30 Nov

Blowing Our first Tire

5/20/2019

Update 1 year+ later. The tires were great and have not had any issues since.

11/30/2017

So about 1/2 mile from Goose Creek RV after our ferry trip out of the OBX we blow a tire on the car, the rear driver side tire. It was about our 3000th mile towing and I was so grateful that it happened how and where it happened.

First it wasn't a big deal and didn't cause any other damage to the car or the trailer. I have seen blowouts that have caused all kinds of problems and I was worried what it would be like when it happened. Second, I had a full-size center median that I could pull into and a perfect little road about 100 ft. from where I blew the tire I could pull the car down and change the tire. Third, a super nice guy named Randy stopped and helped me change the tire. Sure I could have done it myself but it was so much easier with his help, I was incredible grateful.

We now have a couple of choices. We could repair the tire but because of the amount of weight we are towing that was not a good idea. We could just replace the tire with what we currently have in place. Not a bad choice. But that would leave one tire with 30,000 miles of tread used and the other one band new. Or lastly we could upgrade the tires to ten ply 123T tires. This was our choice. Because of the weight we are pulling I wanted to beef up the tires a bit. It will make the ride a little smoother and hopefully lessen the sway of the trailer. Unfortunately this is a more expensive choice. We chose a highly rated Firestone Transforce HT.

First I called a Firestone dealer and ordered just two tires, we could only afford two tires at this point. Unfortunately the Firestone dealer I ordered them from was on a closed Marine base, Camp Lejume. So I went to have the tires installed, long story short, I couldn't get on the base to get the work done.

Take two, driving home from my failed attempt I found a tire dealer just down the street from our campsite and it was almost 25% cheaper. So we were able to get the two rear tires upgraded to stronger tires. Hopefully this will be money well spent.

Update after 2 months

It has now been 2 months since we changed the back tire and we have also changed the front two tires also. I don't think changing the back tires to 10ply tires affected the drive. It doesn't ride any rougher or smoother and it didn't reduce the sway at all. Hopefully all four tires will last another 50,000 miles but my hopes are low.