Limp Home on a Single if Dual Fails!?

[tireman9]

I have read a few posts both here at FMCA as well as on other RV forum sites when the topic of what to do when a tire fails and you don't have a spare. Many times it has been suggested that the person plans on "limping" home or to the tire service center with just one tire in the dual position of their RV.

While on the surface this might seem to be a reasonable approach, there are a few things that need to be considered.

First, unless you have a TPMS that warned you that one of your duals was loosing air, in all probability you have no idea how long you drove with one dual underinflated. If you don't know when the tire started to loose you also have no idea at what speed you drove on one underinflated tire and also on one overloaded tire.

If a tire looses more than 20% of its air it is considered to be "Run- Flat" by tire industry

If you have driven on a "flat" tire it is considered to have been damaged and should not be considered for future safe usage.

What is not obvious when you read the above is that is one tire of a dual goes flat the mate has now been overloaded. I covered some of the info in a post on the Special Considerations for Duals, but there is more that needs to be considered.

If you have one tire punctured and loosing air the mate is "taking up" the load for both tires until it is 100% overloaded. Driving at highway speed will do serious internal structural damage. Most of which cannot be seen with out special equipment like X-Ray so it is simply considered scrap so now you need to replace two tires.

Trying to "limp" means that you need to reduce your speed and according to the special tables in Tire & Rim Association for adjustments for speed, inflation and load your limp speed is not 30mph or 20 mph or even 10 mph but it is limited to 2 mph. That is TWO miles per hour Maximum. Any more and you are damaging your tire beyond repair.

The solution would be to call for service. I would only drive on a single tire for a hundred yards at most to get to a location where I could safely pull off the roadway.

[danddferr]

I agree. Drive a few hundred feet not an issue. Drive at normal speed is asking for a NIGHTMARE.

Dan

[bizsmith@yahoo.com]

A nightmare besides being stupid.

[danddferr]

Should have mentioned that as soon as you get it to a safe place put the jacks down to take pressure off of that lone dual.

Dan

[RVerOnTheMove]

If I am in the middle of nowhere I am going to drive the coach to the middle of somewhere on the one tire. If that means I have to replace both tires when I get there, that's OK with me. Y(tire)MMV!

[bizsmith@yahoo.com]

If you're in the middle of nowhere a service like CoachNet (or equal) can send someone to you. It has happened to me twice.

[RVerOnTheMove]

If I they had such a tire, you are right. It's more likely that a road service is not going to have a Michelin 12R22.5 so I will limp to somewhere even if it's only a campground where I can wait while a tire can be found. If you carry a spare (mounted or not) this would be less of a problem.

[bizsmith@yahoo.com]

The road service such as CoachNet does not have tires but they do a search for you to find someone who does and dispatch someone to help.

[donaldacerasi]

great reading !!!!!!!!!

[tquin]

Had it happen in WV and limpted (5 mph) to a RV park and had to wait a weekend and decided to replace all 4 rears because they were the same age.

[rhfickling]

So if you limp only a few hundred feet to a safe spot, is it safe to assume that the mate to the punctured tire is safe to use? Should it be dismounted and professionally examined? I guess this is probably an issue each of us should decide for himself.

[RVerOnTheMove]

You can "limp" as far as you like at 5 MPH. If you go a few hundred yards, I don't care what speed you are traveling, your second tire is still fine.

You certainly can decide for yourself but no "inspection" after that amount of travel will give you any usable information.

I "drove" something close to 50 miles on 1 tire. The tires had 80,000 miles on them anyway so I had no concerns about the end result as I was going to replace them all anyway.

[kcsikorafmca]

There's not always cell phone service when you get that tire puncture.

We limped in from Death Valley, had a great tire man in Pahrump change to the spare and we went on to Vegas. Never had any problem with the other tires. Replaced them all after 7 years, just for safety.

Warning: To avoid punctures, avoid turning around on a dirt road with a high berm. The rocks in the berm punctured the sidewall. It was our first trip out, and nowhere else to turn around...Now we know better.

Also, lots of RV'ers in the desert get punctures by driving over creosote bushes. Again, not a big bush, but the little branches puncture sidewalls....No, we didn't do that, we learned from watching others several times...

[TomLorraine]

Using Good Sam Roadside Assistance is useless unless you have a spare or want to be towed. Good Sam refuses to dispatch a tire service for repair. Personal experience on this one.

[QuiGonJohn]

How is Coach Net on roadside Tire Repair Services?. I have emergency service through Better World Club, (got it last summer, did not have an RV then so could not go with Coach Net). I had been with AAA for many years, but the cost just kept going up to much. I was planning to switch from BWC to CoachNet when it expires next month, so was wondering how their service is.