# Tread came off my tyre and smashed a hole in the van floor!



## enrohtwac

Hello All, 

Wanted to share with you my experience of the past 24hrs. 

The weather here in France has picked up and yesterday it was 25 in the sun so we decided that we should pack the kids in to the van and go to La Rochelle (about 90mins away) for the weekend. 

We were about 25km away doing about 100kmh on a straight very smooth road when an almighty bang came from the rear nearside wheel. We slowed down as quick as poss and pulled over expecting to get out of the van to see a blow out. 

To our amazement the entire tread of the michelin tyre had come off! leaving the steel braid the only contact with the road. The tyre hadnt deflated either. 

We collected the tread from the road and pulled off the road main road at the next junction (still running on a steel braid tyre). 

On further inspection i noticed the real damage. 

As the tread came off the tyre it had collected the waste water tap and piped and ripped them straight off. Also all the wiring for the electric step and to my disbelief somehow either the tread or the waste water bits had smashed a hole the size of an a4 piece of paper in the floor! WTF! 

its a neat hole i give it that but the insurance will need to cough up for that one. Also the plastic wheel arch is smashed! 

Luckily the hole is in the cupboard just inside the door of our hymer 544 so we cant fall through it! 

at least it is dry out here and the van is now in dry store ready for the insurer to approve the repairs. 

quite a day really, kids not happy about missing the beach. 

anyone else had the tread come off a tyre? why would this happen? I check the pressures at least every week. 

James.


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## Stanner

The first question is...

How old is the tyre?


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## savannah

What a frightening experience........just what I want to read :roll: 12 hours before I set off from spain heading to Caen ferry ...
Seriously....thank goodness it wasnt worse and that you are all OK.....hope you get it sorted and back on the road soon

Lynda


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## teemyob

*Tyre*

It was not one of those Michelin XC Camper tyres?

TM


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## enrohtwac

not sure how old the tyre is really but there is a deep tread on it and the tyre rubber didnt appear to be showing any signs of age through cracking.... how else could i check?


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## 91502

I had similar on the M40/ A46 junction with our first Hymer towing a rally car on a trailer. 
At one point the trailer was starting to overtake us, it was like one of those film clips where you see HGV's going sideways down the motorway. 
It made a hole just behind the rear wheel arch. 
James


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## CliveMott

Are you sure it was not a remould on a Michelin carcase?

That would make much more logical sence.

We had a blow out in an old bus and that took the complete steel wheel arch out and laid it on the road many years back. 

C.


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## enrohtwac

Hi Lynda, thanks we are all ok. Sure its a very rare occurance and youll be fine. 


Yes it was a Michelin XC camper.... why ? are they no good. the other 3 are the same!!!


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## Jented

Hi.
This was a common experience a few years ago with commercial vehicle Remoulds. Also about that time,tyre manufacturers were turning out grade 2,or,remanufactured tyres. However this does seem to point to a faulty or old tyre,sometimes the air gets into the tyre construction and causes all sorts of problems,a batch of Continental hgv tyres a good while back,had the air escape into the side walls and it looked like little golf balls under the surface. Keep a note of ALL the markings on the tyre,as it can be traced. Good luck.
Ted


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## enrohtwac

JP - Thats sounds pretty scary! 


Clive - i wouldnt know how to tell if they are remoulds or not. They were on the van when I bought it from Oaktree MH.


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## Jented

Hi.
Remoulds used to have REMOLD, stamped on them,but as said earlier,the markings on a tyre tell its lifes history. Nowadays,remoulds seem not to be used,but at times when the wolf was at the door,i have never and will never put remoulds on the front ,and only maybe now,as a winter set,if i had a twin wheel MH, the destruction they cause when they blow is tremendous .
jented


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## trek

phew! glad your all safe

there is a 4 digit code on the wall of the tyre indicating manufacturing date

look at this web page to help find it:-

tyresafe

anything more than 5 years old is questionable in my opinion

& consider how we abuse / ignore our tyres - as the camper is often near its weight limits -stood still for weeks on end - & then used at highish speeds for several hours driving too or from a site

.motorhome tyres


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## enrohtwac

Trek, Jented -- thanks for the help and advice......ill check the remaining 3, hopwfully insurance will pay for the one thats now treadless

j


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## trek

Did you buy the camper recently from Oaktree ?


maybe if the tyres are old you may have a claim against them as they sold you something that may not have been safe ???



in my experience front wheel drive camper vans go through front tyres relatively quickly lets say 20k miles so when tyre fitters change them they keep putting the new ones on the front.

the rear tyres may be good for 60K+ but it may take ten years for some campers to do this mileage so the tyres may fail due to age even though there may be loads of tread left

this is ONE of the reasons new tyres should be put on the rear & the rear ones brought forward to the front!


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## enrohtwac

trek - yes i bought in June 09 from Oaktree... new MOT etc came with it. 

I have done about 15k miles this year in it and always check the tyre pressures. All the tyres appear to have good deep treads. I will check the tyre wall info in the morning and see what comes of it. 

You may be right if they have sold me with defective remoulds or similar...... they are meant to be the experts! mind you my experience of Oaktree has been poor.


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## CliveMott

Its quite possible that remoulds will have the original tyre markings on the sidewalls as its only the tread area that gets replaced. Thats the bit that came off OK?

I am deeply suspicious.

c.


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## enrohtwac

Yep just the tread..... clean off .... as if its de laminated or something. 

u makin me suspicious now..... ive got three other mich xc's on the van too. 

surely Oaktree would have known is a tyre was a remould? and perhaps have a policy that dosent allow vans that they sell to go out on remoulds? propably too much to ask i suppose.......


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## erneboy

Delamination of a tyre will rest with the last company to put a tread on the carcass. In all probability this is a faulty Michelin. It is too rare a tyre for a remould company to be bothered retreading it. Take it to a Michelin dealer and see if they can help, tyres should not come apart but a small fault could cause it to happen. I know that Micehelin used re-manufacture their own faulty products rather than scrap them, Alan.


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## enrohtwac

thanks Alan. i have the tread and the tyre so i can provide evidence, i also have plenty of pics and video.....

ill write to michelin in any case.... u never know


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## teemyob

*Tyres*



enrohtwac said:


> Yep just the tread..... clean off .... as if its de laminated or something.
> 
> u makin me suspicious now..... ive got three other mich xc's on the van too.
> 
> surely Oaktree would have known is a tyre was a remould? and perhaps have a policy that dosent allow vans that they sell to go out on remoulds? propably too much to ask i suppose.......


I just dislike Michelins Old XC Camper tyre (the new one is too expensive).

They crack along the sidewalls and the grip is lousy.

TM


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## Oil-on-the-Road

Something similar happened to me in my old Renault splitter when I was still carrying rock bands - tread came away and sliced through the diesel filler!! Had to be flat bedded back to base.

I was later told by a guy at the tyre fitters that heavy duty tyres rarely wear out in the sense of the tread wearing down - the rubber goes hard and cracks leading to delamination.

Steve


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## stewartwebr

enrohtwac said:


> JP - Thats sounds pretty scary!
> 
> Clive - i wouldnt know how to tell if they are remoulds or not. They were on the van when I bought it from Oaktree MH.


No chance of those cowboys IMHO having checked the tyres :twisted:


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## poleman

Hi, Michelin remould their own truck tyres and they are identical to new ones apart from 'REMIX' on the side wall in small letters. I doubt they remould van tyre though. All remould van tyres I have seen have been completely remoulded and not re-treaded.


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## asprn

And here was me thinking I had the franchise on exploding tyres. 8O On the way back from the south of Spain on Wednesday, I had the inner rear tyre explode on the RV on a French motorway. First thoughts were that the trailer had come off, but it was fortunately not the case.

The hard shoulder was too narrow to stop on for more than it took to find out what had happened, so we limped off the next exit (only 1km) and quickly found a Carrefour car park where after an hour, we (well, I - with some moral support) succeeded in changing it.

Someone mentioned claiming on insurance. How would that work? It's never occurred to me that it would qualify for a claim.

Dougie.


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## enrohtwac

Hi Dougie, 

glad you all ok and you managed to get back on your way. I will be claiming (hopefully) as the tread collected all sorts of stuff as it was flapping around under the van and put a hole in the floor. 

not sure if you can claim for a blown tyre solely. maybe worth a try...

James.


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## enrohtwac

Thanks for all responses... checked tyres this morning and none are marked as remould or similar. 

couldnt find a date stamp on them but will look again later. 

will obviously get a new one with repairs but will also look at changing the rest, then i know they are new. 

hey ho..... not the first problem and it wont be the last. Wonder what the repair bill will be? getting it repaired here in france.


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## EJB

You really need to check the age of all your tyres :wink: 
It is stamped into the sidewall as a four number code showing week/year. (2704 = week 27, year 2004)
Prior to 2000 the number is a 3 number code. (275 = week 27 year 1995).
HTH


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## dikyenfo

This is one of the worst experiences thst you face on the road. Happened to me twice on the same trip. First one was on the road into Barcelona and wife said casually that the tyre was on fire. I had felt a bit of drag so just put my foot down. I stopped pretty smartly after that. 2nd one was outside Orleans and no spare this time so had to get dragged off to a garage and buy 2 new tryes. On examining the tyres the garage found that the Spanish kids that played around the vans had inserted nails into several places around the tyres. I had noticed them playing but you tend to ignore them and they also nicked the wheel trims[frisbies] never noticed that either.


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## enrohtwac

TED, thanks i have looked and the numbers i can see are

1504
224
204
234

? guess they are all 2004 then..... surely not all that old, are they? it has a current mot n stuff. 

james.


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## RichardnGill

They are all about 6 years old which is about the time they should be changed.

If you have not had the van long this is especially important as you do not now the history of the tyres. It is quiet possible this tyre has had some damaged for some time and finally given up.

Possibilities for failure are endless but the more common are

Been ran over loaded/under inflated.

Stood for a long period of time without moving

Oil damage

Impact damage

Sun damage


Richard...


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## trek

what strikes me as odd is that each of these tyres has a different date code

as tyres are usually fitted in pairs I would have expected to have seen two pairs of date codes the same not four different dates
(when I buy tyres I check the codes to make sure they are not old before they even get fitted & they nearly always come as matching date codes)

this suggests that each tyre was bought individually or swapped over from different vehicles to make a "good " set


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## Stanner

enrohtwac said:


> TED, thanks i have looked and the numbers i can see are
> 
> 1504
> 224
> 204
> 234
> 
> ? guess they are all 2004 then..... surely not all that old, are they? it has a current mot n stuff.
> 
> james.


But from what was said earlier aren't the 3 digit ones PRE-2000?

Doesn't that make them 1994 & 16 years old?


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## RichardnGill

Yes you are right they are the pre 2000 codes on some of them.

What was the code on the tyre that failed?


Richard...


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## trek

I agree if your tyres have just 3 numbers they will have been made pre- 2000 

when was the camper manufactured / first registered?

one of those 4 dates I assume was the old spare tyre 

so have you checked the date of the failed tyre as well?


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## enrohtwac

Blimey! 

its a 95 b544, surely not on the same tyres! bloomin heck! 

would make sense though if a 94 tyre put on as new, but why all the different codes? 

a can of worms indeed....the van was sold by a gent in scotland perhaps he is a member of mhf? is he on here? spooky! 

ill check the one where the tread came off.... its slung under the van at the moment. 

16 yrs old, nah, cant be.


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## rugbyken

had the same happen last september going down the hill into angouleme, heard the bang & got out to find the tyre had blown, but the tread had separated all but 6 inches so the 4in strip with all the tread on was whipping around like a flail didn't actually come through the floor but made a mess under the wheel arch including rolling up the interior metal arch . 
mine were 2 year old supertrooper and when i checked the other one you could see perfect tread, but the tyre was round like a motorbike tyre, changed them both and although i had no receipt went back to the garage that had fitted them and showed them there to be told "you must have been overloaded for that to happen" ! last time he gets any of my business


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## enrohtwac

checked the spare .... its a 214. so i guess 1994 wk 21. Blimey. 

Wish i could upload a pic to show you..... as rugby ken says the damaged one looks like a motorbike tyre still inflated yet the tread has come off... 

Angouleme, i know that hill well, we live in ruffec just off n10. you will have been going about 110kmh+ i suppose... scary stuff.


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## Stanner

enrohtwac said:


> Blimey!
> 
> its a 95 b544, surely not on the same tyres! bloomin heck!
> 
> would make sense though if a 94 tyre put on as new, but why all the different codes?
> 
> a can of worms indeed....the van was sold by a gent in scotland perhaps he is a member of mhf? is he on here? spooky!
> 
> ill check the one where the tread came off.... its slung under the van at the moment.
> 
> 16 yrs old, nah, cant be.


What mileage has the van done? If not much maybe the gent in Scotland just rotated them around to make them last.


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## tony50

A already commented , age ,standing around ,probaly small fault in manufactuer , whan new tyres are made , the last thing that is added is the tread ,like a remould , but unlike a remould , it's all new . As you drive the Inertia force on a tyre makes the tyre transform ( to loosely put it "Eggshape") this Inertia force attempts to try and throw the tread off ,so the faster you drive the more the force , you would only need a small defect to cause the problem .
That's why I would not fit remoulds to anything all the Remoulder does when he has ground tread off is visually inspect the Carcass ie.(body of the tyre) ,that to me after I had seen the operations leaves too much to risk .If the tyre had thrown it's tread , and, when you had stopped the tyre was flat ,that would have signified that a a support cord in the carcass had snapped , this is why it is importart to regularly check tyres for deep cuts however small ,as, if the tyre has steel cords and the become wet and rust the cord will break eventually and your tyre wll suffer a Blow out. You have probaly guessed I have been "Tyre training Courses " !!

Tony A.



Hear endeth the 1st lesson !


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## teensvan

Hi.

We have just put 6 new tyres on our burstner. Tyre date 2004. They all had loads of tread on them. Glad we changed them.

steve & ann. ------ teensvan


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## raynipper

I was motoring home from Le-Mans in an American rear diesel bus chassis when an explosion rocked the van.
Transpired one of the rear twins had disintegrated and taken the whole wheel arch and rear skirt off the van.

After crawling home the last 20 miles on the other remaining wheel, it was found all the tyres were over 10 years old.

This not only cost me £1450 for new 22.5" tyres but £500 for the fibreglass repairs. An expensive lesson.

Ray.


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## enrohtwac

hi ray...... were you not covered by insurance for this damage?


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## raynipper

enrohtwac said:


> hi ray...... were you not covered by insurance for this damage?


Hi James.
I was somewhat hesitant to claim and therefore lose my NCD and subsequent years adjustments below £500. So it was touch and go at the time. 
I opted for a clean slate as insuring these large RVs is not always easy.

I think the tyres were well overdue.

Ray.


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## enrohtwac

Ray, ok i understand.... given the amount of damage to my van i am hoping to be covered. not sure how they mend floors though? 

i also can afford to pay myself. 

j


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## Spooky_b329

I just checked my tyres. Its not as obvious as I expected, my two rear tyres which were new last year have the four digit code, but is preceded by three digits, presumably the tyre mould serial number or something. So the date is combined into a number seven digits long. The spare and nearside front are easy to ID, the front offside appears to have two dates. One is the later four digit code, the other which is located 180 degrees from the first is a three digit code, 574...1994. Started wondering if it was a remould of some sorts and they preserve the original date, but then noticed it didn't have a triangle after it which means its either not a date code, or its 1984 (!) Its a federal tyre that I got as a part worn tyre with 9mm tread complete with wheel rim, from a van that has only been in production since 2000, so I'm happy that its the longer four digit code that is the proper date.


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## Rochdalemasher

Reading this thread prompted me to look at my tyres, The front ones were put on new March 09 when i bought the van. I checked the dates to find the rear ones were 10 years old the tread depth was very good. So i decided i`ll put the front ones on the back and the back ones on the front so i could have new ones on the front again as the front ones are now showing signs of wear. as i was removing the right rear tyre i noticed some very large deep cracks on the inside near the rim. Lucky escape or what? These tyres had the code 2900


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## trek

Hi Rochdalemasher

I hope everyone else checks their tyres after your experience !


& this is just one of the reasons new tyres should be fitted to the rear

I partially blame the tyre dealers who should be advising & educating their customers (& their staff) who are usually oblivious to these issues


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## chapter

the thing to remember if you have a high speed blow out (+40 mph)
out of gear both feet off (do not use the breaks) and roll to a stop 
chapter


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## DTPCHEMICALS

Checked mine the other day 6 years old loads of tred only done 14k miles.
All four showing hairline cracks.
They will be changed 
Dave p


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## pete4x4

Not over 5 years old is the recommendation. Least that was my dad's recommendation and he was in the trade.

Hope Insurance will pay out on out of date tyres. :?


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## enrohtwac

Just an update really. Van has been in garage for 2 weeks and nothing happened yet as HYMER have not yet provided a cost for the parts needed! mental.

anyhow here is a pic of the tyre and the tread. 

Insurance say they not heard of it before..... but get on and send us the quote. 

im no tyre expert but i pay good money to people who are meant to be experts in exchange for an MOT. 

ill keep waiting.


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## Rochdalemasher

Hi. looking at how your tyre has come apart it would be very difficult to visually see that something like this would happen. If there is a positive to this its made a lot of us aware of what can happen with older tyres and how we can check on the age of the tyres, and i think the 5 year and replace em is definately the best option. I know that you wont be caught out like this again . I know i wont and i`ll Thank you for bringing your experience to all our attention


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