Nightmare trip

rhandyr99 · 07-22-2015, 11:12 AM

4 hours into the trip to Myrtle Beach, we had a flat. TOW MAX Tires with about 1000 miles on the tires on a 2011 fuzion... Forgot the lug wrench for the tires, some person sold me one for 20 bucks - I was grateful. Only to find out the jack wouldn't reach the camper to lift it. Used my truck one and still it sank into the ground... Lessons learned... need a new jack, got the trusty lug wrench now, and a board. Fellow that sold it to us came back like he wanted it back.. Kinda of scary ... anyways... 3 more hours into the trip - Our Wheel broken off the truck! Talk about scary... out at midnight on the side of the road with no wheel on your truck and heaven only knew where we were! At one point we had 2 SC state troopers with us, and 4 tow trucks! It took 3 tow trucks, one to take the truck, one for the 5th wheel and one took our family to the walmart where the camper was dropped. We were 4 miles from walmart. Towing cost was $250 bucks. We were so thankful Ocean Lakes came over to walmart and picked up our camper and took it in the next day.And send a driver to pick up my family. What a blessing that was. Then to find our truck... didn't know where it was, finally we were contacted... the wheel was destroyed, the rotor was ruined... another $600 to get that repaired, again, Ocean lakes team helped us out to find the truck and take us to pick it up. Next day... battery on truck was dead. Had to replace it... Next day... Credit card company called, some one stole our credit card number and was using it. They had to cancel my credit card. I think the tow truck man did this because he took my card to his truck and came back with the card reader - my mind wasn't thinking about things like that but the next day - is when the charges showed up on the card that were fraud... ... so we had a safe trip home... only to find out 45 minutes later after we dropped the camper the brake lines broke on the truck...

We asked the tire dealer why that tire would come apart like it did, and he told us that the reason was... It was a 2001 dated tire... on a 2011 Camper. I said you mean 2010 date and he said NO it is a 2001 Tire. Your tire is 14 years old... I think I am about to give camping up after 20 years... this was too much for a old man...

dcg9381 · 07-22-2015, 11:59 AM

There's a DOT date on the tires. It starts with DOT ..... - tell us what those codes are and we'll tell you where and when it was made. I seriously doubt that it's a 2001 tire. I'm not sure that they made Tow Max in 2001.

Apparently the nickname for TowMax is "blowmax" within a large part of the RV community. Do you know what the load rating is on that tire? Do you know what the actual stamped weight limit is?

Know what your rig weighs? At the axles?

A few things that need to be considered:
1) % of maximum load of the tire at your actual weight?
2) If you tow in a nose up or nose down position, your axles are weighted unevenly.
3) No rigs has perfect weight distribution, so some tires will see more load than others. Manufacturers don't account for this.
4) Theory is that tires degrade a little bit of their max usable load every year. That is, if you're starting off at a 85% rating of max when they're new and you lose 5-10% of that capacity every year, you're riding on borrowed time after a few years.

The broken wheel is a mystery to me... Did the wheel actually shatter (aluminum) or did the lugs fail?

rhandyr99 · 07-22-2015, 12:03 PM

It was a 2001 tire. I looked after he told me that and then I asked, he showed it to me.. The others are a 2010 date code but that one was not....I don't have the tire on hand now, it was left at the dealer when I bought a new one.

dcg9381 · 07-22-2015, 12:05 PM

FYI - those tires are likely warrantied for 5-years. See: http://www.towmaxtires.com/content/t...ust%202012.pdf

TowMax is a China tire imported by a company called TBC here in the USA.

You may want to file a complaint - assuming the tire was properly inflated, your load was under gross, and you didn't hit anything. The DOT code from the tire is required. Enough complaints and manufacturers will stop using these and/or it'll steer people to use other tires:
https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/online.cfm

rhandyr99 · 07-22-2015, 12:15 PM

The lug nuts broke off, and the rim was shattered - we just bought new tires from Sam's Club about 2 months ago but haven't driven the truck much since..
and I did not check my lug nuts before we left...

rhandyr99 · 07-22-2015, 12:18 PM

We didn't hit anything, the tire just came apart - it really still had some air in it and its just came apart by layers....I am not sure if someone took a picture of it or not... I will check with the kids later tonight...

rhandyr99 · 07-22-2015, 12:22 PM

We bought the Good year tire for replacement, the company was Mason's and the they only offered 2 tires - the towmax and the good years... but they told me both were made in China... and neither had warranty's...

dcg9381 · 07-22-2015, 12:33 PM

TowMax has a warranty. People have used it.
I've never heard of a Goodyear that doesn't come with a factory warranty, but I learn new stuff every day.

Festus2 · 07-22-2015, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcg9381

FYI - those tires are likely warrantied for 5-years. See: http://www.towmaxtires.com/content/t...ust%202012.pdf

TowMax is a China tire imported by a company called TBC here in the USA.

You may want to file a complaint - assuming the tire was properly inflated, your load was under gross, and you didn't hit anything. The DOT code from the tire is required. Enough complaints and manufacturers will stop using these and/or it'll steer people to use other tires:
https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/online.cfm

Unfortunately, filing a complaint with TowMax about this particular tire would be a waste of time IMO. In TowMax's warranty, like all other warranties, it is full of limitations and exclusions. To name a few:
1) must be the original purchaser of the tire.
2) proof of purchase required --- does he have the sales receipt?
3) were the tires properly rotated? probably not.
4) has to present the tire to a PowerKing TowMax tire dealer --- he doesn't have the tire any more.

So you can see, I don't think the OP would get to 1st base with this.
Most importantly, the tire was stamped as being manufactured in 2001 which would preclude any kind of compensation or rebate.

RV trailer tires have a short life span ---anywhere from 3-5 years. Beyond that they are, as you pointed out, "living on borrowed time". Although they may look perfectly good from the outside, the deterioration from the inside is what you can't see and what kills the tire.

I really feel for the OP. His trip is a perfect example of Murphy's Law - If something can go wrong it will. It couldn't have gotten much worse.

Barbell · 07-22-2015, 04:20 PM

We all pay for our education; some just pay more than others.

**sourdough** · 07-22-2015, 04:32 PM

Hmmm, new tires installed at SAM's recently and the truck not driven much since; then the lug nuts? break off and the wheel is ruined. Sounds like a very BIG coincidence.

Did the lug NUTS break off or did the lug bolts break? Sounds very similar to an incident I had after having new tires installed many years ago. After the install (no I did not check the nuts either) I went to a remote area in the mountains and had a blowout....and then another blowout. In the middle of nowhere I'm trying to replace these tires and lo and behold I find that when the new tires were installed some yoyo had cross threaded most of the lug nuts. When I went to pull the nuts some of the lug bolts had had so much torque put to them that they literally twisted in half - the rest I had to twist in half to get the wheel off. You may have had something like that happen to you and some of the bolts just sheared off causing catastrophic failure. If it were me I would be checking every lug nut to make sure they all come off correctly then torque correctly.

Sorry for the terrible trip. It's something that none of us want to happen.

Face Down · 07-22-2015, 06:42 PM

I can't think of a reason why you would have a 2001 tire on a 2011 Toy Hauler...makes no sense. Did the tire look the same as in same lettering and graphics on the sidewall? Almost guaranteed that they would have changed the way they look over a 10 year span. I am thinking that maybe the date code was messed up when they manufactured it.

Anyway glad the people at Ocean Lakes helped you out, love that campground and will be heading there in a couple of weeks. I hope you got to enjoy yourself a bit after all of that. Two years ago I had a similar experience but no where as bad as yours on my way down there. I had only been on the road 15-20 minutes when I had a blow out right at the 40/95 interchange. The rear passenger trailer tire blew and the tread separated and started to whip around like crazy. Did all sorts of damage to my TT at the time including tearing off the fender skirt and nearly going through the floor of the trailer. It also ripped off the valve stem of the front tire...so I was sitting there on the side of 95 with two flats at the same time and only one spare. My normal three hour trip to MB took six!

Last thought...check into one of these, makes changing a tire a breeze on a tandem axle trailer.

Wally15 · 07-23-2015, 01:08 AM

In all probability the date code was wrong on the tire. A metal plate called a serial tin is changed out weekly in the mold to imprint the manufacturing week into the sidewall. These are handmade on a stamping machine. 1715 is the 17th week of 2015, for example. In the tire plant I worked at we changed out 244 serial tins every Sunday.
In your case, the --10 was probably "fat fingered" to --01 and not caught by the tin changer or inspector.
Another possibility, since tires are typically sold in "lots" to RV manufacturers, if your other tires were made late in 2010 (5110 for ex.), this one tire could have been made in early 2011 (0211?) and mis-typed into the serial tin as 0201.
The odds of it being a 2001 tire are right up there with winning the lottery.

dave-g · 07-23-2015, 02:05 AM

Thank God no one got hurt. That a life time of sh*t going wrong / tire failures. So I believe you are done now.

Form here on out its all happy camping.

PS ck oll other lug nuts- loosen and re torque with a torque wrench. Also inspect the studs to see it the threads have been stretched.

TomHaycraft · 07-23-2015, 02:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhandyr99

The lug nuts broke off, and the rim was shattered - we just bought new tires from Sam's Club about 2 months ago but haven't driven the truck much since..
and I did not check my lug nuts before we left...

Sourdough picked up on this, curious if you've checked the other 3 wheels? If this happened to me, I'd take a torque wrench, see if I could determine how tight they are. Could they have been over-tightened, causing failure of the stud, or not tightened enough?

I frequent a Discount Tire location nearby. Their protocol is to use impact drivers, but they are set to a lower torque. They follow up with torque wrenches to snug up, based that car's/wheel's specs.

In the end, good to hear everyone is safe. Hopefully you've got all the gremlins behind you!

rhandyr99 · 07-23-2015, 06:23 AM

I guess the hardest part of the trip along with all the expenses, is our dog came home sick.... She's been to the vet - still not better.... On the bright side, Our family is Safe. No one was hurt or killed ..
After new tires this spring, We will try one more time for our Myrtle Beach trip and if I run into this bad luck again, I am done with camping... I really enjoy our only week we get to camp at the ocean.... Motels are not the same...

I have a question - I saw someone have the Anderson Rapid Jack - I saw a red one and a black one - Are there any difference in the 2? On the website for Anderson only the red one is available but on ebay they also have the black one that cost more...

Thanks for all your comments, I do agree I don't see any use in trying to do the warranty, If I had the tire , maybe... but since I don't... I can't ...I do Have the original paperwork on the camper, the tires came on it. Maybe I was so stressed the numbers were transposed... Guess I will never know.
That Goodyear dealer sold me that tire without a warranty, I will contact goodyear and ask them... He was the tire dealer recommended by Ocean Lakes Staff so I figured he would be a good dealer for tires...

rhandyr99 · 07-23-2015, 06:41 AM

Yes - All other 3 wheels were checked and were torqued correct... I had my son drive down and bring me tools to check everything before we left and had him follow us home... Our bad luck follows him as well, he had brake problems on his car before he came down and had to bring a different car..

We are blessed no one was hurt... If it wasn't for someone telling us about the flat on the camper, we would have had damage...

I guess in 20 years, we had one flat on our cardinal that cost 1800.00 damage but other than us trying to pull a little trailer with our golf cart on the back of the 5th wheel breaking at the tongue - we have been blessed... Lost the trailer on that one had had to leave that one and buy a new one... but again, we were safe...

The night the wheel broke of the truck, the State Trooper called Ocean Lakes and asked if we could have our camper towed in and they refused to let us in even if we paid - they had a lot of unused spots - but the manager on duty would not let the tow truck tow us there..maybe because of the flashing lights might disturb the other campers? but we were headed to super walmart for the night anyways... just didn't know how we would get from walmart to Ocean Lakes the next day... Once we talked to the Ocean Lakes Team member that moves the campers from storage to the campground, he was there to pick us up in less than 3 hours and even called to make sure we were ok until he got there...

We love Ocean Lakes, We could use the golf cart to run to walmart market to get groceries so we didn't miss our truck, but it was a good feeling to see it when it was repaired... The guys at tire town fixed the truck a and were really nice and went to a junk yard to find us a replacement wheel... I thought that was super nice of them.. they sold camper tires as well but I had never heard of their brand.

The state troopers stayed with us for the entire nightmare was over - both of them which took about 3 hours!

Better believe I am getting one of the Jacks! Wish I had read some post here, I don't get on often to read them... My mom always said...
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

byrdr1 · 07-23-2015, 06:46 AM

Glad you are ok. Glad it all worked out for you. Ocean Lakes is to be commended for going that extra mile to get you to them safely. When you say Walmart the one at US17bypass and dick pond rd or one farther away from OLCG past or in Marion off US501?
I am just curious about that??
but the bottom line one bad trip should not deter you from camping again.
I started to OLCG 2 years ago and only got 80 or so miles from home and had my truck go out. The truck had to be towed back home for serious engine work and my camper got towed to Myrtle Beach (lucky it was towed by a friends f-350). finished my trip but i do understand your thinking on that if it happens again you are out of it.
take care
randy
see this thread for my woes.
http://keystonerv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11800
randy

Face Down · 07-23-2015, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by byrdr1

When you say Walmart the one at US17bypass and dick pond rd or one farther away from OLCG past or in Marion off US501?
I am just curious about that??

There is a new Walmart Neighborhood Market directly across the street from Ocean Lakes now, is was built where the mini golf place was. Not sure exactly when it opened up but it was there last August but not there August of 2013.

byrdr1 · 07-23-2015, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Face Down

There is a new Walmart Neighborhood Market directly across the street from Ocean Lakes now, is was built where the mini golf place was. Not sure exactly when it opened up but it was there last August but not there August of 2013.

i knew about that one, it Opened Thanksgiving week 2013 I thought it opened that week in 2014. But not sure now. It was open in May this year. that was my last trip there. BUT I'll be back Thanksgiving
We shop there because I can drive my golfcart over to it. JUST have to be real careful crossing US17

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