tire blowout on dolly

TheHollands! · August 08, 2012, 08:14:52 AM

DAy two of my latest trip and had another hiccup. Driving into Minnesota a tire went down on my dolly and shredded, dragged along the pavement for a bit, tore up the rim pretty bad. I never felt a thing up front, saw the smoke in the mirror as the wheel was catching fire. Was able to get off the road fine and change the tire out. Really have no idea whats going on back there with these rigs. A camera for the back is on the to do list now. Heres to looking forward to smooth sailing from here out. Craig

Oonrahnjay · August 08, 2012, 08:30:14 AM

Yep, nice and easy from now on. Good luck!

scanzel · August 08, 2012, 11:07:27 AM

Those back camera's come in very hamdy. I remember someone on this board forgot to put his Jeep in neutral and dragged the Jeep down the road damaging all four tires.These buses with diesel power can pull something locked up without even a slight feeling of drag. Get that camera ASAP.

Fredward · August 08, 2012, 12:07:28 PM

Yah we do a lot of dollying. And even with a rear view camera I sometimes wonder if I'll be able to see a rear tire failure on the car. Its pretty far back there! Interestingly, my dolly has a sloppy wheel bearing. Havn't taken the time to check that out but its a sealed bearing; not serviceable near as I can tell.
Fred
P.S. Welcome to MinneSnowta !

Lin · August 08, 2012, 12:36:23 PM

This is what tire pressure monitors are about.

goutoe · August 08, 2012, 05:57:14 PM

Rear cameras and monitors are getting cheaper by the day, I agree with the other guys, tire pressure monitors and cameras are a necessity and easy to install

Rda848 · August 08, 2012, 06:16:33 PM

I saw the other day some place had the 4 camera system on sale, but I can't remember where right now. I believe in the cameras and i am going to add a few to my system. On yours maybe you can use a hole saw and open a hole from the back bay and cover it with plexiglass and sealer and add cameras there so you can see what is going on while on the road, cams will not get to dirty. I am going to add one for engine area, and genset area. I hope this will be food for thought.

Roger

belfert · August 08, 2012, 08:20:41 PM

If you have your rear camera set for backing up you won't see much of your trailer or toad. I had my camera set higher so I can see my trailer, but I can hardly see any of the trailer anyhow. The only thing the camera might see is if the trailer started on fire. I had a much smaller trailer and we did catch problems twice on that trailer. Once a strap came loose, and the other time something got wedged between the trailer and the tire causing smoke and nearly burning through the tire.

RJ · August 08, 2012, 09:06:54 PM

Craig -

Was just in a Pep Boys auto parts store the other day, and noticed that they have wireless back up camera kits right next to the GPS units.

Probably available at AutoZone and/or O'Reiley's, too. Price has really come down - much cheaper than damage from a blown tire!

If you ONP at a WalMart - take a look in the automotive dept.

FWIW & HTH. . .

TheHollands! · August 09, 2012, 09:59:02 AM

I'm going to look into this camera idea asap. Thanks for the leads. Parked in St Joseph, MN, $5 suggested donation for a 20amp hookup in the local city park. Heading up north of the state in the next few days.
Craig

rv_safetyman · August 09, 2012, 11:27:12 AM

Just an FYI. Tow dolly tires can require some pretty high pressures.

I have what I consider to be a quality tow dolly ( Acme: http://cartowdolly.com/?gclid=COzt_9-S27ECFcXBKgodbRcAow).

By their very nature, two dollies need to have small diameter tires. Mine has 205/65-10 10 ply rated tires and require 90 PSI.

Because they are small and rotate at high RPM, the margin for error on air pressure is pretty small.

Jim