Members Experience Tire Blow Outs

Two Dogwood members recently experienced blowouts in their coaches.  Donald and Anke Longest were on their way to Perry and Carl and Donna Gruel were returning home from Perry.  Fortunately everyone is ok and the coaches can be repaired.  Thanks to Carl Gruel who describes his experience below:

Donna & I experienced a blowout of the left-front coach tire at 65 MPH while northbound on I295, about 4 miles North of the Varina Bridge about 10:45am Tuesday, 22 March 2011.  I had taken the RV Safety seminar at Perry where the seminar leader covered that it was IMPORTANT to "keep on the gas pedal for a count of three" if you experience a blowout, in order to let the coach stabilize, then steer as straight as possible, brake lightly and get over in traffic to the roadside and stop.  I did these 'not-so-easy' steps and let the coach go over to the inside shoulder (paved in that stretch of I295), got out of the travel lanes and stopped.  The tire was shredded, and a 6 foot length of separated tread was still in the travel lane about 1/2 way from where the blowout happened to where we got stopped.  There was nothing in the roadway that we "hit", no chuckhole, nothing.  There was no warning, no feeling of the tire going "mushy", nothing.  Just your everyday, unexpected, out-of-the-blue blowout at speed on the roadway.

Once we were stopped, Donna got out the RV Insurance folder and called GMAC, who called the on-the-road assistance local to the area who dispatched a service truck from Ashburn, VA (about 25 miles away).  My RV carries a spare, so when the service guy arrived about 1 hour later, we used the RV stabilizer jacks to lift the RV, he got the spare out from underneath the back, and mounted it on the front wheel, then hung the rim with shredded tire back underneath the back.  His truck had a gasoline driven air compressor onboard, and he had a heavy-duty air-driven air gun to get the lugnuts off and on - they are so tightly on that there is not any way a single person with a hand wrench can loosen them!  So, about 2-1/2 hours later, we were back on our way home.

I have since replaced all 6 tires with 2010-year manufactured tires - the one that failed had been manufactured in 2003, so they were 8 years old when it failed.  The coach is a 2005 model, so I had planned on replacing the tires for age this summer- so replacement happened for cause a few months earlier than planned!

Damage to the coach is a broken fiberglass fender where the flailing tire broke sections out, and a damaged basement door (the front one on that side) - where the separated tread hit the door before it left the coach.  Repairs are underway - Winnebago had to manufacture the panel and door, and Bill's Auto body shop in Lively is OK'd by GMAC to do the repairs for $2,900 plus my $250 deductible.  Several club members viewed the Duct-taped damage at Fort Monroe as repairs are not yet completed.  But, we're still operational!!!

Another note of possible interest to the club:  I got out the roadside flares I carry in the RV, and lit 3 and spaced them on the roadside and into the high-speed travel lane, and separated about 100 feet apart upstream toward the oncoming traffic to warn the oncoming traffic that I was just out of the high-speed travel lane and broken-down.  After about 1 hour, a state policeman came up, told me NOT to use flares, and for Donna and I to get ourselves into the median at the side of the RV "for safety".  We did so: he left.  This stretch of road is a 70MPH limit area, and 80% of traffic went by us at speed, without slowing down or moving into the center lane.  I was surprised at how many failed to move over as I always try to move over and not pass a stopped vehicle while at speed - as you can imagine, the coach rocked strongly every time a large vehicle or van passed.  Lesson to take away: don't get flares out, and get out of the vehicle and into 'safety' in the median or shoulder at the side of your vehicle!

Carl