Trailer Towing and a Blow Out

[HoLeChit]

When I lived in so cal I made the round trip to Tulsa almost every summer on a motorcycle. I would suggest you stick to I 40 unless you really like the dessert and miles of nothing.

I40 isn’t much better, haha. I do like taking the southern route from San Diego to flagstaff, and then i40 the rest of the way.

just a bit of advice== if you are going to replace them one at a time it is better to use the same tire as the other on that side because the new tire may have different side wall and other characteristics that can either overload it or the other tire. advice would be to buy as many as it takes to at least have the same tire on one side and then use the other similar tires on the other side of the trailer. same with spare.

This is great advice. Mismatched tires can cause premature wear and damage, and if your tire takes the abuse, it can reduce your tire tread life by over 60%.

One thing I would add if you’re going through DFW—watch the weather. If there will be heavy rains in DFW, stay away. They have very little notion of storm drainage, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of rain to flood the area but good. About 12 years ago, I had to drive from Denton to Love Field to pick up my brother and his wife, and I had to go all the way down to Commerce Street to find a route that wasn’t flooded. The outside lane and a half of I-35E was even flooded.

Also, I just remembered—I was told that the heavy oilfield traffic around Midland-Odessa has the outside lanes of I-20 pretty well torn up. This was back in late 2018, so it’s possible that they’ve fixed it by now.

That entire area is horrible, or at least was back 2 years ago when I spent the majority of the year working there. Not only are the roads bad, but the driving situation is a lot like mad max. And whatever you do, stay away from highway 285 in that area. Chances are you won’t have a reason to take it, but in case you do, don’t. They don’t call it the “death highway” for nothing.

 

[Okie4570]

Update on tire monitors on our RV.
max pressure on our G rated tires is 110 psi.
they are filled with nitrogen. (Green caps)
At home sitting stationary with 90 degree ambient temperatures, the tires read 101 psi on the shade side and 105 on the sun side.
going down the road today with 85* ambient temps one tire got to 90* with 116 pressure the rest were At 110 psi or 111psi.
pulled into rest stop and removed 5 psi from each tire recording what my tire pressure gauge said that has been verified. Putting the monitors back on, they matched the TPG.
On down the road that one tire on the right rear of the tandems ran back up to 114.
suspect some misalignment or balance.
parking tonight I removed another 5 psi of pressure from each tire with the monitors agreeing once again.
I’m thinking these are a must have item for serious towing.

I'd be interested to see if that right rear hub ran hotter than the other three. Got a infrared temp gun?

 

[CHenry]

Filling those tires with Nitrogen will allow them to run cooler also.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'd be interested to see if that right rear hub ran hotter than the other three. Got a infrared temp gun?

I do and haven’t used it yet on this run, but will when moving in a few days. Kinda forgot about it.
Typically just use the hand to feel temps during the walk around while getting fuel.

 

[dennishoddy]

I finally got ours up and running yesterday. I like the way it shows me tire pressure and tire temp and you set alarms for over temp or over pressure.
Agreed, these are must have.

Back in the day, if max tire pressure was 80 psi, you set them at 75 psi to allow for heated air to expand and felt safe.
These monitors are showing a 10 psi increase on 80* ambient temperature days.
100* days would only increase that number.
That may be the partial reason for trailer tire blow outs, folks running too close to max pressure.

 

[dennishoddy]

Did you pickup a 5th wheel? I thought you had a Keystone Outback or something?

Yes. Picked up a 2021 Grand Design Solitude.

 

[twotonevert]

Back in the day, if max tire pressure was 80 psi, you set them at 75 psi to allow for heated air to expand and felt safe.
These monitors are showing a 10 psi increase on 80* ambient temperature days.
100* days would only increase that number.
That may be the partial reason for trailer tire blow outs, folks running too close to max pressure.

I am running a Zeemax Fortress tire. Butter smooth at 100psi. Max psi is 105. I need to haul it down to Tenkiller in the morning and will watch the temps to see what I get. I also have the high temp alarm set at 149.

 

[Parks 788]

Yes. Picked up a 2021 Grand Design Solitude.

Damn!!! You when big on the truck and 5er compared to your last setup. Very nice. The Solitude is a solid model.

 

[Parks 788]

So, i spent about 5 hours on Tuesday off loading my son's weigth lifting bumper plates and dumb bells and putting them in the front part of the bed of my truck. About 800# worth. As well as taking out about 1000 lbs of other belongings out for the next trip. I weighed the trailer again today and it was at 10,300 lbs. Going to leave it at that but should be OK. Not ideal but don't have 300 lbs that is small enough to still be able to fit in the second/final load. Gonna have to work as it sits now.

 

[Snattlerake]

I am waiting with bated breath to help you celebrate the future editing of your profile location from Costa Mesa to Okieland.

Or is that bait breath?