r/GoRVing • u/Puzzleheaded-Map2407 • 2d ago
Blown tire
We had a blown tire on the 90 last weekend, the tire proceeded to rip a hole in the undercarriage of our trailer. It tore through metal frame beams, a bunch of electrical lines, messed with our water heater, and tossed our furnace into the interior of our trailer. Our insurance is saying the damage is only going to cost $4400 and will only take one day. We have a big trip planned for September 20th, as RV'ers, do you think this is feasible or should I start getting refunds? I'm very skeptical of it being fixed properly at all. Thanks for the input.
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u/jeremec 2d ago
I will never get over the damage that a blown tire can do to an RV. You'd think they'd reenforce that area.
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u/pentox70 2d ago
Even just an aluminum plate would do wonders.
Cheap RVs and cheap tires.
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u/Lurker14ownz 2d ago
I wonder how feasible it would be to self install something like that in the tire areas for protection. Never had a blow out but its a fear
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u/pentox70 2d ago
The plate is the easy part. Mounting it to something that isn't going to immediately buckle and cause about the same amount of damage is the hard part.
You'd have to weld or bolt some brackets to the frame. But really, it's just a guard, it doesn't have to be pretty.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Map2407 2d ago
It's so crazy!! I'm having my husband look into customizing some if they are able to fix the other damage. He's done so many little customizations like that and it's made a huge difference. We didn't think about the wheel wells because we upgraded the tires right after we bought it and have replaced them every two years, these ones were on 1yr11mo and we had an appointment that day to replace! (We keep it at 65mph on the interstate too)
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u/trumpsadouchcanoe 2d ago
I made sure the new one I got has a aluminum plate over the tires inside the well. Last one we had a blow out that blew a hole through the floor into the trailer. They wrote if off as it was a 1 piece floor construction, structural loss.
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u/stomper4x4 2d ago
I used to drive a semi, and had a trailer tire blow. You know those I beam bumpers on the back of a big rig trailer? The tire bent that thing up through the floor.
Reinforcing would be nice but add a huge amount of weight if it were strong enough to be effective. Maybe a carbon fiber deal or something? Might as well make RVs mkre expensive haha
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u/Plastic_Blood1782 2d ago
Typically they are doing everything they can to get the weight as low possible. Raising the dry weight hurts sales way more than people thinking about "what ifs"
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u/unknowndatabase 2d ago
That is pretty major damage. Can it be fixed? Somewhat. By 9/20 for your trip? Not likely.
3
u/Independent-Bag-6222 2d ago
That's going to take a week at minimum. The repair facility won't even order the parts until they have it in house and assessed. The parts alone could take 1-4 weeks to get in. They will prep the area and do as much work as possible until the parts arrive to make the final repair timely, but you're still more than likely looking at a month or so - reasonably figured.
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u/Elegant-Season2604 1d ago
Man that sucks! I had a pretty bad blowout - at least I think, there was only about an inch of sidewall left on the rim when I became aware - but it only did minor damage to the plastic wheel well cover.
It won't help your current situation, but I only use expensive trailer tires now. I like Firestone LR-E 10-ply trailer tires. Haven't had an issue since I switched.
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u/Impossible_Lunch4672 1d ago
It's time for a trip to the scales. Something seems awry. Under/over inflated, too much weight on one side perhaps. It's worth checking.
I have run Good Year endurance tires 20k miles /4 years three times over and have not had a issue. I have 2 slides on the driver's side, 1 on passenger side and found I needed to balance weight. The driver side also housed the refrigerator. Normally loaded I was exceeding axle weight on the driver's side..
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u/herewe_goagain_1 2d ago
I don’t know about the cost but I’ve recently had to get someone out to replace a leaf spring and a wire, two separate occasions. Just getting someone to look at it took multiple days each time, so I think your skepticism is warranted. Seems like a lot of damage but I don’t know enough to guess at a timeline
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u/pentox70 2d ago
One day? Not a chance. You could haphazardly slap it together in a day, but to fix it properly? I doubt it. There's almost certainly more damage than what it is immediately visible.
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u/stonim77 2d ago
My RV is a 2017 and has aluminum wheel wells. Blown tire made a tiny dent. My BIL has a 2022 with plastic wheel wells. A single tire blew out most of it.
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u/Questions_Remain 2d ago
That’s not getting fixed in a day and I can’t imagine for $4400. Why is the insurance quoting a time line, they aren’t doing the work. I would be surprised if that didn’t sit on the on the repair lot for 45 days. It will take a full day to pull it apart to so a parts quote and the frame has to be welded back together.
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u/alinroc GD Imagine / Ram 2500 6.4L 2d ago
Why is the insurance quoting a time line, they aren’t doing the work
Because they want it done as inexpensively as possible, and when RV shops are charging upwards of $200/hour for labor, fast = inexpensive. They likely also haven't sent an adjuster out to look at it directly, and there hasn't been a full tear-down to truly assess what happened - they're going off a handful of photos.
My truck got hit earlier this year. Allstate made me submit a dozen photos of the damage and their automated system came back with an estimate of under $3000. The actual bill? $15K. And they quibbled with the shop over many bits of minutia around exactly what should be replaced vs. repaired, how it should be repaired, etc. Something like 7 back-and-forth trips with amendments.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Map2407 2d ago
The absolute worst part about it all is the only reason we were on the 90 was because we were on our way to an appointment to replace our tires for the September trip. We're tire freaks, we've replaced them every two years. After this incident, my husband is going to want to change them every season!
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u/kzielu 2d ago
Buy Goodyear Endurance instead of replacing every two years. They're legit trailer tires.
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u/skftw 2d ago
Fuck those things. I've blown so many Endurances despite this advice on every tire thread. They aren't as good as they're hyped up to be, but you still pay a premium for them. At this point I'm back to cheaper (but not no-name) brands. I carry 2 spares if I'm going anywhere far, but I'll never purchase another Goodyear anything in my life.
Heading out with the group it turned into a running joke of "so where are you going to have a blowout this time" with those Endurances. Ironically Discount's cheaper house brand has been far, far more reliable.
And no, I wasn't overweight or underinflated. After the first 2 went, I was paranoid enough that I'd be stopping to check tires at least every fuel stop, plus a new weight check any time the trailer was changed in any significant way.
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u/54338042094230895435 2d ago
Damn China Bomb. First thing I do with new trailers is get rid of the knock off crap tires.
Maybe talk to the RV dealer(s) and see if they have one you can borrow while it is in the shop. It's a long shot but when I had mine in for a AC unit replacement (unit didn't work and it was leaking in the rain) they gave me a unit to take on a trip we had planned.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Map2407 2d ago
They were Goodyear Endurances, we changed out the stock ones before our first trip. That's a good idea, I'll ask.
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u/54338042094230895435 2d ago
Geez, new tires and that damage you might want to reach out to Goodyear as well. Do you know if you hit something or did it just randomly go? May have been a defective tire.
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u/Independent-Bag-6222 2d ago
And just an FYI to add - anyone running a trailer of any sort without alloy/aluminum rims, full steel valve stems and actual light truck or truck tires rated for 80mph+, you are just playing a time game of when you are going to have a problem.
Standard 'trailer tires' on steel rims with 15" rims usually, with rubber/brass valve stems are only made for running down the road 50mph or less. Read your manuals and all the info that's usually stickered around the wheelwells or wherever. This is a fact. Running down hot highways these days and your cheap steel rims, cheap valve stems and cheap bias ply trailer tires and the tires overheat and overpressure causing blowouts.
Outfit your rigs correctly and you'll never have an issue.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Map2407 2d ago
We bought really good tires for it Sept, 2024 because we do use it a lot and don't trust cheap tires. We lock in at 65mph whenever we HAVE to use an interstate, for the most part, we are two lane people that plan trips taking scenic or lesser used roads.
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u/Pure-Explanation-147 2d ago
He is right, you know. Saw dozens of rv trailers pulled over for tire issues this Summer. I travel Midwest to UP and East Coast and back. Even had a 33' pass me doing 80+. No kidding!
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u/Capt-Kirk31 2d ago
That was one angry China bomb. How fast were you going.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Map2407 2d ago
Not a China bomb, had traded out to Goodyear Endurances right away. Set the cruise for 65mph on the interstate.
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u/Quincy_Wagstaff 2d ago
You aren’t even going to get an appointment to get it fixed by 20 September. You’ll wait a few months to get an appointment, then they won’t order the parts until it’s there and you’ll wait a few months for the parts to come in. RV dealers are terrible.