Tire tread gone

[E5Jake]

Just a little bit of show and tell here. Last weekend my buddy pulled his 5er home to find the tire on the left in this condition when he got there. It was about a 60 mile drive home and he still isn't sure exactly when it happened. The tread is gone! The crazy thing is, the tire is still completely full of air even a week later. I've never seen anything like it. Plus, the only damage done was a cracked sewer drain cap. He knows he got lucky. He's changing all 4 tires ASAP!

 

[grashley]

He must have thrown the tread very near home!  Is is possible, but very rare.  A few miles will wear through the belts.
In the pics, those tires appear very close together!  True, or photo illusion?

 

[Rene T]

Can you find out what the manufacturers date is? Many people here would also like to know.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Those tires do look very close together. Are they original tires or larger ones added later?

 

[DearMissMermaid]

Last December driving through construction on interstate, my tire got stuck in a groove and it ripped the tread off and jammed it between my dual tires in the rear.

It stayed fully inflated even though the tread was ripped off completely.

I had to get road side service cause I could not unjam the loose tread and drive to an exit.

Roadside service changed to my spare tire and I showed up at the tire store with the untreaded tire on the spare, still fully inflated.

Mine made a horrific noise, I knew right away something bad had happened, but I was in motorhome and he in fifth wheel, I can imagine he didn't hear it, but surely there was a helluva BUMPiness at some point.

 

[E5Jake]

The tires were made in 2011. They are not the originals, but were on it when he bought it. I also think they are a little close together, but the point of view from the camera also adds to that. It wasn't something that I noticed when I was looking at them in person, but I do agree from the picture that it sure does look that way. My buddy said the only thing he ever noticed was a slight sway that happened once, like from a gust of wind (so he thought). Nobody was waving at him on the road, or giving him the one finger salute as they passed him.  ;D  I believe he said they were E rated tires. Other than that, I don't know what pressure he was running, or anything like that.

 

[Rene T]

It looks like they may be LT tires. Is it possible he was overloaded?  What I've seen is that LT tires are not rated for weight carrying capacity as much as ST tires.

 

[E5Jake]

It's possible, but I couldn't say that it is for sure. I believe he said the unit was somewhere around 8,000lbs. I'm sure that is a dry weight figure. I know he hauls quite a bit of extra "stuff" with them. He's had it for a few seasons now though without any tire issues. Do you think if it was overloaded that he would have had problems sooner?

 

[RVRAC]

You can read LT, they were probably overloaded.

 

[Rene T]

He needs to weight the rig when it's loaded. Tanks full also.

 

[Russ+Chris]

You can read LT, they were probably overloaded.

Yeah, and they're M&S too. Light truck tires, with a mud-snow rating.

 

[jubileee]

We had that happen a few years back with the civic on the tow dolly. I just happened to be looking in the passenger mirror, when the dust flew and the dolly fender disappeared. I thought the tire blew. When I got. Stopped, I wondered why the TPMS alarm wasn't going off. TMPS showed 36 lb pressure and 95 degree temperature on that tire. ( passenger car type tire had 32lbs cold)  Just pealed the tread completely off tire. Never found fender. Drove about a mile to off ramp and put on spare. Was a 2 year old Goodyear tire with less than 2000 miles on it. Never went flat. Tire shop replaced tire at no cost when we got home. Sometimes things just happen.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

With a date of 2011, it is not real surprising that one has failed. 5 years is a decent life expectation for a trailer tire.

A typical LT235/85R16 can carry about 2600 lbs @ 65 psi and 3000 lbs @ 80 psi, so four of them can handle 10,000-12,000 lbs.  Even if the 8000 lb trailer weight is "dry", I doubt if those tires were overloaded [if inflated properly].

With the tires close together, a piece of road debris could get caught and jammed between the two tires, possibly tearing into the tread and causing this sort of failure.

 

[lone_star_dsl]

I can't believe how many people get on here and scream "OVERLOADED!".

The Firestone Steeltex tires have been the subject of NHTSA investigations, recalls, and lawsuits because of TREAD SEPARATION!  Go figure that it would happen again.

 

[Rene T]

I can't believe how many people get on here and scream "OVERLOADED!".

The Firestone Steeltex tires have been the subject of NHTSA investigations, recalls, and lawsuits because of TREAD SEPARATION!  Go figure that it would happen again.

I did say that is it possible he was overloaded and that I felt he should get it weighed just to see.

 

[camperAL]

Greetings,

Wondering with the tires being so close, if a rock could have fallen in between and sheered off the tread? Realize this is a long shot but one possible scenario.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Greetings,

Wondering with the tires being so close, if a rock could have fallen in between and sheered off the tread? Realize this is a long shot but one possible scenario.

I was wondering the same thing.