1000 miles and three blown tires... OMG this sucks!

[Barb&Tim]

For anyone with the TST TPMS 510 System --A little more trivia:

I found out that the older 510 system sensors have had a silent upgrade. The sensors they now ship for that system have had the seals changed. They are now black rubber instead of the clear material that was in the earlier sensors. The clear seals were not replaceable and when they would not seal it required a sensor replacement. For the newer ones the black rubber seals are replaceable and will be provided by TST upon request -- at least that's what TST told me They also indicated that they will replace the older sensors with the new ones for half price.

Tim

[ZekenSpider]

Originally Posted by Barb&Tim

For anyone with the TST TPMS 510 System --A little more trivia:

I found out that the older 510 system sensors have had a silent upgrade. The sensors they now ship for that system have had the seals changed. They are now black rubber instead of the clear material that was in the earlier sensors. The clear seals were not replaceable and when they would not seal it required a sensor replacement. For the newer ones the black rubber seals are replaceable and will be provided by TST upon request -- at least that's what TST told me They also indicated that they will replace the older sensors with the new ones for half price.

Tim

Very good to know. I will look into new seals/sensors at TST on Monday.

Thanks,

Jerry

[Brutus]

(Notso)Luvmymanor1,
You can indeed bring her home on your newer 14" tires. Just keep the speed down to 50-55 MPH. Make frequent stops early on the trip home and check axle and tire sidewall temps. I just use my hand near the axle and make sure one side isn't significantly hotter than the other. (If one is, bad bearings could cause heat, blowing out the new tire.) On tire sidewall, it shouldn't burn you. Sounds silly, but I had a Viking pop-up that did just that to me on my first trip out. Checked the sidewalls on my first fuel stop and about crapped my pants! Was obviously very close to a blowout. Stayed where I was, ate lunch, slowed way down thereafter, and got the Viking tires to about the same "hand-feel" temp as the TV. No problems after that...

We've all been through what you're going through, although perhaps with not-as-many blowouts. TMs should be ok with 14"ers. In real life, not-so-much. I switched to 15" this year myself. It's one of those "just do it" deals. The rest of my TM (identical to yours) has been great. Just had to fix the "fridge on propane problem" (well documented if you do a search).

Last thought on tires. Just towed my 600# 5'x10' utility trailer 1000 miles a few weeks ago. Trailering it empty at 75MPH, the 8-yr-old 15" trailer tires ran cooler than the TV's tires. No blowouts. Have run other even older tires and been fine. The TM just builds tire heat much more. Thus, I switched to balanced 15" E-rated (read overkill) tires and 2600# rims and haven't looked back. Safety/overkill margin = lower temps = piece of mind and fewer blowouts.

[mjlaupp]

Originally Posted by Brutus

....Last thought on tires. Just towed my 600# 5'x10' utility trailer 1000 miles a few weeks ago. Trailering it empty at 75MPH, the 8-yr-old 15" trailer tires ran cooler than the TV's tires. No blowouts. Have run other even older tires and been fine. The TM just builds tire heat much more. Thus, I switched to balanced 15" E-rated (read overkill) tires and 2600# rims and haven't looked back. Safety/overkill margin = lower temps = piece of mind and fewer blowouts.

The 14" Marathon tires on all of my TM's have always run cooler than the TV tires on both my F-150 and my F-250.

I made the switch to 15's last year. The Marathons were over 3 years old and we were heading to the West coast. Peace of mind I guess. We had no tire issues. We just returned from the East coast, over 9000 miles with no tire problems in 2 seasons, coming thru Kansas a couple days ago it was 110 degrees! I was worried and checked the bearing temp by grabbing the housing (bearing buddy), it was always only warm to the touch. I have the Maxxis tires and run 60 to 65 MPH. I saw 2 or 3 other campers along the road with tires mangled and the rim damaged. The TM's ease of towing was a huge plus in conditions like this. Not to mention less wear on the Tundra.

Don't tell me if I'm wrong, but I think the switch prevented a lot of issues. Makes feel better about spending the $$$

I have to agree with the others, bite the bullet and put on the 15ers, peace of mind when traveling is worth it. Sell the others on Craigs list. Mine sold fast for a decent price.

All that said, I REALLY feel for you and hope your problems are over for this trip and that you can enjoy the MARVELOUS Yellowstone!!

[TexasCamper]

Sorry to hear of your challenges.
Some other thoughts...
(a) when you get going again, may want to check tire temperature and pressure every 100 miles, comparing the right from left sides...maybe you can detect something happening?
(b) Although blowouts of 14" tires is a well documented issue, let's not rule out other culprits: is the right wheel misaligned causing the tire to wear unevenly? Could a foreign object be rubbing against the tire that causes its demise? Could a damaged rim cause these blowouts?
(c) Could the trailer be unbalanced causing excessive weight on the right side vs. left?
(d) You mentioned that you serviced the wheel bearings before the trip. In my line of business, sometimes maintenance on a piece of equipment causes something else to break.....so could something be off there? Have you or an auto mechanic double-checked the bearings?

-John

[luvmymanor1]

Originally Posted by ShrimpBurrito

Should the tires be adequate? Yes. Are they? Obviously not, at least when pushed to their limits in terms of age, weight carried, and heat. Getting tires with higher weight capacities simply reduces risk, that's all. As I said before, I don't see that higher rated tires masks any problems, as I'm not carrying any additional weight I hadn't carried before.



There are alot of variables when taking a weigh, like whether you were carrying any water, was the TM loaded for camping, were there any people in the TV, etc. But assuming the Toyota Sienna is about 4,000 lbs, your TM weighs 3,500 lbs. That's probably among the lowest TM weights recorded here, so if that really is the weight, you probably can't do much better. But you could easily be at 4,000 lbs, and that is right about at the max for the tires.

Tongue weight can be measured at any scale by subtracting the TM axle weight from the TM total weight (when unhitched from the TV). You can also measure this with a bathroom scale and a fulcrum, a method described here on the forum which you can find using the Search tool.

I highly recommend a TPMS system -- I use the TST brand. It's not a fail safe, but is simply another tool in helping you identify a problem, which reduces the risk of a blowout.

Your year TM may not need a lift kit to take 15" wheels. In the newer models, and perhaps someone here can comment on when the factory made this change, they installed an axle with the torsion arms set at a higher angle, giving the same lift as the lift kit. A call to the factory would answer it for sure. But the lift kit is simply a piece of 2" tubular steel bolted in between the axle and frame. You could find a place along the road that would sell you a few sections and drill some holes in it, but if it were me, I'd order it from the factory for ~$40 and have them Fedex/UPS it to a Fedex/UPS location down the road where they will hold it for you for pickup. It is easy to install -- all you need is a jack and some wrenches. But since you'd only get it if you were getting 15" wheels, I would just ask the tire shop to install it for you. Since they're removing the wheels anyway, it should only take them an additional 20-30 min to install the lift.

When I was in your shoes last year, I reduced my stress level significantly by acknowledging the fact that the tires were going to delay my trip 1-2 days, and that I was going to spend that time addressing the problem in a repair shop, on the phone, etc. Once I succumbed to that realization, I was able to relax alot more.

Dave

hey thanks for explaining it thourougly for me and I see what you are saying... I'd rather wait and get the lift kit from factory like you said and I'd actually rather do it all myself. however, since I'm on the road and don't have any tools with me except a drill and a pair of pliars that aint gonna happen.

as for the weight. my toyota dry weight is about 4400 and my TM fully loaded is about 3,100-3,200 believe it or not. DW and I went through some painstaking measures to try and reduce weight as much as we can. we really don't have much on board and are real careful to keep junk out of the TM at all stops. we burn all firewood or give it away if we got some left over. we don't carry it on board. we don'tt boodock so we never needed to fill the water holding tank so thats always empty. we make sure to dump befor we get on the road and keep the water vales open so all water drains out. having said that we weighed it when we went on a two week trip fully loaded not the month long one. so I'm sure that weigh went up but my best guess is not by more than 100 lbs. everything on board is miniature sized and were ok with this. the only thing we miss is our bikes but taking four bikes would drastically change our weight so they had to be left behind on this trip.

[luvmymanor1]

wow, really appreciate all of the comments and suggestions. I'm hearing the 15" suggestion and really considering that allong with the pressure and temp guage. that combo would help this kind of thing in into the future I guess. hey I have to say agin thanks for all of the great suggestions... keep them coming.

[luvmymanor1]

ok I made it to the next leg of my trip without and blow outs this time.... However, I did stop every 2.5 hours to rest and cool off the tires. late part of the driving day it hit 92 and by the time I arived at the campsite the side giving me trouble was hotter than the other side. It was hot enough that I could not keep my had on the wheel for too long. is that an indication of a problem with the bearings? when I took the bearings out cleaned them. I inspected each and every bearing for function. overall warping, heat stress marks and it really did look fine. I used ngsl #2 trailer greese (marine grade). let me know if I should have the bearings switched. since I'm on the road I wont be able to do it myself.

[ShrimpBurrito]

One tire can be significantly hotter than the other if it's in direct sun, when you're on the road or in a parking lot. I think the hubs are more resistant to significant temp differentials with sunlight, but I could be wrong.

This is where a temp/pressure tire monitor comes into play. You start to quantitatively identify what good/bad temps and pressures are so you know when you're safe and when you have a potential problem.

If you are confident in your bearing job, and you are certain you seated the bearings and then backed off on the nut, I don't think I would pull the bearings. With 92 degree temps, those tires are going to be very warm, especially in the afternoon when the sun has had a chance to heat up the road surface.

I'm also not sure how helpful stopping every 2.5 hrs is. My guess is you'd probably have to sit for at least an hour in 92 degree ambient temps to get appreciable cooling, if you park in the shade, and then they're going to heat right back up again after 20 min on the road. But I could be wrong.

Dave