So in this case using the skip line dimensions as the measurement reference dimension, the plastic coach is less than 80′ behind the car. The car can probably stop within 175′, the MH can in no way stop that quickly, maybe in the range of 400′. The other considerartion is reaction time. Typically 1.5 seconds is the amount of time required by the average driver to process the situation and begin application of braking. At 55 MPH that is a distance of 132′. So the MH would already be rear ending the little car and then pushing it somewhere down the road a distance of about 400′, not giving any contribution to the little car for increased braking force. Not a positive result there.
So moral of this story is back off and get out of the #1 lane. Andre was, in my way of thinking, doing the right thing using the #3 lane and driving with an increased gap, approximately 120′. It just goes to show that things happen that are out of our control. Be thankful you were not on the side of the Interstate for too long. I know it is a scary place to be since I was stranded on the shoulder of I-40 on the westbound, downhill side at Black Mountain for 8.5 hours waiting for a tow truck. I would have been very relieved had my problem simply been a blown tire which resulted only in damage to the tire. In my case the engine was an 8V-92, which only traveled 245 miles on an in chassis engine rebuild. It threw a rod out the curbside of the engine block.The chrankshaft journal was visible and there was no rod end cap in sight. When the grandson saw the hole he said, “Papa, how we going to fix that?” As Art Linkletter frequently said, “Kids say the darndest things!”
Oh yeah, there were many LEO’s that went past. None of them stopped to give aid or assistance. Big disappointment there.
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I think you did a good job Andre, could have been a lot worse.
Shows the value of the camera…
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Earlier this year I was leaving New Orleans heating east out of downtown on I-10. I was in the center lane just having crossed the Industrial Canal. There was solid traffic to my left and right. An empty milk crate bounce off the flat bed truck in front of me. I slowed as much as possible as it bounced toward me, and had no choice but to run over it. It hit below the bumper and got stuck somewhere underneath the bus. I got to shoulder a soon as possible with it scraping all the way.
Luckily, and amazingly, it had lodged against a crossmember just behind the bumper in easy reach. A couple of minutes raising the bus, slide it right out, and I am on my way unscathed. Lucky day!
I do not think I was following too closely, and I really think the strike was unavoidable.
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We were leaving Chicago about a month ago and jumped on the turnpike heading south.
Traffic was heavy and we were in the number 4 lane (far right). Up ahead I notice cars and truck slightly weaving as there was an obstacle in the road. It was a rear bumper from an old rusted early ’80’s Olds 98 parked up ahead in the emergency lane.
As we passed the wayward bumper, I was thinking how lucky we were that it was parallel to the white lines between lanes 3 and 4. As we passed it, I was watching in my side mirror and a big 18-wheeler bumped it with his front right tire knocking it into lane 4.
Poor person driving a small white car had no choice but to drive over the big rusted bumper. I’m sure that metal bumper did some damage to that little car. I hated that for them but glad I didn’t have to run over it. If the trucker was paying attention, he wouldn’t have veered to the white line where the bumper was resting.
Safe travels,
Mark
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Just this past Saturday (July 30) I was driving back from the OuterBanks and just going into Plymouth NC had a blowout on the right rear tag. Pulled over as quickly as I could. By then the tire was shreaded. I limped into town, about 2 miles and pulled into a blacktop parking lot. I have Allstate Premium Road Service, so I called them. I got the same answer as Andre. If you don’t have a spare all we can do is tow you. Being Saturday afternoon, I knew a tow would mean me staying there until Monday morning. I told them I would call back if I couldn’t do better.
I got on my iphone and looked up all truck tire places within 50 mi radiuus. Most were closed and the ones open did not have 315’s (1.5 hours after blowout). I called the closest large truck tire location and the answering machine gave me the 24 hr. road service number. I called them and they told me the after hours service guy was out of town for the weekend. (2 hours after blowout). I called Prevost emergency service and the guy was great. He said he would search for a tire company in the area. Within 30 minutes I got a call from Michelin emergency road service and they said they would find a local dealer with emergency service. Within another 30 minutes I got a call from a dealer 40 miles away that said they had a service person and a 315 tire that could be there within 2 hours (3 hours after blowout). The person on the phone said they had to have a $1500 hold on a credit card to send the service person. I proceeded to give them 3 seperate credit cards which included my American Express Platinum card. After the 3rd attempt the person on the phone said their system was not working, and since it was a company policy that they had to have a credit card hold, he couldn’t help me (4 hours after blowout). Now I’m thinking about calling Allstate back and looking for a Hotel.
Now this is the amazing part. I’m sitting there frustrated, trying to decide my next move when a pickup truck pulls up beside me. A guy gets out with a filthy dirty white shirt and nearly black blue jeans. I get out and he looks at my tire and says, I might have one of those. I’m thinking, “are you kidding me.” He leaves, and comes back 15 minutes later with a decent used 295/75R 22.5 tire. He says “if you think that will do, I will put it on for you. I’m thinking “not on a drive axle or maybe not on the front, but on a tag axle-maybe.” I get on line and look on the this web site and others, and read all I can quickly about tires. The best suggestion I find is that the suspension will probably make up for some height differencees, so I tell him to put it on (4 hours after blowout).
The story gets better. He tells me his shop is just 1/4 mile down the road and would I mind driving to his shop. i slowly drive down to his shop, which is an old metal building. Amazingly he has a high bay door and I back into the garage. He has an old shop with tools all over the place. He proceeds to use a pnumatic power jack and jacks up the coach, takes off the blown tire, and all by hand, takes the tire off the rim and puts the new tire on, checks air in the other tires and tells me his charge is $250. I give him 3 $100 bills and tell him it was well worth it.
I start out slow at first and gradually get up to 65-70 mph, and everything seems fine. I get back to Ohio and the tire is still there looking great.
My son says he is going to write a book about out travels. There are many other stories since we had my son, his wife, my daughter and 8 grandchildren on the bus. We were glad to get home.
Andre, I feel your pain.
Crownlundy
2025 Marathon H3 / 4th Prevost
21 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel 4x4 -
I am courious how far can you drive on a blown inner tire in an emergency? I don’t own a coach but wondering at low speed, limping along can you make it to a location where you can get tire service. Probably a stupid question, but I sometimes resemble stupid. Thanks Michael
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Different coaches with different tire sizes have options. Ever since we had our first coach, with not so common 120 / 22.5 tires we realized dealing with a tire failure requires a plan.
Here are my suggestions for what they are worth.
View the tag axle as the place to put any odd size tire.
If you have 120 tires all around and the tire size is not avalable you can use an 110 /22.5 or a 295 size tire on the tag. If you put the odd size on the tag a used tire with a date code of under 5 or 6 years will even work to get you to your local tire dealer and allow you to continue your trip.
The same thing applies to any coach with 315 tires all around.
If you have 315 drives, and 365 steer and tags it is not so simple. A steer tire failure means the spare is going to come from the tag if you cannot find a 365 replacement. The wheels are wide, but in an emergency you can resume travel with a 315 on the wheel and placed on the tag axle. Not a great choice, but it will get you back on the road until you can replace it.
If the failure is a drive tire you have no options but to replace the failed tire with a 315. It is not wise to run two different size tires side by side on the drive axle because one of them is going to be carrying the bulk of the load and it is probable that one will be overloaded.
For years I carried a spare, but realized it aged out just like the tires on the coach so I just make sure I maiintain the tires properly, keep them inflated to the correct pressures and get rid of them when they reach my self imposed age lim it of 6 years, sooner if I see any sidewall or tread cracks.
If you have a roadside repair service agreement and the tire failure is on the drive or tag and the service provider says you need a tow, ask for your money back because you are not towing your coach with the back end up in the air. That requires a flat bed trailer only. Towing places your coach at great risk of damage. Putting it on a trailer increases the chances of a risk even more. You have to be in serious trouble before you need a tow.
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Update,
I have signed up with Coach Net, so next time between them and the Michelin Tire program I hope things will go smoother.
Michelin On Call road service 8008473911
Dupree National Account 1323404
I have a claim in with Progressive and a formal complaint for lack of support when I needed it. The complaint was a waste of time. The claim is taken forever to just “get into the system” and I do not expect much if anything for reimbursement.
When the claim is resolved one way or the other, I will call Miller Ins, our broker, and see if I can switch to somehting beside Progressive.
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To answer Michael’s question, you can drive from the place the blowout occurs to the nearest place you an safely stop the bus, and no further. Extensive damage that can be done to the drive, brake and suspension components by a blown tire. My bus is in the bodyshop now for damage resulting from my front tire blowout on July 4. The estimate is nearly $9k, and that is just for body damage. I was lucky not to have suffered damage to any steering or supension components.
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I agree with Bryan, and except for going from highway speed when the blowout or tire failure occurred to walking speed to minimize damage there really is no way to justify driving beyond the first safe stopping spot.
As a tire disassembles itself the damage it can do is impressive based on all the posts we have seen over the years including body damage as well as suspension and brake system damage. The location of the failed tire usually dictates the amount of damage and in some instances moving the bus under its own power is just not possible.
Last night on the way to dinner we went past an accident scene in which a tire had obviously exploded and immediately past the remnants of the tire were the remaining parts of the truck and its load that had not been cleared. Anyone that has a blowout is lucky if all the associated damage is to the tire.
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Glad you guys are safe. What an ordeal! What did Tico do when she heard the loud POP? Really like the way your Garmrucker GPS takes the photos as you travel down the road too – great picture quality. Be safe on the rest of the trip and thanks for SHARING the phone numbers too.
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