Valve Stems

The more I think about my two blowouts, the more I think the problem is valve stems.
I noticed that the valve stem on my spare (which had never been on the road) had failed when I tried to rotate it onto the road. The day before the ill fated Graceland trip, I had it replaced. I wish I had changed all 3.
After the first blowout I thought the valve stem was torn off by the tread.
After the second blowout I noticed that the valve stem was cracked just like the one on the spare.

A leaking valve stem will cause a blowout unless you check the pressure a lot.
Trailmanors are such a stable tow that you can't "feel" a low tire until it overheats and throws tread.

I checked the pressure 70 miles before the first blowout, and 200 miles before the second.

Could it be that that the major cause of blowouts is the stems not the tires?

Originally Posted by Alrhall

Could it be that that the major cause of blowouts is the stems not the tires?

I would think the possibility is there. Because the tires are isolated you never know if a tire is going down. If it goes down enough, it will either heat up and blow, or just run flat until someone flags you down, or you happen to look back and see rubber flying.

I (as well as several other forum members) have been running the Doran Pressure Pro tire pressure monitoring system (TMPS). If a tire goes down slow, I hopefully can get to it before it goes flat and causes any further problems. If it actually blows, I hope to get off the road before it starts throwing rubber and destroying things.

The TMPS is an extra little precautionary device that I think is well worth the money, and the extra peace of mind for me.

Chap

[wbmiller3]

My double blowout was due to road debris - hopefully an isolated incident!

[commodor47]

Originally Posted by Alrhall

. . . Could it be that that the major cause of blowouts is the stems not the tires?

Al,

You might be correct in assuming valve stem failure. I have installed steel valve stems on all three of my TM tires. I can think of two other possible contributing factors to a blowout: road hazzard (as stated by wbmiller3) and tire sidewall injury/damage from contacting the corner of cement pads (campgrounds) or curbing. Last year I cut a corner too short and the curb side tire took a good hit. I didn't trust that tire and had it replaced before our next outing. For the price of a new tire, safety and peace of mind is priceless.


Dick

Originally Posted by Alrhall

The more I think about my two blowouts, the more I think the problem is valve stems.
I noticed that the valve stem on my spare (which had never been on the road) had failed when I tried to rotate it onto the road. The day before the ill fated Graceland trip, I had it replaced. I wish I had changed all 3.
After the first blowout I thought the valve stem was torn off by the tread.
After the second blowout I noticed that the valve stem was cracked just like the one on the spare.

A leaking valve stem will cause a blowout unless you check the pressure a lot.
Trailmanors are such a stable tow that you can't "feel" a low tire until it overheats and throws tread.

I checked the pressure 70 miles before the first blowout, and 200 miles before the second.

Could it be that that the major cause of blowouts is the stems not the tires?

Howdy Alrhall, Tech just recalled a lot of tire valve stems due to premature cracking. I thought I had posted this info in another forum about the dangers of chinese made tire stems, but am touching on it again in case I didn't. Yes, faulty stems can be a cause of tires failing........along with many other causes.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/saf...alve-stem.html

FYI, when you read the article, the TR413 is the type stem our trailers come from the factory with.

[rpcoombs]

I have had only one blowout on the three year old OEM TM tires but when installing the OEM spare found it had a bad valve stem even given its unused state. When checking out the TM for this year's trip I found another valve stem failure. This suggests a serious quality control problem.

Cheers, Dick Coombs

Originally Posted by commodor47

Al,

You might be correct in assuming valve stem failure. I have installed steel valve stems on all three of my TM tires.
Dick

I forgot to add to my previous post, that I have also installed metal valve stems. In addition to the rubber stems probably having more failures, they would also bend under the additional weight of the Doran TMPS sensors due to centrifugal force at speed.

Chap