Preventive maintenance & speeding

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.
See posts with no answers
RVoorhis318

RVoorhis318

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Posts
845
Location
Florida
I live close to I84 in CT so I travel it almost daily. Day before yesterday large 5th wheel behind a dually diesel with Florida plates blew by us in the car so just to see I stepped on it to see how fast he was going, 78MPH. I dropped back to 60mph and he disappeared after a few minutes I just shake my head that these drivers have no regard for themselves, their family or others on the road when they blow tires. Today came across a small travel trailer off to the side of the road lost both passenger side wheels the both backing plates on the ground.

Makes me thing lack of maintenance and burned up both bearings and lost his wheels and axels, pretty lucky could have been worse than it looked, roadside equipment and police were there to assist. Interesting couple of days!
 
If that happens again Rob,, check (if you can) to see if the plates match the trailer,, many time these are being delivered to a dealer and these drivers don't care, time is the driver.>>>Dan
 
utahclaimjumper said:
If that happens again Rob,, check (if you can) to see if the plates match the trailer,, many time these are being delivered to a dealer and these drivers don't care, time is the driver.>>>Dan
Click to expand...
Yeah I hear ya! This guy was destined for a ticket one way or another because he had a large storage box on the rear cargo carrier completely blocking the plate so we couldn't see it.
 
Well that eliminates the "Factory Delivery Driver" theory (The large after-market storage box)


Due to the position of my bicycle carrier I re-located the plate on my ride, to a place where it is in clear view.. Easily seen from behind even when I have a towed on the hitch... Of course.. Till I get the engine fixed,, No problems no matter where I put the plate :).

Did I tell you the engine going BOOM was a good thing..... Yup, normally I'd have returned to the Flint Mi area and because I like a few places in Flint I'd have been drinking lead.  Someone upstairs must have been looking out for me.. Just wish it was not a 10,000 dollar "out".

 
I think the RV industry shares part of the blame for "stupid", or maybe we should say "ignorant". Neither dealers nor the RV makers nor the RVIA make any effort to explain safe practices to RV buyers - I guess they don't want to worry them. How many dealers ever tell the first time buyer that trailer tires are limited to 65 MPH? Or that they need to stay aware of max weights?  No, instead they say "sure your VW Beetle will tow that!" and send the oblivious customer on toward his fate.
 
I have pulled our FW for over 7,000 miles since the first week in October and can tell you that hundreds of TT and FW passed me during this tripwhile I was doing 59-60.  However, they made me looked like I was doing 40.  I firmly believe that its easy to blame the so called "chine bombs" instead of driver's heavy foot for all the tire problems we hear about.  Actually, I am surprised there are not more accidents.
 
RVRAC said:
I have pulled our FW for over 7,000 miles since the first week in October and can tell you that hundreds of TT and FW passed me during this tripwhile I was doing 59-60.  However, they made me looked like I was doing 40.  I firmly believe that its easy to blame the so called "chine bombs" instead of driver's heavy foot for all the tire problems we hear about.  Actually, I am surprised there are not more accidents.
Click to expand...

x2.

The ones that scream the loudest they have never exceed 65 and always check their tires are the ones that drive a steady 75mph and check their tires once a year, if that often.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
I think the RV industry shares part of the blame for "stupid", or maybe we should say "ignorant". Neither dealers nor the RV makers nor the RVIA make any effort to explain safe practices to RV buyers - I guess they don't want to worry them. How many dealers ever tell the first time buyer that trailer tires are limited to 65 MPH? Or that they need to stay aware of max weights?  No, instead they say "sure your VW Beetle will tow that!" and send the oblivious customer on toward his fate.
Click to expand...
They sure never told me Gary, learned it all right here on the forum & a lot more!!!
 
Same here!  I drove with traffic (65-75 mph) all the way home from picking up the TT from the dealer.  Learned and understood more about importance of the tire rating here and kept it under 65 for our first camping trip this past week. Thank you forum members and moderators for the wealth of information and the pleasant atmosphere.
 
I should add that we have been very pleased with the dealer where we purchased our TT. They accommodated my long walk through (as a result of the tips I learned here and the delivery checklists in the library). They have been very helpful and have a large library of online videos that cover many helpful topics.
 
Rob VanVoorhis said:
I live close to I84 in CT so I travel it almost daily. Day before yesterday large 5th wheel behind a dually diesel with Florida plates blew by us in the car so just to see I stepped on it to see how fast he was going, 78MPH. I dropped back to 60mph and he disappeared after a few minutes I just shake my head that these drivers have no regard for themselves, their family or others on the road when they blow tires. Today came across a small travel trailer off to the side of the road lost both passenger side wheels the both backing plates on the ground.

Makes me thing lack of maintenance and burned up both bearings and lost his wheels and axels, pretty lucky could have been worse than it looked, roadside equipment and police were there to assist. Interesting couple of days!
Click to expand...

So what is your definition of a safe speed?  If it's 55 mph, why that speed?  Bad things can happen at 55.  Perhaps 25 would be a safer speed.  And just how much of a rolling road block were you while you were doing 60 mph on the interstate in your car?  Perhaps things are different where you are, but here in Colorado, you'll have a line of cars stacked behind you which is absolutely more unsafe than 3 mph over the speed limit.

I have LT tires on my trailer.  I'm not bound by a tire speed rating of 65 mph.  I try to keep my speed around 70 for fuel economy sake but have no problem going faster if I'm impeding traffic or if I just want to get where I'm going.

I will agree with you on maintenance though.  I've seen a lot of rigs go down because someone was too lazy or clueless to do some simple maintenance.  I spend one weekend before camping season going through the trailer greasing, lubing, washing, etc. making sure it's ready to go.

 
lone_star_dsl said:
So what is your definition of a safe speed?  If it's 55 mph, why that speed?  Bad things can happen at 55.  Perhaps 25 would be a safer speed.  And just how much of a rolling road block were you while you were doing 60 mph on the interstate in your car?  Perhaps things are different where you are, but here in Colorado, you'll have a line of cars stacked behind you which is absolutely more unsafe than 3 mph over the speed limit.

I have LT tires on my trailer.  I'm not bound by a tire speed rating of 65 mph.  I try to keep my speed around 70 for fuel economy sake but have no problem going faster if I'm impeding traffic or if I just want to get where I'm going.

I will agree with you on maintenance though.  I've seen a lot of rigs go down because someone was too lazy or clueless to do some simple maintenance.  I spend one weekend before camping season going through the trailer greasing, lubing, washing, etc. making sure it's ready to go.
Click to expand...
Thats why they make the left passing lane no law says I have to rush anyone to the next exit or stop light.
 
This gentleman passed me Friday south of Cedar City, Utah.  I was clunking along at my normal 62 mph reading the back of the windshield and he was probably running in the 70-75 mph range, nothing obscene but moving right along.  45 minutes or so later we can see that I was going to get to my destination before him.  I suspect that he dropped a trailer tire off the wear course of the road and it jerked him to the right, a quick snap of the steering wheel and he was just along for the ride.  Luckily he stayed right side up but I'm guessing that he'll spend some time putting stuff back in the cupboards.
 

Attachments

  • RVCrash-01.jpg
    RVCrash-01.jpg
    69.7 KB · Views: 37
  • RVCrash-02.jpg
    RVCrash-02.jpg
    58.7 KB · Views: 37
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 755 (members: 6, guests: 749)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,001
Posts
1,388,888
Members
137,745
Latest member
GandalfTheGrey
Back
Top Bottom