It Sounded Like a Gunshot!
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| The Front Flat Tire After It Zippered and Blew Out |
I had been driving for an hour and decided to stop at a Rest Area to fix lunch. Jon went out to check the tires and found the front driver's side tire almost flat. He got out his air compressor and began pumping it back up.
Suddenly, from inside the motorhome, I heard an extremely loud POP and knew immediately that the tire had blown. I threw open the RV door and ran around to the driver's side to check on Jon. He was standing next to the rig with a dazed look on his face. Two guys from parked semi trucks came running over to see if everything was okay. They said when they heard the explosive sound, they knew immediately that a truck tire had blown.
Here's the scary part: The truckers said that Jon could have easily been killed when this tire exploded.
What saved Jon's life: While Jon was squatting next to the tire, inflating it, he started to hear a hissing sound that turned to a hum, and then into a whine. Thank you, God, he had his hearing aids in his ears so he could hear the sound start! He knew something wasn't right, so he started to stand up and move away. That's when the tire blew, blasting Jon in the ribs, causing bruising and soreness, but thankfully, no damaged organs or broken bones.
#1 Lesson Learned: When you drive on large truck or RV tire that is very low, it ruins the tire. It may look okay, but it's not--it's severely damaged and weakened. In this case, the sidewall was ruined and adding air caused it to blow out through the weakened sidewall. We now know that after driving on an RV tire that was extremely low, we should have had the tire changed, not tried to inflate it and continue running on it.
#2 Lesson Learned: Carry a spare RV tire when traveling, especially in Mexico. Jon has always made sure we had a spare tire mounted on the back of our motorhome in front of the bike rack. This is the second time we have had a flat tire and were glad we had a spare with us. The first time was in a remote area of Mexico and Jon was able to change it himself. This time was at a Rest Area and a tire repair company sent a service man to change the tire for us on the spot, saving us the inconvenience of trying to locate a matching tire while we were stranded. The service man also told Jon he was lucky he wasn't killed when the tire blew. He had seen a training video showing a truck tire blowout compressing a 55 gallon drum!
#3 Lesson Learned: Don't drive on a tire that has been damaged by driving on it while it was almost flat and then inflated again. Even if the tire would have held air, it probably would have blown out when we started driving on it again.
Jon was surprised I couldn't tell that I was driving on an almost-flat tire for so long. We finally decided that I couldn't feel it because we have an after-market heavy-duty steering stabilizer installed on our motorhome. I'm sure glad we didn't have to put that stabilizer to the test handling a blowout while driving down the road at 55 mph!
Edited 9/26/17: We just purchased an EEZTire Pressure Monitoring System from Amazon and Jon installed it. We are ready to hit the road for Mexico now, feeling more at ease while driving.
To read more about our adventures, check out my "Healthy Living and Traveling in Mexico" eBooks available on Amazon.
Suddenly, from inside the motorhome, I heard an extremely loud POP and knew immediately that the tire had blown. I threw open the RV door and ran around to the driver's side to check on Jon. He was standing next to the rig with a dazed look on his face. Two guys from parked semi trucks came running over to see if everything was okay. They said when they heard the explosive sound, they knew immediately that a truck tire had blown.
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| The Tire After it "Zippered" |
Here's the scary part: The truckers said that Jon could have easily been killed when this tire exploded.
What saved Jon's life: While Jon was squatting next to the tire, inflating it, he started to hear a hissing sound that turned to a hum, and then into a whine. Thank you, God, he had his hearing aids in his ears so he could hear the sound start! He knew something wasn't right, so he started to stand up and move away. That's when the tire blew, blasting Jon in the ribs, causing bruising and soreness, but thankfully, no damaged organs or broken bones.
#1 Lesson Learned: When you drive on large truck or RV tire that is very low, it ruins the tire. It may look okay, but it's not--it's severely damaged and weakened. In this case, the sidewall was ruined and adding air caused it to blow out through the weakened sidewall. We now know that after driving on an RV tire that was extremely low, we should have had the tire changed, not tried to inflate it and continue running on it.
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| We Are Glad We Carry a Spare Tire on the Back of the RV |
#2 Lesson Learned: Carry a spare RV tire when traveling, especially in Mexico. Jon has always made sure we had a spare tire mounted on the back of our motorhome in front of the bike rack. This is the second time we have had a flat tire and were glad we had a spare with us. The first time was in a remote area of Mexico and Jon was able to change it himself. This time was at a Rest Area and a tire repair company sent a service man to change the tire for us on the spot, saving us the inconvenience of trying to locate a matching tire while we were stranded. The service man also told Jon he was lucky he wasn't killed when the tire blew. He had seen a training video showing a truck tire blowout compressing a 55 gallon drum!
#3 Lesson Learned: Don't drive on a tire that has been damaged by driving on it while it was almost flat and then inflated again. Even if the tire would have held air, it probably would have blown out when we started driving on it again.
Jon was surprised I couldn't tell that I was driving on an almost-flat tire for so long. We finally decided that I couldn't feel it because we have an after-market heavy-duty steering stabilizer installed on our motorhome. I'm sure glad we didn't have to put that stabilizer to the test handling a blowout while driving down the road at 55 mph!
Edited 9/26/17: We just purchased an EEZTire Pressure Monitoring System from Amazon and Jon installed it. We are ready to hit the road for Mexico now, feeling more at ease while driving.
To read more about our adventures, check out my "Healthy Living and Traveling in Mexico" eBooks available on Amazon.
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| Click HERE to View on Amazon |
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| Click HERE to View on Amazon |
So glad Jon is okay! Have you considered a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)? It would have alerted you to the low pressure issue ahead of time, though not prevented the blowout. We have the EEZ RV system and have been very happy with it. A blowout on the road is one of my biggest fears!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emily. We just purchased an EEZTire Tire Pressure Monitoring System from Amazon and plan to install it before we hit the road for Mexico. Thanks for reading my blog and for your helpful comment.
DeleteTerry
An Interesting comment from Julie: Hi Terry,
ReplyDeleteI'm so inspired by your blogs. One area you don't talk about is driving your motorhome through Mexico. I'm told conflicting stories...police stopping and needing to pay a bribe...etc. Can you speak to this?
Julie
My Reply: Hi Julie,
Thank you for reading my blogs and for your comments.
We have technically paid mordidas twice while driving in Mexico in the past twenty years. I wrote about both in detail in my book "Healthy Living and Traveling in Mexico", once in Puerto Vallarta and once in San Miguel de Allende. I view them as reduced traffic fines that expedited our travels without having to go to the police station to pay a ticket. One was for a real violation, one was questionable. Here is the link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Living-Traveling-Mexico-Sunshine-ebook/dp/B00R6NTBKO
Best Wishes,
Terry
Hi Terry. Blowout very scary and the good lord was with you both.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about that, Mom! Thanks for reading and commenting.
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ReplyDeleteIm glad you are ok! Could've easily gone wrong.
ReplyDeleteSo glad this worked out,
ReplyDelete