Heat and tires

[emiller]

Just an FYI to be carefull when towing. I had a blowout on my work trailer today, I checked the air presure and tires looked good but it looks to have seperated at the tread and with a load on the trailer I was standing in the street directing traffic around me until a police car pulled up and ask how are things. I told him it could be better. Temps were around 110 and it took awhile to change out the tire as it ripped the fender off and the tread was wound around the spindle. This was my first trailer blow out of any kind. Driving home in my car I saw four vehicles with flat tires on the freeway.

[M C Toyer]

How old were the tires?

[emiller]

About 5 years old.

[72FJ40]

Learned the same lesson last summer. A car collecting buddy and I went to Plano, TX to get a project car; took my car hauler and his truck. With a full load and 100+ temp, we blew a tire about half way home. No fun, but certainly an experience, changing a tire on side of I-30. Tires were five years old and had very few miles on them; trailer is stored out of sunlight also.

[GuitarPhotog]

Most trailer tires will "age" out before wearing out. Age-related tread separation caused my blowout, in moderate temperatures.

The tires were made in "99" according to the date code.

One of my winter projects will be tire covers.

<Chas>

[rowerwet]

I had a tire blow out on the highway last fall, I was very glad it happened when my utility trailer was empty, I was in the moving at the time and if it had happened on the return trip I would have had a very heavy trailer to deal with. it was early Oct. and in the 40's so it wasn't heat, it appears my air pressure may have been low. the tread separated all the way around so my tire looked like an apple core, the remains of the sidewalls kept the wheel off the road.

[pete42]

Most trailer tires in fact do wear out from being old rather than from lack of tread.

somewhere on your tires is a DOT and then four numbers Read the 4 numbers. These will tell you when the tire was manufactured.
The first 2 numbers of the date stamp represent the week of the year it was manufactured, and the last 2 digits are the year it was manufactured.
A tire manufactured in the last week of 2008 would have the number 5208 as the last 4 digits in the DOT number sequence.
This means the tire was manufactured in week 52 of the year 2008.
The number 1208 would indicate the tire was manufactured in the twelfth week of 2008, and is not to be confused with December as the twelfth month.

I have been told and I have lived by the rule trailer tires older than 5 years should be replaced regardless of the amount of tread left.
the rule has served me well knock on wood ................ouch not so hard head hurts.

[GuitarPhotog]

On older tires, you might have to look on the back of the tire for the DOT code date. New tires, have them plainly stamped on the front side, next to load and wear ratings.

<Chas>

[Shadow Catcher]

It sounds counter-intuitive But Goodyear recommends raising tire pressure when driving in hot weather. We saw a number of trailer tire blowouts on our trip (none were ours) including one as it happened on a horse trailer. I changed the Goodyear Marathons on our tear to Michelin car tires before the trip. They are grossly under loaded as the weight capacity of the tires is twice that of the trailer and they have a speed rating far higher then the Marathons.
When looking for tires I was unable to find ST tires not made in China!
My feeling is that all tire failures need to be reported https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/