Keeping An Eye On RV Wheels And Tires

Do you know what is one the most important things on your RV that needs to be checked frequently? It is your RV’s wheels and tires. I found just how important it is a few days before writing this post.

The day before we set out to travel I try to check out and cleanup The Tin Can in preparation for the road. Doing things like cleaning off the top of the trailer and slide. Maybe put a little grease on the stabilizer jacks and suspension. Check the fluids in the truck. And check the tire pressure and if I’m really feeling cautious check the lug nuts.

Air Pressure Is Critical

It is very important to keep your tires at the correct pressure. Say your tire is rated for a maximum load capacity of 2,800 lbs. And it also has a maximum air pressure of 80 psi. Well for that tire to be able to handle the maximum load capacity, it must be inflated to the max 80 psi. For this reason you need to be sure and check the maximum air pressure for your tires. And keep them very close to that rating. I usually like to keep my tires a few psi under the maximum. The reason is that while on the highway the tires will warm up which will increase the pressure in them. Inflating them a little low prevents them from becoming over inflated down the road.

Tire Age And Tread Wear

Another important thing to look for on your RV trailer tires is the date of manufacturing. There is a 4 digit code on the sidewall of the tire somewhere after DOT. The first 2 digits of the code is the week it was manufactured and the last 2 are the year. You want to replace any trailer tire that is 5 years old or older.

While examining the date and air pressure on your tires. Check for dry rotting and cracking on the sidewalls and for tread wear. Look for uneven tread wear which may indicate a problem with your tire pressure or other problems with your trailer. Tread wear depth can be checked with a penny. It is commonly referred to as the Lincoln test. You hold a penny upside down between the treads of the tire. If you can see the top of Lincoln’s head, you need to replace your tires.

Are The Lugs Tight?

It is also a good idea to check the lug nuts on your wheel on both your RV and tow or towed vehicles. This is especially true if the wheel has been recently installed. Sill it’s a good idea to check before a trip. When you check or tighten lug nuts you only tighten them about a quarter of a turn at a time. And also you need to tighten them in a even pattern. On a 5 lug wheel you want to keep skipping one lug working in a clockwise direction until you have tightened all the lugs and then check them all again. On wheel with 6 lugs or more you use a criss-cross pattern.

A Lesson On NOT Checking The Above

All this precaution about your RV trailer wheels and tires leads to my story. So, just days before writing this article we were traveling. We had left our previous park just before 11:00 AM and I had checked tire pressure. But I had NOT checked my lug nuts. Well, we had been traveling about 3 hours and were about another hour from our destination.

What’s That Sound

I started hearing a flapping noise. We travel with quite a bit of stuff in the bed of our truck. Angelica and I both looked back and could see a tie strap flapping in the wind. But it didn’t seem to be in sync with what I was hearing. We also have an enormous fan that I could see turning a little. So I thought maybe something was being hit by the fan blade. No big deal. But at the same time I did notice it seemed louder when changing lanes. Still I figured it was nothing. Dun dun dunn…

Do You Feel Something?

Shortly after that I thought we had picked up a vibration. Well again, Angelica and I have noticed that our truck has been shaking a little. It is overdue for a wheel alignment and tire rotation. So, I just figured that I had just started paying more attention to that all of a sudden. I always tend to worry about things especially when traveling. And tend to pay a lot of attention to minor things. There again I figured it was just the truck and kept on traveling.

Uh Oh!

Here we are traveling down the interstate at around 65 MPH. We are getting close to our destination and its still daylight. Well I look in my sideview mirror and all of a sudden I see one of our left side trailer wheels come off! It was scary, watching that wheel cross 2 lanes of traffic on the interstate. I told Angelica “We just lost and wheel”. She was asking if I meant we had blown a tire or lost a whole wheel. I was like, “No the whole wheel!”.

Fortunately there was a dividing wall between the north and southbound lanes. The wheel made it safely to the dividing wall and continued on against the wall until it stopped. In the meantime we pulled onto the emergency lane and safely stopped. We got to watch our wheel pass us and stop a short distance later. The scary part was over!

Examine The Damage

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I jumped out and ran a few hundred feet down the road and was able to cross and get the wheel. The holes for the lugs were all wallowed out. The tire was okay but the wheel was trash. I then examined the trailer axle and all 5 lug studs were sheared off. There was no fixing this on the side of the road. Not that I ever want to work on the left side of a vehicle in the emergency lane of the interstate. It appears that the somehow the lug nuts had come loose, how, I’m not sure. So when they came loose the wheel had started wobbling and eventually sheared off the lug studs. It is possible there may have been a bearing problem. The hub was pretty warm and the dust cap was missing. But who knows.

Limping Off The Road

We loaded the tire up and got back in the truck and limped on to the next exit. I only drove around 5 MPH during this and we had about 2 miles to the next exit. The next exit was pretty rural but had a gas station with big store at it. So there was a large parking lot that gave plenty of room get our problem sorted out.

Getting Back On The Road

Since all the lug studs were sheered off the axle hub I figured the easiest fix would be to replace the whole hub. Many times you can buy axle hubs complete with the bearings installed and greased. They will even have the lug nuts, dust caps, and other parts included. So, I called around to some auto part stores ahead of us and found a hub. It wasn’t a hub with a brake drum, but it was a complete hub. With only being a short distance from our destination and traveling on flat terrain, it would work.

Installing The Hub

We made it to the station and I unhooked the trailer and left Angelica and the kids to get a new hub. The auto parts store was only about 3 exits down the road so it didn’t take long. When I made it back with the new hub it was dark though, and the parking lot we were in was not lit. I pointed the front of the truck at the axle so I could use the headlights. Angelica also helped out with the light on her phone. The good thing about the hubs with the preinstalled bearings is that you can have them installed in about a minute. I just wiped the axle spindle clean, slid on the new hub, put the nut and washers on, adjusted the bearing and was done. It took me WAY longer to get the dang dust cap on then anything else.

The Dry Rotted Spare

The last thing to do was to install the spare tire. As I mentioned the wheel that came off was unusable. Of course our spare tire is probably 10 years old and was quite dry rotted. It was all we had though, so I put it on and of course had to air it up. It’s a good thing I have an air compressor. The station we were at did not have air and had actually closed by the time I had everything together. I was able to plug in the compressor at the store’s outside electrical outlet. Aired up the tire and we were on our way again! With that dry rotted spare though, I only drove around 45 MPH.

We made it to our destination about 11:00 PM. Not too bad with what had gone on! The important thing is that we made it safely. No one was hurt and there really wasn’t much damage. I am going to replace the axles anyway. Upgrading from 3,500 lbs. to 5,200 lbs. axles. After that upgrade The Tin Can should be able the handle the highway like a champ!

Lessons

Y’all don’t be like I was this trip! Be sure to keep check on your tires and wheels. And if you hear or feel something unusual stop and check it out! Things can get really bad in a heartbeat. Stay safe out there!

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