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08-07-2017, 08:33 AM
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#1
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Skoolie
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 157
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Huge tire blow out on mountain road!
Well, it was not a pretty sight. I was headed East on HWY 12 over White pass in Washington. I was in the twisty down hill section just after the pass and mid corner when I heard a HUGE KABOOM!! The right tire blew and I had slowed to about 45-50 for the corner, but there was a straight drop off on the other side of the guard rail.
To my surprise the bus handled it great, it pulled a bit to the right as you would expect, but for as violent as the blow out was, I thought it would have been much worse. Tire was shredded instantly. I pulled to the side, but it was a bad spot on a corner and so I had to limp it with my wife following me to a safe spot about a mile down the road.
So, here is where things went from bad to worse. Its Sunday, and there is no cell service. Its my daughters bus and no AAA. Had to leave my wife with the bus loaded with animals and drive with my Daughter about 5 miles down the road to find cell service. Of course nobody is open. After many calls and lots of waiting I found a tire dealer that was open, but heres the kicker, the tire is a 9.00-20.
Yep, not a common size. Several more calls and I find a tire shop with a used 9.00-20 that can come change it, 80 miles away!
The rear tires on this bus are the common 22.5, but not the front. Old spoke split rims. I watched this young guy change the tire with no safety cage, just laying on the ground, SCARY!
All told, it took 6 hours and $868.59 to fix the stupid tire.
I highly suggest that if you have 9.00-20 or other odd tire sizes on your bus, that you get them converted over to a more common 22.5, or have a spare mounted under the bus. You will still need to call for a service truck to fix it, but it will cost you a lot less and you will know you can get the tire fixed.
At the end of the day, we were all safe, no people, dogs, or buses were harmed and the bus made it to its destination.
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08-07-2017, 09:00 AM
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#2
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: arkensas
Posts: 1,076
Year: 1997
Coachwork: bluebird
Chassis: chevy
Engine: 3116 catapillar
Rated Cap: 71 now 2 humans 1 cat
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if your tires are 10 years old time to replace also i spray armorall on all my rubber 2 times a year (tires, brake lines, door seals and any other rubber but not silicone) and just let it soak in. I tested this stuff years ago it works been doing this for 20 years never blew a tire on my stuff
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08-07-2017, 09:08 AM
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#3
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Bus Nut
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 543
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldmopars
Well, it was not a pretty sight. I was headed East on HWY 12 over White pass in Washington. I was in the twisty down hill section just after the pass and mid corner when I heard a HUGE KABOOM!! The right tire blew and I had slowed to about 45-50 for the corner, but there was a straight drop off on the other side of the guard rail.
To my surprise the bus handled it great, it pulled a bit to the right as you would expect, but for as violent as the blow out was, I thought it would have been much worse. Tire was shredded instantly. I pulled to the side, but it was a bad spot on a corner and so I had to limp it with my wife following me to a safe spot about a mile down the road.
So, here is where things went from bad to worse. Its Sunday, and there is no cell service. Its my daughters bus and no AAA. Had to leave my wife with the bus loaded with animals and drive with my Daughter about 5 miles down the road to find cell service. Of course nobody is open. After many calls and lots of waiting I found a tire dealer that was open, but heres the kicker, the tire is a 9.00-20.
Yep, not a common size. Several more calls and I find a tire shop with a used 9.00-20 that can come change it, 80 miles away!
The rear tires on this bus are the common 22.5, but not the front. Old spoke split rims. I watched this young guy change the tire with no safety cage, just laying on the ground, SCARY!
All told, it took 6 hours and $868.59 to fix the stupid tire.
I highly suggest that if you have 9.00-20 or other odd tire sizes on your bus, that you get them converted over to a more common 22.5, or have a spare mounted under the bus. You will still need to call for a service truck to fix it, but it will cost you a lot less and you will know you can get the tire fixed.
At the end of the day, we were all safe, no people, dogs, or buses were harmed and the bus made it to its destination.
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This is why I'm changing out my old 9 x 20 split rims to new rims 22.50 X 6.75 and tubeless tires. Down fall is the expense.
Glad you and anyone else was not hurt. Any damage to the bus?
Gordon
Sent from my SM-G530W using Tapatalk
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08-07-2017, 01:10 PM
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#4
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Oregon/Philippines
Posts: 1,660
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first.. where was your spare that u need to carry... second.. if you have air brakes, you can hook fitting with quick coupler and three quarter hose and one inch impact wrench and with jack, change the tire yourself. third... it isnt absolutely necessary to have same size rubber on both sides of front end while driving to tire shop. the std eight n quarter would have worked fine.
my last trip i blew lf tire on my re thomas, put the undersize old spare on it and drove to baker city oregon with no problems and got another tire... after they mounted it, i put it on my bus myself..
changing tires by laying them on ground with tire tools and sledge is common way to change. a little care is needed when u use eather spray with fire stick to blow the beads on, but is very common. if u dont believe me, check youtube.
__________________
Jesus Christ... Conversion in progress.
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08-09-2017, 10:26 AM
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#5
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Skoolie
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 159
Year: 2001
Coachwork: Ford
Chassis: E450 #Vanlife
Engine: 7.3 Powerstroke
Rated Cap: 25
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When you consider the potential cost of having to pay to get a tire change remotely, it's worth it to consider just tooling up enough to change one on your own. If you have air brakes on board, then it just makes sense to use that resource. I have already set up my compressor tank with a fitting, a coupler and lines, etc.
In the reviews I've seen several bus owners buy this and like it
https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton...ack-69593.html
From there you just need an air line, an impact, sockets and some tire bars if you want to change the tire.
It can be done and you'd prob only have about 400.00 in the total setup to be able to change.
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08-09-2017, 10:08 PM
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#6
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Mini-Skoolie
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Alaska
Posts: 14
Year: 2002
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: MVP/EF
Engine: Caterpillar 3126
Rated Cap: About 40
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I'm glad all is well!
__________________
John
2002 Thomas MVP/EP
Slow conversion-(dry campsite)
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08-10-2017, 07:32 AM
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#7
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: arkensas
Posts: 1,076
Year: 1997
Coachwork: bluebird
Chassis: chevy
Engine: 3116 catapillar
Rated Cap: 71 now 2 humans 1 cat
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RC000E
When you consider the potential cost of having to pay to get a tire change remotely, it's worth it to consider just tooling up enough to change one on your own. If you have air brakes on board, then it just makes sense to use that resource. I have already set up my compressor tank with a fitting, a coupler and lines, etc.
In the reviews I've seen several bus owners buy this and like it
https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton...ack-69593.html
From there you just need an air line, an impact, sockets and some tire bars if you want to change the tire.
It can be done and you'd prob only have about 400.00 in the total setup to be able to change.
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thats why i got spoke wheels also if you have 10 lug nuts its probably a hub mount and if you dont use neversieze they are hard to get off
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08-10-2017, 07:39 AM
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#8
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: arkensas
Posts: 1,076
Year: 1997
Coachwork: bluebird
Chassis: chevy
Engine: 3116 catapillar
Rated Cap: 71 now 2 humans 1 cat
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a little care is needed when u use eather spray with fire stick to blow the beads on, but is very common. if u dont believe me, check youtube.[/QUOTE]
took a guy to the hospital for doing this you should mention that this is extremely dangerous nicknamed the dude "beak" as it messed up his nose
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08-10-2017, 11:00 AM
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#9
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Oregon/Philippines
Posts: 1,660
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mmoore6856
a little care is needed when u use eather spray with fire stick to blow the beads on, but is very common. if u dont believe me, check youtube.
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took a guy to the hospital for doing this you should mention that this is extremely dangerous nicknamed the dude "beak" as it messed up his nose[/QUOTE]
it is only as dangerous as you make it. We have been doing this since at least 1966 .
Just use the proper amount of ether and long pole with flame.
have changed thousands of tires, and use same technique on wide rims such as race cars...
What is actually dangerous is changing tires on the widow maker rims. ie ww2 and earlier rims that come apart in center... todays tubeless are simple. take care
__________________
Jesus Christ... Conversion in progress.
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08-10-2017, 11:55 AM
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#10
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: arkensas
Posts: 1,076
Year: 1997
Coachwork: bluebird
Chassis: chevy
Engine: 3116 catapillar
Rated Cap: 71 now 2 humans 1 cat
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He burned his face as the bead did not stay up it never blew up
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08-10-2017, 12:48 PM
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#11
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Bus Geek
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Essex, MD
Posts: 3,738
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: Blue Bird TC RE 3904, Flat Nose, 40', 277" wh base
Engine: 8.3L Cummins ISC 260hp, MT643, 4.44 rear
Rated Cap: 84 pax or 1 RV; 33,000lbs
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Good to hear everyone/thing is safe. I was expecting more doom and gloom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chev49
second.. if you have air brakes, you can hook fitting with quick coupler and three quarter hose and one inch impact wrench and with jack, change the tire yourself.
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I've got at least 5 air tanks on my Blue Bird. I need to figure out which is which and do this. Already have an impact good for 650 ft/lbs but the lugs are painted on. I do still need some plywood, 6x6 (or whatever size), and see if the 6 ton bottle jack will lift a corner. I'd rather practice in an RV lot or Walmart than on the side of a mountain road at 2am on a holiday Sunday.
Quote:
my last trip i blew lf tire on my re thomas, put the undersize old spare on it and drove to baker city oregon with no problems and got another tire... after they mounted it, i put it on my bus myself..
changing tires by laying them on ground with tire tools and sledge is common way to change. a little care is needed when u use eather spray with fire stick to blow the beads on, but is very common. if u dont believe me, check youtube.
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I've seen tire shops use a super shot of compressed air (and fail) to get a tire to seat. Never seen ether used (in person). Fairly sure I don't want to try and change the rubber on the side of the road. I'd rather have a "car spare". Still don't have tire nor rim nor a storage spot.
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08-14-2017, 10:23 AM
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#12
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Bus Nut
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Maryland / Boulder
Posts: 347
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas Built
Chassis: Saf-T-Liner MVP ER
Engine: CAT 3126b Rotella-Chugger
Rated Cap: 72
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I recently had a retread come off while on a trip doing 65 mph, definitely not anywhere near as scary as a blowout. I had all 4 drives replaced as they were quite old, and managed to score 3 drive tires from 2015 that were virgin tread and about 90%, but had to buy a 4th used, which was a retread. Not 500 miles later, the retread came apart! Ended up limping it to a Love's and had it replaced with a brand new one at a cool $440.
Lesson learned: take your time and make sure your tires are good before it becomes an issue. I do not currently carry a spare.
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08-14-2017, 10:32 AM
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#13
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Traveling
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Midwest
Posts: 2,573
Year: 2003
Coachwork: BlueBird
Chassis: TC2000
Engine: 5.9L Cummins
Rated Cap: '00
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewerbob
I've got at least 5 air tanks on my Blue Bird. I need to figure out which is which and do this. Already have an impact good for 650 ft/lbs but the lugs are painted on.
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What? 5 air tanks?? Are you sure one of those isn't a fuel tank ?
I feel.... cheated with only 2 tanks.
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08-14-2017, 10:55 AM
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#14
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Bus Geek
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Essex, MD
Posts: 3,738
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: Blue Bird TC RE 3904, Flat Nose, 40', 277" wh base
Engine: 8.3L Cummins ISC 260hp, MT643, 4.44 rear
Rated Cap: 84 pax or 1 RV; 33,000lbs
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rusty
What? 5 air tanks?? Are you sure one of those isn't a fuel tank ?
I feel.... cheated with only 2 tanks.
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Funny looking tank for fuel. The fuel tank is 60 gallon so I'm cheated in that department. When I was looking at buses, everything was either 65 or 100. I didn't know 60 was even a size. I need to go junk yard diving and get a 100 to ADD to it (instead of replace).
I don't know how big they are. They look fairly small. My 15 gallonportable compressor is bigger than all of them so I'd say 5 gallons based on it.
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