Alpine tire blowout

[NJ High Country]

We were headed back home from UP Michigan. We had our first blowout experience about 700 miles from home on Rt 23. In seconds we heard a sound louder than bump in the road, I see it in my side view mirror and the 507 tpms alarm went off. Our typical cruising speed is 60mph, so we immediately pulled over. Thank god it happened on the passenger side, the traffic was relentless. Every second another tractor trailer would pass and rock the rig. I grabbed my tools from the front storage- a breaker bar, deep socket and extension, and a 12ton bottle jack. With the tire blown the bottle jack wouldn’t fit. I keep scrap wood pieces in the bed of my truck, so I placed in front of the blown up tire and told my wife to tell me when to stop when the wheel was centered on wood. This gave me just enough clearance for the bottle jack. She kept a cool head throughout and reminded me to set up our safety cones and torque everything and install the tpms monitor on the spare. Lessons learned- be prepared for the unexpected, have the tools necessary to get you home or a safe location. So now we’re looking for 6 new tires for our rig. I want two spares in the future. Leaning towards the sailun 637’s. I’ll have to fabricate a second spare tire mount for the rear hitch and a new frame mount that was destroyed from the blowout.

[bsmith0404]

I added a BAL Hid A Spare to my Alpine several years ago for carrying a second spare. I also use the auto leveling jacks to lift the trailer to change the tires. I have a bottle jack with me, just in case, but haven’t used anything other than the leveling jacks even for packing wheel bearings.

[NJ High Country]

I was concerned to use the jacks- the controls are on the driver side and I didn’t have time assess the hydraulic hoses and connections. The tire smacked the jack several rotations. I inspected everything this morning. The connections looked fine and I bent the frame mount away from the coupler rod that connects the slide out drive gears. I auto leveled, inspected for leaks, then opened up the main slides.

[sourdough]

Looked like HiSpec tires? We had a guy on here at one time saying he was a rep for them but I haven't heard much from him.

[wiredgeorge]

As I recall, the user HiSpec posted a few times when a member had one of their bombs blow up under his camper. HiSpec was last on the forum March 31st. I can understand why he would not want to show after that last thread which was not complimentary to the brand.

[bobbecky]

I seriously doubt you will need two spare tires, one should be fine. Years ago, our rig came with the Chinese Goodyear Marathons, and after having five failed tires in a little over a year, went with the Goodyear G614’s. Last year, had to get new tires and went with Sailun S637’s. Since going with the G614’s and now the S637’s, we have never had a failure, and we have close to 80,000 miles on our rig. You still need to replace tires due to age, but that is much cheaper than repairing damage from a blown tire.

[NJ High Country]

Originally Posted by bobbecky

I seriously doubt you will need two spare tires, one should be fine. Years ago, our rig came with the Chinese Goodyear Marathons, and after having five failed tires in a little over a year, went with the Goodyear G614’s. Last year, had to get new tires and went with Sailun S637’s. Since going with the G614’s and now the S637’s, we have never had a failure, and we have close to 80,000 miles on our rig. You still need to replace tires due to age, but that is much cheaper than repairing damage from a blown tire.

Thanks for the info! I saw the G614’s but they’re big money! Good to hear the sailun’s have a good reputation and following. The original hispecs only have 7500 miles on them.

[RickV]

Originally Posted by NJ High Country

Thanks for the info! I saw the G614’s but they’re big money! Good to hear the sailun’s have a good reputation and following. The original hispecs only have 7500 miles on them.

Welcome to the exploding Hi_Spec Tires Club. I joined back in March. Here is my thread on it https://www.keystoneforums.com/forum...ad.php?t=50721 I had had great service out of the Saliun S637's on our previous 5th Wheel and was looking for a good place to get them Danny AKA Sourdough suggested Mavis Tire. I contacted them and they gave me a great price. Not sure if there is one of their stores near you but check.

[ChuckS]

Yup I have posted several times here on this group that if you were running Hispec tires on your Alpine 6ank all of the, off immediately

They are cheap junk tires that Keystone should have never installed at the factory

I have seen images from well over 40 fellow Alpije owners with blowouts with the Hispec tires and most had lots of damage TK contend with

Sailun S637 series tire in ST 235/85x16 are what’s on my Alpine.


GY G614 tire is an over priced LT tire .. but it does have a very good track record but at over $400 a tire nit in my wheel house

Another excellent tire is the Hercules 901 series tire

Glad the damage was minimal and hope you replace those remaining Hispec tires plus the spare with new ones quickly

[dutchmensport]

Congrats on your blow out! You are now an official RVer! Welcome to the family!

[bsmith0404]

Originally Posted by bobbecky

I seriously doubt you will need two spare tires, one should be fine.

Never need one spare, until you do….I run two spares for piece of mind. A lot of it may depend on where you live. I’m in NM, I can travel further between cities than most people travel on a complete round trip with their RV. I started running two spares several years ago after I got a flat due to a nail I picked up on I 40 near Santa Rosa. 100+ degrees in July on a Sunday afternoon, 250 miles from home and not a tire shop open between. It’s never a good feeling knowing you have that far to go, in that kind of heat and not have a spare. We made it, but I added the second spare a few days later. I’ve never had a flat tire since (that was 7 years ago, hope I’m not jinxing myself), but the piece of mind knowing I have them is worth the $250 spent on the hid a spare, wheel and tire. Cheap insurance.

[larryflew]

Have not had a blow out for years (now jinxed that I said this) on our Alpine but the year we did we had 3 and one of them was a new one from the first one that blew near a tire shop when we where just leaving MN (8 miles from home) on our way to South of Phoenix. Second one was 10 miles from the campground we where going to. Third was on the way home. When home instead of doing the last individuals we did all of them. Been 7 years and all where replaced 2 years ago just due to age and had bearing repacked at the same time.

Damage wise: First one did nothing, 2nd one blew wheel trim off of the passenger side (available at Amazon) but 3rd one ruined an axle (had to have it straightened and rebuilt in the middle Kansas). Sat in tiny mom and pop spot without cell coverage, no tv stations etc for 2 days. $2500 repairs to those tire and axle wise and destroyed our large living room slide that broke up the floor so bad we had to leave it hang out about 8 inches. Took 2 months waiting for replacement floor once we where home. Cool watching them take the slide out, flip it over and rebuild from the bottom. Worked fine ever since. Insurance covered most of it other than the tire and part of the axle.

[Alpine Custom Upgrade]

Originally Posted by NJ High Country

We were headed back home from UP Michigan. We had our first blowout experience about 700 miles from home on Rt 23. In seconds we heard a sound louder than bump in the road, I see it in my side view mirror and the 507 tpms alarm went off. Our typical cruising speed is 60mph, so we immediately pulled over. Thank god it happened on the passenger side, the traffic was relentless. Every second another tractor trailer would pass and rock the rig. I grabbed my tools from the front storage- a breaker bar, deep socket and extension, and a 12ton bottle jack. With the tire blown the bottle jack wouldn’t fit. I keep scrap wood pieces in the bed of my truck, so I placed in front of the blown up tire and told my wife to tell me when to stop when the wheel was centered on wood. This gave me just enough clearance for the bottle jack. She kept a cool head throughout and reminded me to set up our safety cones and torque everything and install the tpms monitor on the spare. Lessons learned- be prepared for the unexpected, have the tools necessary to get you home or a safe location. So now we’re looking for 6 new tires for our rig. I want two spares in the future. Leaning towards the sailun 637’s. I’ll have to fabricate a second spare tire mount for the rear hitch and a new frame mount that was destroyed from the blowout.

My Alpine had the HiSpec tires on it. They are 8 months old and I had all 5 (including the spare) of them replaced with the Carlisle CSL16 a 14 ply 110psi tire. They had good reviews. I bought them from Discount Tire at about 230 a tire plus mounting and road hazard. I also installed a TST tmps system at the same time.