Trying to help a fellow camper with a tire issue?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

RedandSilver

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 25, 2016
Posts
1,325
One of my fellow campers stopped by and ask me about tire pressure and thinks his is (maybe) losing some air
from sitting for a couple of months - he's a Snowbird too.

I went over and looked at it and he is concerned that the top edge of the tire is moving away from the edge of the rim.
I used my tire gauge and the tire (rear ones) were 73 and 74.  The 74 reading was from the tire in the photos below - the 73 reading tire was an inside rear tire on the opposite side of the coach.  The tires have a max of 120 psi stamped in them.  Found the placard in the coach
and it stated 80 psi so they are a little low.

Do you all think it's moving away from the edge?  IF SO is it common or a concern?
Were they not seated well enough when put on?
On the side photographed there is no hose for the inside tire to measure or adjust air pressure like there is on the other side.

The date code was not visible on the tire I photographed but he lead me to believe that they were fairly new - but I didn't ask
exactly how old they were.  He said they were changed when he bought the coach. So I think a year or 2 at most.

 

Attachments

  • CT #1.jpg
    CT #1.jpg
    133.2 KB · Views: 138
  • CT#2.jpg
    CT#2.jpg
    132.4 KB · Views: 125
  • CT#3.jpg
    CT#3.jpg
    112.3 KB · Views: 121
  • CT#4.jpg
    CT#4.jpg
    138.1 KB · Views: 119
I agree, looks like hub cap.  Tires lose air sitting, VERY common.  Air them up, probably be good to go.
 
It's very obvious where the wheel simulator meets the actual wheel. Yes, there's quite a gap on the tire.

No, it's not normal. I would get a mobile truck tire guy in there to take a look. Weigh the cost of a service call against the price of a ruined tire.
 
One important thing to keep in mind. The 80 pounds may not be correct pressure. He needs to weigh all 4 corners and set his tire pressure based on the tire manufactures chart.
Bill
 
HappyWanderer said:
It's very obvious where the wheel simulator meets the actual wheel. Yes, there's quite a gap on the tire.

From my view on a 27" monitor, the initial look is deceiving.  A second look shows the wheel and tire appear fine, the hub cap is not seated uni-formally around the wheel causing an illusion that the tire is not seated well with the wheel.

Maybe the original poster can confirm.
 
There is really no way an inflated tire can "move away" from the rim. The air pressure is what sets the tire "bead" firmly against the edge of the wheel (rim). A leak can develop along the edge if there is corrosion, but the tire can't move as long as it is even partially inflated.

Agree with the others that this appears to be a "wheel simulator" (decorative hub cap) that is not uniformly seated. It may just need a couple bashes with a rubber mallet.
 
I can see most of the alignment bead? in the pictures and it looks OK. The alignment bead is the raised line close to the rim that is used to make sure the tire is mounted evenly on the rim. Should be equal distance from rim all the way around. Good tire shops will make sure tire is mounted correctly, most don?t and let the balancer offset the poorly mounted tire. Poorly mounted tire will run rough and wear unevenly.
  It?s easy to mount a tire correctly, but takes a little more time. If tire doesn?t pop up on rim evenly, you deflate, re-lube (liberally), rotate tire on wheel, and try again. If you can?t get tire to mount evenly, it should be discarded as ? out of round? .  Even bicycle tires have an alignment bead.
 
OK here's the deal.

I went over to his MH a little while ago and tried to push the trim on farther but it would not move closer to the rim and to me
it looked like the tire is backing away from the rim.

Remember I said the inside tire extension was missing?  Well I got on the ground and looked at the inside rear tire
and it's bead was broke and the tire is flat.  So all the weight was being carried on the one outside tire.
I informed the owner that he was lucky the outside tire did not explode as it must have been carrying all the weight.
He wanted to know if he should have felt something different while driving and I said probably not.  So how many miles
did he drive on one tire is anybodies guess.
So a mobile service will be called.  He thought that he was covered for everything but I told him I doubt that a new tire is covered
only the service to change it.

Since all the weight was on the outside tire and it was low on pressure carrying twice the weight it should have been carrying,
I think the tire DID move some as the other side of the coach looked OK.

Maybe he should bite the bullet and get 2 tires as the outside was compromised, right?

Now you know the rest of the story..... ;D
 
Thanks...  There's always more to the story  ;D ;D ;D

Hopefully he gets up and running safely
 
RedandSilver said:
What do you mean?
I miss read  this "I used my tire gauge and the tire (rear ones) were 73 and 74.  The 74 reading was from the tire in the photos below - the 73 reading tire was an inside rear tire on the opposite side of the coach." I thought you checked the tire pressure on the inside duel on that side.  :p
Also I would recommend replacing both tires as the one has ben run overloaded.
Bill
 
Hi,

Wondering if the rims are the right size or for that matter are the tires the right size for the rims?? (another log for the fire)
 
WILDEBILL308 said:
I miss read  this "I used my tire gauge and the tire (rear ones) were 73 and 74.  The 74 reading was from the tire in the photos below - the 73 reading tire was an inside rear tire on the opposite side of the coach." I thought you checked the tire pressure on the inside duel on that side.  :p
Also I would recommend replacing both tires as the one has ben run overloaded.
Bill

I talked to him about that - but he thought they looked good and even the tire guy said he didn't think they were bad.
But we all know looks can be deceiving and them looking OK doesn't mean they are OK.  But I can only lead a horse to water ........

So If he has trouble down the road (which I hope he doesn't) it won't be because he never heard from anyone that maybe they should
have been changed.

The tire guy put a new valve stem in (but didn't have an extension for the inside rear) and then put both tires back on his coach.
The date code was 23/16 so less then 2 years old - But it's his RV so what are you going to do...........

camperAL said:
Hi,

Wondering if the rims are the right size or for that matter are the tires the right size for the rims?? (another log for the fire)

The other side looked OK and I think from the looks of the wheels that they were original and the tire size matched the placard in the MH.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
131,753
Posts
1,384,358
Members
137,524
Latest member
freetoroam
Back
Top Bottom