how to tell when you need new tires on the tow vehicles

i went over to my workplace yesterday morning and checked all my tires on the trailer and the truck. brought all the tires air up to specs. i left at about noon for the track. 1 hour and 20 minute dr. got 40 miles, was doing 75, right next to a semi, when my left rear tire blew. i pulled over. looked at the tire and damage to the truck bed. looked at the trailer and 2 tires had lost all their tread too. called the wife, told her to head my way. 40 miles. i changed the spare on the truck, put the spare on the trailer and raised the other side. the wife took the truck and 2 trailer tires to big O. i sat on the side of the road until she got back. i had her buy their best 4 truck tires and 4 trailer tires and tell them i'd be in on monday for the rest of them. got to the track after 5. made a time run. looked at the motor and said " there used to be a belt on that alternator". went to the first round and RED lit. aaagh!! loaded up, went home. drove about 40 miles and blew the other rear tire at 55 mph. ripped out a few pieces on that side also. gonna be hard to explain to the insurance company. only had 21k on the tires.

 

Dang, Don, why did they all blow like that? Dry rot? I know heat is a tires worst enemy, but something is not right there. At 40 miles they shouldn't have been hot enough to blow unless they were bad underinflated or overloaded, and you said you checked them before you left. 21k on tires is no mileage at all, were they Goodyear's? I've never worn out a Goodyear tire, they always blow at about half tread for me. That's why I switched to BF Goodrich or Firestone, never had a problem with either.....

 

Sheesh!!!...

 

You sure had some bad luck.

 

Sorry to hear than Don. I got 68k out of the factory tires on my 03 F250 with frequent 10k pound towing. What pressures are you running on your tires on your truck. May also want to have the trailer axle alignment checked and were the tires on the trailer sized and rated correctly.

 

Good Grief Don...what a day...I'm with Allen...somethins up to wear em out that qwik

 

dang!
That sounds like a very trying day!

 

Don, did you by chance have that eerie feeling you weren't supposed to leave home yesterday?

 

Dang! 'Sounds like you're deserved of the Tough Luck award.

 

Did they separate? I have an '00 f-250 and I seem to be unable to get more than 30k out of a set before one begins to separate. Of course, there is no sense in replacing just one tire when the other 3 are half worn out by that point. My truck has 71k on it and I am on my 3rd set of tires.

 

A while back I bought a new tire chuck and gauge combo.
The kind that looks a little like a gun with the trigger and a gauge sticking out the top.
I aired up the tires on a truck to spec using the new gauge.
Soon after the treads separated and the tires blew out one by one.
I kept them up with that air gun until the 3rd tire blew out.

I bought a new tire gun, different brand, and checked the air pressure...
The 'new' one I was using when tires were exploding left and right was apparently reading 15lbs too low.
Instead of putting 80 psi, I was putting 95 psi.
The longest lived tire of that bunch got 9k miles.

Edit: FWIW the faulty $14 air gun that cost me $500 in tires was a Campbell-Hausfield unit. Just thought I'd repay them with a 'plug'!

 

So what kind of tires were they??...

 

Are you asking me or Don?

 

mine on the truck were generals. they came on it new. the tire on the trailer were, i think, towmax. they were the original trailer tires. both units would be 3 years old in september. i'm putting new 10 plys on. and the truck tires are from Big O.

 

Were the old tires 10 ply? (Load Range E)

That's all I run...