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Blowout!
On 12/02 at approximately 8:00PM, on the way to Florida in
the bus, we experienced a catastrophic blowout of the right tag axle tire on
I-75 South just before Tifton, GA. Vita (driving) got us quickly and skillfully
to the shoulder of the highway and stopped safely. Unfortunately, our
inspection of the tire revealed it totally shredded! (pictures attached).We called Coachnet, who dispatched road service from
Valdosta, GA (1.5 hours away). When the technician arrived, he was unable to
get the jack he brought under the bus. He went back to his shop in Valdosta to
retrieve a lower profile jack (almost 4 hours round trip while we waited). When
he returned, the new jack broke when he attempted to jack up the bus! At almost
5:00AM, he finally conceded defeat and we contacted Coachnet to dispatch
another service (after we did our own research via the internet and had found a
local service less than 10 miles from us.) The first company was the only one in
the area who had the correct size tire in stock, so we bought that tire
uninstalled so the next service would have it to install when they got to us.
The cost of the replacement tire was almost $1,200! (I guess they realized they
had a captive customer with no other options!) By this time, we had been
sitting on the shoulder of the interstate for over 9 hours. When the next
servicer arrived, they assessed the situation, returned to their shop for the
proper equipment, and finally returned to get the new tire mounted and installed.
During installation, they discovered that the blowout had damaged the valve
stem and had to make another trip back to their shop for one of those. At
9:00AM, we were finally back on the road after more than 13 hours!The good news is – everyone was safe and, besides the tire, the only collateral damage was a ruined valve stem and a lost TPMS sensor for that wheel.
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21 Replies
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Michael,
Glad to hear you and your family are all fine. Probably the best location on the bus for a blow out is where yours happened. Don’t thake that the wrong way, but if I had a pick…tag axle
The $1200 was the cost of the entire service including the new tire installed ? Any idea the tire age ?
The tire age has always been a topic of discussion.
As we are all aware rolling down the highway always has the danger of picking up something on the roadway. Then tire pressure decreases ,heat increases the blowout happens.
L
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First of all; Hate that you had road trouble. The question I have is does your coach have tag axle lift.? Both of mine do. In a situation like that to change a tire I just dump the air on the tag and they come off ground. Either change there are go to service center. Might also ck dates on rest of tires. 10 yrs is max —dry rot is the enemy in this case. I ck new tires when I buy them you would be surprised how many dealers try to sell you tires that are already several years old. Time does matter! Especially at these prices. Bob
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The tires were bought new as a set less than a year ago (Firestone FS400’s) and have less than 5,000 miles on them! I’ll check the date code on the replacement tire next time we go to the lot and see when it was manufactured!
I agree that, if you have to have a blowout, the tag is the best place to have it! I’m very thankful it wasn’t a steer tire! Unfortunately, my coach does not have the tag lift feature, 🙁
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Did that TPMS help at all?
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Karl – the TPMS was no help at all for this. The blowout was sudden and violent.
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I blew one on 75 at Macon 2 yrs ago. Just drove to side. Prevost is definitely the one front end that is built to handle a major blow out. Didn’t jerk wheel at all. Tire was 3 years old GoodYear. Bob
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Michael,
Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not picking on you. For the benefit of others, I thought this was important to discuss a little further. Vita could have easily run over something in the road, but unless Michael heeded my advice back in June of this year, this probably caused the failure:
This was Michaels right tag tire and I strongly urged him to change out all his valve stems and get rid of the extensions. If you did that Michael, that’s great and your unfortunate incident was just bad luck, but if you didn’t change them out, this was likely the cause.
Either way, the most important thing is you and Vita are OK, she did a fantastic job getting that thing to the side of the road.
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Here’s a link that discusses valve stem stablizers used on the drive axel. I realize this is not needed on the tag axel however I feel it’s important to post this link. There is information on the Alcoa site that supports the useing a stabilizer when a long stem is needed. If you find a loose valve stem extension and are unable to tighten, the extension has worn threads.
http://www.alcoa.com/alcoawheels/north_america/en/info_page/accessories_hd_valve_stem_ext_stabil
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Hi Michael,
Sorry you had a long repair process.
Looking back is there anything you would have done different? When I live through an ordeal like yours I usually can think of a couple things I’d do different next time around.
For example, we were on our boat in Key West and one of our engines wouldn’t start. After three days and $2,000 of parts and labor they partially fixed it. When we returned to Fort Myers, our local mechanic checked the wires on the back of the alternator. A $20 connector was loose. I now check all wiring before I start replacing parts whenever I have an issue.
Could you have told CoachNet who you wanted to call? Are there other things that seem obvious to you now?
Thanks,
Terry
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I guess or hope I am wrong about being ignored. Simple ? why did he just not lift tag axle and drive to tire shop. I realize I’m a simple do it your self converter. But I ask in a nice way earlier. Do the factory converters disable this feature or not include in their basic order from factory. I can see no more in parts than 2 valves and 2 lift cyl maybe $500. compared to 13 hrs on road. Both my coaches have that feature which is mainly intended for use when you get in slick conditions–also helps when you start to get hung uip off pavement. I often change tag tires by lifting tag. If you don’t have this option. A simple respectful response would have been. We don’t have that feature on our XXXXX Brand. My blow out in Macon was a sidewall failure. Changed my self–down time 45minutes. 65 yrs old bad back. Jack would not fit under front axle–so I drove it up on block of wood. It fit then. Willing and eager to share no charge$ Bob
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Michael and I are friends and Michael knows I don’t cut him any slack. He was good enough to post this and he got a lot of responses. So let me start making comments here beginning with the service call.
Michael and other owners need to develop an understanding of the coach. There is more to ownership than being able to find the key. Bob made some great observations and I will go a little further. A blowout means a tire is going to be replaced. Unlike trucks which have ground clearance our coaches have little clearance, but as owners we can help uninformed service providers.
What Michael or Vita should have done is put the level low system to work. First raise the coach as high as it will go. If not the whole coach, at least the RH rear. This gives access to the underside. If the tag axle was too low because the tire wasn’t supporting it, lift the tag. Every coach starts life equipped with a 12 ton jack located behind a panel behind the passenger side steer axle in the first bay. Use that jack as necessary to help raise the rear portion of the coach if necessary. As Bob suggests, lifting the tag can allow the coach to be driven, but only with caution.
As to some other comments. Here’s a question: Michael, did you check tire pressures before you rolled a wheel? If not you may have contributed. I don’t care how tire pressures are checked as long as that is part of a pre-trip inspection. If there was any doubt about the accuracy of the monitoring system then the tires needed to be checked manually.
As to valve stem extensions and rubber grommets. You use them and you are at risk.
That valve stem extension went through a rubber Alcoa grommet and the flat spot worn into it is a few thousandths away from failure. Dirt and road grit get between the extension and the grommet and the wear all takes place on the stem, not the rubber.
IN case you don’t understand how much they flex, here is the result of how one that lost its grommet has flexed enough to wear into the outer aluminum wheel. The point here is even with the grommet the valve stem at the wheel will fail where it bends due to stresses from centrifugal force.
So here is the bottom line. Check tire pressures at every opportunity. Eliminate valve stem extensions and use tools that will reach the inner valve stem. To aid tire service people raise the bus and the tag if required. And if you have tires that were ever run with 20% less than their pressure according to the charts, or if they are showing signs of sidewall cracking, or if they are ten years old, get rid of them.
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Tom – mea culpa – I did not heed your advice to change the valve stems. But, you can bet that I will now!
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Terry – When we had to have the second service truck dispatched – we DID tell them who to call. The problem the first time was that they could only find one servicer/dealer who had the exact tire size that we needed. Since we went ahead and bought that tire from the first company that responded, we had more options the second time around.
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Jon – Yes – I did manually check pressures before we started the trip (steer tires at 110 psi, all others at 100 psi). I did not know about the jack you mention in the first bay! We tried to raise the coach and to lift the tag axle, but could not get the coach high enough and the tag axle would not raise off the ground.
The next time we’re at the bus, you can bet I’ll be looking for that jack to make sure it’s there and I know how to access it!
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All’s well that ends well Michael..
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