We had a Blowout on our Motorhome Steer Tire - Here's Our Story 

Another example of Eric and Tami passing on their knowledge and experience. They not only provide extensive education about tried and true products, they truly care about the education and safety of fellow RVers and live it out every chance they get. Two thumbs up from a customer for life.

Thanks Eric for sharing this and for the time and effort to get it inspected and passing on your knowledge to us.

Thank you for sharing! Glad you are all safe & sound! I was actually out installing my TST 507 that I got from TechnoRV when your email came out :-)

High Five! Thank you for all your information, so glad you were able to control your RV.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m glad you and Tami are safe.

Glad to here everyone is safe. Thank you for using this as a teaching moment. I could use more teachings on tire safety. Looking forward to the follow up video.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Glad you both are okay.

Thank you for posting this. SO glad you both are safe, and excellent job getting the situation under control and your RV to the side of the road. Your preparation and mindset kicked in and that's great to hear. Looking forward to the follow up to see if they can determine what happened to that tire.

Thankfully no one was hurt! Whew! Thanks for the video!

Great job, great reaction, and great idea to get those checked out and try to understand what happened. Thank you for sharing and reminding everyone how tire safety is personal safety.

Great job on getting it stopped safely, I'm glad you and Tami are safe and thanks for sharing your story! It's proof that proper preparation and education can affect the outcome of a potentially disastrous situation like this!

Oh my goodness! Looking forward to the results of their inspection. Glad you are both OK.

Good job on keeping control of your RV, I drove a commercial vehicle for 41 years and experienced a front tire blow out and they are no joke. Most of the time if you have a right front tire blow out it will pull to the left and visa versa with the left . The cause of most of these roll overs accidents is because when the tire blows peoples instincts is to hit the brakes and that’s is what causes the accident, so good job on throttling in to it.

Thank you for sharing your experience. This information will certainly help others who have a similar experience. Thankful for your safety.

Glad you all are safe and thank you for the video video.

Thanks so much for sharing! I think your first hand account is very important to help understand what to do and realize this can happen even when you do everything right.

great job staying safe, thanks for sharing, looking forward to the forensic info on the tire, thanks eric and tammy

Thank God you both are safe and appreciate you providing this info. We bought a TST from you last year it stays on each trip. Safe travels

Eric, so glad to hear you and your wife were not hurt. Thanks for this video. Glad to hear about how to respond to a blowout. I have your TST TPMS and love it, but your experience tells me I need to educate myself more on tire safety. Can't wait to hear what the investigation on your tire reveals. Thanks again.

Wow what an experience that I'm sure you never wanted to have happen. Looking forward to the results of what if anything they find when they look at that tire. Your experience and training kicked in.

Thank you. Glad you were both ok.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Learning to hit the gas is as important as pushing the stick forward on an engine failure in a plane.

Hanging on to the wheel is harder to do than you think in those situations , it's a tough fight just like you said. Luckily you were able to get it under control safely . Tire safety is incredibly important cause you ain't going anywhere without good tires. Well done, stay safe.

Great information and thanks for sharing. Glad everything turned out okay. Safe travels!

Love, love, love the can do attitude. Start diggin' ! And in the Evening!. Kudos from the Pacific Northwest.

Thank you for sharing Eric. I shared your video with our Central Coast California Airstream Club's Facebook Group.

Eric, I use my jacks on my fifth wheel too, Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Glad you two are safe.

You're a good man for putting this out to the public right away. I'm surprised every RV manufacturer doesn't automatically include a TPMS as standard equipment with every unit they build/sell. Thanks again for sharing this and very happy you're OK.

Glad everything turned out okay and you weren't hurt. A very well done, in depth, video. If you have any tips on handling a blowout on a towed trailer or towing vehicle, please consider making a video on that subject sometime in the future.

Thanks for sharing Eric, having a blowout is always in the back of my mind while traveling in the RV.

Sorry this happened to you. I love that you and your wife did a high 5 considering the situation, that is inspirational. I'm also happy to see this video just before my travel trailer comes in so I can keep this info in my head. I never would of thought to hit the gas (I would of taken my foot off the pedal and just not hit the brake) so this came just in time for me. Thank you.

We didnt have a blowout on our coach, but we did suffer tire damage on our tow vehicle that TireMinder alerted us to. Thanks for offering such a great product! TireMinder also gives great customer service and support after the sale!

Another good STORY, thanx

Glad all are safe. Our tpms just arrived today

Eric, I'm glad you and Tami are safe. Thanks for doing this video. It's very informative. When you hear back on the tire please send out info on what they find. My TST I bought from y'all defently gives me more piece of mind.

Thanks for sharing this...and offering to do a follow up with us. One takeaway for me is to retain control and decelerate the vehicle(s) first, clear the roadway at a slow speed second. Not all of us will have the same luck or skill to wrestle the RV successfully with both loss of a tire and asymmetrical tire resistance.

WOW! glad you guys are okay and thank you so much for sharing this with us. it just goes to show things happen regardless and we need to know what to do when it happens. again glad you'll are okay and thanks for the info.

Thanks for the sharing. Much appreciated

I learned something from the article & video. I knew better than to stomp on the brake after a blowout or tire problem but didn’t realize that it’s necessary to give it the gas to regain forward straight momentum. Makes sense though after thinking about it. Thanks for the information

Glad to see your ok, did a great job 😁

I am late to the game on tpms as I just ordered ours. Thank you for sharing your experience and I’m happy to hear it ended relatively well!

Your tenacity in getting that blown tire replaced even when it meant digging is why you're in a position to own such a vehicle. And then to send it off to have it inspected was impressive to me. Kudos !

Scary stuff Eric. Well done! 👍

I would say it's definitely the age of the tires in combination with the lack of use can't wait to see what the lab says good job on maintaining control it has happened to me more than once and pushing the pedal to the metal seems to be a good reflex

Eric, so relieved that neither you nor Tami were injured, and the damage to your Phaeton was minimal. Very scary. Our 2018 Allegro RED Michelin tires are from 2017. We are not full timers; we are on the road six months of every year. I think I need to exercise our tires more often in the winter when we're back at home in Florida. Thanks so much for sharing this experience with us.

Glad to hear all ended well. Stay Calm and RV On. Harry & Cathy

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. As a result, I’ll be much more cautious about our tires. It’s a bit scary knowing it happened to you even when take great care of your tires. I’ve been under the impression that a TPMS will alert if something is going wrong. This video helps me understand that in some cases a blowout is possible without any notice. I’ve been watching an outside rear tire because the temperature runs slightly warmer than the others. Thanks to your video I’ll look more closely at it and maybe change it out just because. Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you. I learned two things from this PSA, when on the open road, set your cruise control and activate the engine brake.

So glad the two of you were able to high 5 and share this with us. it sounds frightening. I change my tires out every 5 years, just did it even though they only crossed the country twice in the past year. I did a simple calculation some time ago. By changing the tires every 5 years versus every 7 years, I have bought just one extra set of tires in 20 years. The peace of mind is worth the cost of that set of tires.

Retroband is a must 👍🏼😁

Really good information and something I will keep in the back of my mind. I would really like to find out the results when you get it back. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing and so very glad y'all are ok! Looking forward to hearing if they can determine the root cause.

Wow! Glad you’re both safe.

Hi Eric: Thanks for the quick reply to my question about the shape of the rim after your blowout. That is s concern for me about the cost and potential hassles should it be damaged beyond use after the blowout. Again thanks for your video. We moved between campgrounds today and I found myself thinking about your video and about how alert I was staying and things I should do to make sure I stay alert. First of all, if I find myself feeling sleepy, I find a safe place to stop and get out to take a little walk and get alert. Second, I tend to steer with one hand. Your video helped remind me how dangerous that habit is. If we can have a catastrophic tire failure, there is precious time lost getting control of the coach and the lack of control of the wheel can cause unrecoverable sway and swerve. I know all this, but tend to forget. Your video reminded me that life does not come with “do overs”. This has made your video even more valuable. Finally, I want yo ask about TST vs Tire Minder. I own a Tire Minder system. My setup incorporates my mobile phone as a bluetooth device for the display. I love that because, I didn’t want another screen to distract me and clutter up the dashboard. Lately, I’ve started having issues with losing signal with some of my tire mounted sending units. So, I was curious about your decision making process of TST vs TM. I don’t really want to go through the expense of changing out the system. But I really don’t want to have a disaster either. Thanks for being here and thanks for your concern for the welfare of the RV community.

Thanks for sharing your experience about this! I also enjoyed the interview you did with Mark on this topic.

THANK YOU for sharing. Also thank you for being as detailed and NON-BLAMING as we see so frequently. Its nice to see someone really look at the issue to investigate it so others can learn . I am sure that the TST Alarm during your ordeal only added to your stress, or did it. When you do your follow-up I would love for you to add your wife's perspective on her experience during the incident, would be helpful to those who are passengers.

Excellent video.Having worked in the City of Los Angeles Tire shop for almost 7 years I would be very interested in the outcome of the third party inspection. Thanks for sharing this and Thank God you and all others are OK. We had a similar experience with our Toy Hauler tire, well actually in was the rim that split. Looking forward to the results. Take good care, Stay safe.

So glad it went as well as it did.

Thanks for sharing, happen to us last September. It is was the driver's front steer did 20,000 in damage just from the tire. I was glad we had be told about the gas pedal.

Thanks for sharing. God Bless

We are newbies. Bought a nice used Alfa motor home with "new" tires. They only have 9,000 miles on them, but turns out they are almost 7 years old. So I am going to change them out, even though they look brand new! Thanks for your video! Sad that we RV'ers can not count on tires more than this!!

I first started following Eric & Tami as they hosted the 2020 FROG Virtual Rally (we have a 2019 FR3 32DS RV). Enjoyed their videos. I also liked the way Eric explained technical things; maybe that's because of my tech background. In fact, I was so impressed with their coverage of cellular routers that we bought a Pepwave Max Transit Cat 18 LTE from them a couple months ago. IMO, this video is just another example of not only having a good sense for what information their customers need/want, but genuinely caring for fellow RVers as well. We blew a tire towing our Fiat last summer (more like it exploded). I wouldn't have known it was gone except for another car flagging us down. Seriously thinking about buying a TPMS as well as more items from them soon. Can't say enough good things about them - other than 'Thanks guys!'

I am in Ocean Springs 2 mile from the Gulf National park. It has been raining here a lot , the ground every where is saturated . i am surprised you didn't get stuck.

Make a run up to Safe T Plus just East of Birmingham and get one installed. (Support another Southern company) They will do it in their shop then ride with you to get it dialed in perfectly. They have a place to camp at their factory. When we got our new Class A two years ago that was one of our first trips. Our old class A had several blowouts and each time we had to wait at least 6 hours for roadside. Thanks for sharing your story and I’m glad you are safe.

I really liked this video. Your company is awesome and I'll purchase my needs from your company.

Thanks!

Eric, I can't stress enough the use of a Safe-t-plus! I am not connected with the product in any way but, I used to install them for Henderson's Line Up and they can save your coach and possibly your life in the event of a front tire blowout. In my opinion it's a must-have if I owned a motorhome.

Look forward to hearing the autopsy results

Great information.. perfect example of why you should carry a spare and the proper equipment to change it quickly to get off the side of the road and out of harms way.

Thanks for the Info and happy you are safe🙏 Just got our THOR A.C.E. and this SCARES me🙏🙏🙏🙏

Thanks for your explanation & how you reacted. It gives everyone watching a look at what to expect. The tire explosion is scary enough. The big unknown as you found out is what is the side of the road/highway like? Asphalt. Hard dirt or soft mud. You never know until you get there. Only thing I might do differently was unhook Jeep & back it down road 1000ft with flashers & cones to warn upcoming traffic. Next I get myself & wife way off road in the woods so if someone crashes into your rig at least you are safe!

The rv gods were indeed watching over you that day. Happy to learn ya all walked away safe. Regarding the ‘safe driving’ video you mentioned in your here, would you mind citing where one could get ahold of it to view. Thanks!

So glad you guys are ok! What a scare! Amazing that you and your rig weren’t really damaged! Thanks for the reminder about what to do in a blowout - particularly on a steering tire. Now I’m thinking about our travel trailer. It’s been sitting in storage without being moved for about a year and a half (mostly because of the lockdown). Now I’m wondering what damage that may have caused to our trailer’s tires? They’re less than two years old. (BTW, we have TST TPMS and use it faithfully! It gives me great peace of mind!)

Whew! Not sure i’d be high fiven it I’d be running to the bathroom! Eric It looks to me like it just delaminated like we used to see on the old re-treads. Sitting may have caused a internal flat spot that cause the steel belts to weaken. Glad ya all our able to educate us on this. Sent it to a buddy who’s driving a Super C now West with a cut on RF steering axle side wall- 5 years old-

Wow, glad you guys are ok. This is my worst nightmare since I’m an old lady and probably don’t have the strength to hold the coach on the road during a blow out. I am considering the Rettrobands or Tyron Bands. Big expense but might be worth it if we live thru a blowout…. Thanks for all the information. I’ll look forward to seeing the results of the testing on the tire.

Thank you for making this video. As a new Class A owner I learned soo much regarding tire safety. Thanks again for sharing your experience.

Look up rettroband for your front tires, this product is a game changer for the motorhome industry. Very expensive but not compared to the damage and other possibilities.

First of all, thank you for this video. I want to echo the comments and well wishes shared by the other comments. One question that I have is about the wheel itself. Did it sustain any damage? One of my fears is that it would get chewed up up by the bare aluminum running on the concrete for several hundred feet while supporting the weight that would be supported by that wheel. Our coach weighs 7,830 on the passenger front wheel. Again thanks for the video and thank you for caring about the RV community. I’m glad this story had a “happy” ending.

Excellent. Again I am glad you are both OK. Looking forward to the follow up. Could you have driven up onto some yellow leveling blocks to bring the tire up a bit? I still carry mine from my previous RV. The only thing that they have been used for is to show how and loan to some newbies in a Class B. They asked if they could have them, I just told them where they could buy some. It is good that I carry so much stuff so I am able to loan stuff or show them how I use it. By NO way am I an expert, but this video demonstrates how important it is for me to get the TPMS on ASAP. Thank you again.

Thank God you are well! And thanks a bunch for the education. I vote for another case of ignoring your once a month email when you get the autopsy done so you can get us the results asap please. I have had my manufacturers in tire sensors on my F260 go out twice now, seconds was today. Both times I just followed my TST system readout to verify all was good, the redundancy is great and the TST has been more reliable.

Thank You for sharing - Must have been a scary.

Glad to hear that you are doing well and safe from your trip from the tire blow out

Wow! Glad you handled it correctly. I spent 30+ years in tire manufacturing and probably just as obsessed over tires so I won't use tire cleaners. Most are harmful to tires. I'm betting you may have a puncture. You may have picked up something leaving a campground. If it had been a bead failure or cracking it likely would had leaked. A bad sign is if you need to add air every few days.

Just watched a video on Rettrobands and wondered why they were so pricey. Now I am thinking they may be cheap insurance. Great job getting your coach safely to the side.

Not wishing to go through all 84 comments but; what type (manufacturer) of tire were you rolling on? What is the size of your tires? You and your wife were extremely lucky to have had the knowledge, skill and ability to bring that big rig to a stop safely. I have TPMS on both my rig and my toad (jeep wrangler) and use the information as a tool and not a crutch. Thanks for sharing, and be safe! See ya down the road....

One thing you may not of stressed is always drive with hands on wheel ready for something like this. As long as things are going well, you can practically steer any modern vehicle with a very light touch, when a blowout occurs, that is going to jerk the wheel. Without proper steering control, vehicle may be out if control before you can get a grip on the wheel.

Eric, this video was just linked on the Monacoers forum, due to an accident that just happened in PA last week, killing the entire family and the truck driver, who was hit head-on by the motorhome. I had already bought a TST system from them directly but had forgotten about our toad....TST directed me to your site, and it makes me really glad that I bought them from you, especially after seeing this video you posted. Thank you. I'd like to hear your thoughts on Tyron bands.

First good job on not panicking and keeping the rig under control and bringing it to a safe stop, well done. Those fuel fill lines are designed to break away or sheer off from the outside on the filler cap end. The difference in the amount of force required to come apart on filler end versus the opposite end is by design and a safety feature on most any vehicle. I wonder if this is something that's maybe made you want to look into the inner tire devices they have today that are designed to carry the weight in the case of a steer tire flat? I can't remember of the names of some of those safety systems but I do know the exist and companies like Newmarr install them at the factory as an option. I'm not super familiar with Class A tires but do they have a millage rating like other vehicles including big trucks? Going by tire age is good of course but if you've surpassed the millage rating that could also cause breakdowns in the tire strength. Anyway glad y'all made it through this safely and with minimal damage. Safe travels, good times and God Bless...

Thank goodness it turned out ok! Great video and on heck of a blowout refresher course! Do you still like Coach Net?

All I can say is wow! Great episode. Thankfully all ended ok. Do y’all have that special steering / suspension add on I see out there on the inter webs?

Just GLAD YOU ARE OKAY! I'm confident that in a future video you can share what you used to get the stain off your drivers seat. Question: did you have a Safe-T-Plus, RoadMaster, BlueOx, or other version of steering stabilizer installed on your coach?

Great info, thanks so much for sharing! Any insights on the autopsy now that a month has passed?

Been there, done that - on a two-lane bridge in the Florida Keys.

Bet you checked your pants. Glad you are safe. We had a blow out on the left front tire and I had to avoid a bridge support before we could get off the road. We followed all the driving suggestion for a blow out and all came out fine. Some coach damage but we had no injury to us. Travel safe in the future. 😀

Great discussion, thanks for sharing. You didn’t mention it, so I will ask, do you have a steering stabilizer installed on your motorhome?

Glad to see that you and Tammy and your rig came out of this fine. I wonder if you could share your thoughts on Retroband and whether or not they may have helped someone with less training maintain control of the rig. I am considering them but since they are very expensive it would be nice to get some thoughts from you on their value before I take the plunge. Thanks.

This happened to me as well but in a dump truck filled with blacktop and towing a excavator doing 70mph in center lane of 3 lane highway..like you said loud BOOM and plastic and fiberglass being thrown everywhere..I slammed on gas pedal and had to wait for person next to me to get out the way and fought the coast to the shoulder..I've been in crazy situations driving but that was scary...NEVER HIT THE BRAKES ..IT WILL PULL YOU HARDER TO BLOWOUT SIDE AND POSSIBLY FLIP YOU

Thanks for sharing Eric. I definitely think about this every time I start out on a trip. I hope my instinct works as well as yours did. I'm going to have my wife watch this because she needs to know how to handle this situation too. What size Michelin tire do you run on your steers, and what pressure do you run in them? I'm using 315/80R22.5 Michelin XLine Energy and the max cold inflation pressure is listed as 130 PSI. I run 125 PSI based on my weight load and the Michelin tables. 90 PSI in my drive and tags. I try to set the cold pressure based on 70 deg. F. and adjust 2PSI for every 10 deg. difference from 70. This is on a 2013 Newmar Mountain Aire. My tires are about 2 years old now, and I store my coach indoors when not in use, and lower the jacks to take most of the load off the tires. I hope this helps with the longevity of my tires.

The number one thing that I was always told by fellow experienced drivers was, if ever have a front tire blow out don’t ever hit your brakes and grab on with both hands and hang on for dear life. Boy where they correct.

Great educational video. Question for those that are either newbies or have not experienced a blowout: What do you feel would be different if you had the Tyron bands or Rettro Bands installed?