RoadTrek spare tire warning.

Eraygunz · 10-07-2017, 01:08 PM

Hi.
I think I saw something about this here a while back.
But I thought I would just make you aware of this dangerous condition.
And maybe save you the trouble I went through.
The Spare tire rim is too big if your Roadtrek has the aftermarket aluminum rims.That is if you have the same size tire on all five rims.which many have.
Recently on a day trip to the Keys from Naples Florida. We had a blow out on the 190 Pop. Difficult to Jack up and change the tire on the side of the express way for sure. But got her done.
About 30 miles from my home on alligator alley....in the middle of the swamp...in the middle of nowhere . The spare started to make some noise!
So I decide to exit at a rest area to have a look.
Thank God I did.
Just as we got into parking spot ....we heard a big bang !
I jump out and to my surprise the tire was literally laying on the ground!
It had come completely off the rim.
So,now wait a couple hours for a flatbed to come and carry me home.
Luckly I was just a little ways from home.
After all this ,I did some research. Found out the tire size used on the aftermarket wheels are not really wide enough for the stock rims.
And that it is not recommended by ANYBODY that they be used together.
If you have this combo on your van . Just drive slow and carefully .try not to go any further than you must.
And probably should consider putting the right sized tire on the rim. Or try finding another after market rim to match.
It was a horrible,long day. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.
Just thought I would put it out there ,so you'd know.
Thanks
Cheers
Eddie

BBQ · 10-07-2017, 01:45 PM

.

Sorry to hear that.
Thanks for the heads up.

Eraygunz · 10-07-2017, 02:47 PM

Hi
Just thought I would bring it up.
Most of us buy new tires....and keep the best old one as our spare.
In this case,might not be a great idea.
Wish I could find another one of the aftermarket rims.
But to find the right style and size has been impossible.
For now I had the guys in our service department find me a nice used appropriate sized tire.
Thanks
Eddie

jmai · 10-07-2017, 03:01 PM

Mine has aftermarket aluminum rims. Round circle cutouts and made by Dandy of Florida I believe.

Can you show a picture of the rims you are talking about?

What tire sizes are you talking about?
vehicle tires
spare tires

booster · 10-07-2017, 06:39 PM

It sounds like someone put a 16.5" tire on a 16" rim. It doesn't sound like a width issue as truck wheels are always pretty narrow and tire size you can go on a van isn't all that wide.

hbn7hj · 10-07-2017, 07:09 PM

Need to be more explicit. Essentially you said "I had a problem"
Year RT
Name of mag wheel and model
Tire size on coach
Tire size on spare that fell off. Spare wheel is OEM?

You have had some good posts here. Probably too pissed to be thorough.

Eraygunz · 10-07-2017, 11:20 PM

Hi.
First of all...I do not think they make a 16.5 tire? 15/16/17 smaller and much larger, but no half sizes?
Next. The OEM wheel is 8.5 inches wide.
The aftermarket aluminum wheel is 7.5 inches wide...a full inch.
Which is a lot when it comes to tire sizes.
I work at a auto dealership,and have been in the auto restoration industry for over thirty years.
Don't know everything about cars.....but I do know the basics.

As for year of my Roadtrek.....my bad I guess.
It's a 1997 Roadtrek Pop. Built on a dodge 3500 one ton chassie with the 5.2 v8 motor.
The wheels are American Racing 7.5 x 16 inch rims. Not sure of model,but under this circumstance that does not matter.
The factory OEM spare rim is 8.5/16
The tire is a 265/75/16 michellin
The problem here is that a 265 tire is NOT recommended to be mounted on a 8.5 inch wheel. The rim is too wide ,and does not allow a safe match up of tire to rim.
To be honest.....any model or make of RV could have this issue.
Any time wheels and or tires are exchanged. This type of thing could happen.
I was just trying to help people avoid the horrible ordeal I went through.
And after doing some research realized this was an issue that others had already had.
So ,I would recommend that unless your RV is brand new or is at least on it's OEM rims and tires...........you take a moment before any long trip to check your tires and rims out .
Just my two cents
Cheers
Eddie

Eraygunz · 10-07-2017, 11:31 PM

Hi.
Don't think they manufacture tires in 16.5? Could be wrong?If they did,do not think you could get it to stay on or hold air.
As for width....people put unsafe size tires on rims all the time.
Many tire stores now refuse to mount many wheels that people want for safety concerns.
As for vans. Our vans are VERY heavy. So what will probably be ok on a PU with little to no weight over the rear axel....is going to be a serious problem on a rig carrying a lot of extra weight over the rear axel.
Hope this doesn't come across the wrong way.....I was just trying to let people know of a problem that apparently many older road treks could have.
Happy trails and cheers
Eddie

hbn7hj · 10-07-2017, 11:41 PM

You must be too young! We had a 79 Chevy C30 with 16.5" tires. The tires began to get hard to find. A incidents were caused by 16.5" tires going on 16" rims and 17" tires on 16.5" rims. The only solution was to ditch the 16.5" rims.

booster · 10-07-2017, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eraygunz

Hi.
First of all...I do not think they make a 16.5 tire? 15/16/17 smaller and much larger, but no half sizes?
Next. The OEM wheel is 8.5 inches wide.
The aftermarket aluminum wheel is 7.5 inches wide...a full inch.
Which is a lot when it comes to tire sizes.
I work at a auto dealership,and have been in the auto restoration industry for over thirty years.
Don't know everything about cars.....but I do know the basics.

As for year of my Roadtrek.....my bad I guess.
It's a 1997 Roadtrek Pop. Built on a dodge 3500 one ton chassie with the 5.2 v8 motor.
The wheels are American Racing 7.5 x 16 inch rims. Not sure of model,but under this circumstance that does not matter.
The factory OEM spare rim is 8.5/16
The tire is a 265/75/16 michellin
The problem here is that a 265 tire is NOT recommended to be mounted on a 8.5 inch wheel. The rim is too wide ,and does not allow a safe match up of tire to rim.
To be honest.....any model or make of RV could have this issue.
Any time wheels and or tires are exchanged. This type of thing could happen.
I was just trying to help people avoid the horrible ordeal I went through.
And after doing some research realized this was an issue that others had already had.
So ,I would recommend that unless your RV is brand new or is at least on it's OEM rims and tires...........you take a moment before any long trip to check your tires and rims out .
Just my two cents
Cheers
Eddie

For 1997 Dodge Roadtrek, you would have had 245-75-16 tires not 265s, so that has been changed. The AR wheels may be from Roadtrek, or not, and the same with the spare wheel.

The OEM tires at 245-75-16 would go onto a 6.5-8.0 rim width

The 265-75-16 would go on a 7.0-9.0 rim, per tire rack so you are OK

16.5" tires and the other .5 increment tires have been truck sizes traditionally, and are still listed in several sizes on Tire Rack.

Time to take a deep breath and relax, and then collect all the correct information, as what you have stated isn't correct, and the correct information would indicate you shouldn't have had a problem.

I can tell you it is quite common to have the 16.5 tire put on a wrong rim, I have heard about it regularly over the years. Take a good look at the carcass and see exactly what it says.

It looks like somone has done some tire and wheel swapping somewhere in the past, as most of what you have is not stock stuff, likely including the spare rim which would normally be a 6.5" wide rim for a stock van for most companies. Maybe a 7.0" but less likely, but not an 8.5" wide.

InterBlog · 10-08-2017, 12:50 AM

Related observation: On my recent 6,000 mile trip, I had big problems with faulty tire valve stems (which could potentially happen to anyone, Roadtrek or other). I ended up developing not one but two flats in The Absolute Middle Of Nowhere. I was really pleased with the Good Sam response. Tires is one main recurring problems that they get called on, so their network is impressive. My co-payment for the emergency dispatch was about $85, problem solved within a couple hours of the opening of business after I had placed the service call the night before.

There are almost no scenarios in which I would risk my safety to swap out a tire. I can do the work, but where would that work be done - on the side of a highway most likely, or in a remote area with no one to back me up if something went wrong. Not worth it. I'll let the contractor deal with that - they are better equipped. For the annual membership cost, it's a great deal.

Eraygunz · 10-08-2017, 01:09 AM

Hi. Again.
The van is not here, but as I recall the tires are 245 75 16. And they are too narrow to be mounted on a 8 inch rim from what I have been able to find on the Internet.
I had wanted to mount 265 75 16 when I thought the wheels were all 8 inch.
But when I realized the wheels by American Racing were only7.5 i thought better of it.

The tires were not 16.5. I guess they do make them. But I would guess it would be difficult to get the bead to hold.especially with the weight of our vans.
If you check the archives of this forum. You will find that there was another thread on this very issue.
The original thread writer had the same issue with the spare rim being too wide for the tire.
In looking back if there are manufacturers that recommend mounting a 245/75/16 on a 8/16 rim then I am wrong and sorry for bringing it up.
Safe travels

hbn7hj · 10-08-2017, 02:15 AM

I have been running AR 23 wheels 16X8 with 245/75/R16 tires for 7 years and 80,000 miles. The wheels are original to a 2003 Roadtrek C190P and had the same size Michelin tires with 44,000 miles when I removed them at vehicle purchase in 2010 (7 years old.) I have had one tread separation failure with no damage.

Just a datapoint.

Eraygunz · 10-08-2017, 02:23 AM

Hi.
Yes, you are right. I had to change the tire on the side of the Miami expressway. Should be called the Miami Raceway,as cars travel really fast.
And again you are right. It did not feel very safe.
Then once I got back underway. The spare tire acted up,I pulled over in a rest area. And the tire came off the rim. Honestly,I have never heard of that happening before. It actually came completely off the rim.
My insurance has towing and roadside . So I was able to call and arrange a tow.
Because of the remote area,it did take a while for a flat bed to arrive. But we got home safely.And my cost was a minimal amount to cover the few extra miles .
It's my understanding that tires are the number one cause of roadside break downs?
Glad it worked out for you,a little better than it did for me.
Be safe,and happy travels.
Eddie

booster · 10-08-2017, 02:45 AM

You may be thinking about this discussion, as it is the only one I remember.

http://www.classbforum.com/forums/f8...hevy-1985.html

The thread is addressing offset of the wheels primarily, which caused the spare to not fit the tire carrier on the Chevies unless it was the stock size and offset, for both the tire and wheel. The Roadtrek aluminum wheels are the wrong offset for the van at -6mm instead of +28mm. The only concerns with rim width were to get wide enough to be able to go to the 265-75-16 wheels and still have the +28 offset. None of the rims were considered too wide for the tires. The 265-75-16 have a minimum rim width of 7.0 inches and a max of 9.0, so 7.5 or 8.0" would be no issue.

Tire rack lists the 245-75-16 tires as OK on an 8" rim.

Eraygunz · 10-08-2017, 02:52 AM

Hi.
Well you were more lucky than I was..
When my tire separated ,it badly damaged the rear fiberglass lower.
Badly enough that I removed them both.
And will probably have to make new ones. As I doubt they would be avaiable?
Tires are kind of an odd thing? Seems there are many different recommendations . Depending on where you ask?
Looking on the Internet again.....I find completely different answers depending on where I look?
I will always side with caution. Rather be safe than sorry.
Anyway, thanks for the reply.
Safe and happy travels to you.
Eddie

JohnnyFry · 10-11-2017, 03:02 PM

Sorry to hear about your problem. My 210P 2008 has 245-70R16 on the American Racing RT supplied rims. The spare is the same size on an OEM steel rim. After a flat last year the spare was on foe 600 miles without any problems.

On a vehicle this heavy I would never attempt changing a tire myself, especially with the anemic OEM jack.

booster · 10-11-2017, 04:54 PM

I have reread this discussion at least a half dozen times, and IMO, it all comes back to the spare failing for another reason other than it was a 265-75-16 tire on an 8.5 wide rim, as that combo is well within all of the manufacturer specs I could find for that tire size.

The OP said that they felt some funny stuff going on and started to stop and heard a pop, so the tire essentially started to separate and then blew out, most likely. Separated and blown tires will come completely off the rim in many cases, and rip things up.

My guess would the be that the spare tire was just old, maybe wrong load range, sun damaged, or underinflated. All of these are extremely common in spare tires if you check them.

Personally, I would not ever worry about tire vs wheel width if they were within the manufacturers specifications, and every van was fine when new. It is much more common for people to go with a tire too wide for the rim than the other way around.

JohnnyFry · 10-11-2017, 07:45 PM

My issue came with the failure of a Toyo of questionable origin as is was on my RT 210P when I purchased it used. A massive vibration developed and it let go when I had slowed to 25 MPH and had pulled off onto the shoulder. Even at that speed the entire tread seperated, tore the genny exhaust pipe off, broke up the rear storage drawer and put skid marks down the entire drivers side. We put on the spare with Good Sam roadside. The guy brought a big fully equipped truck and used 2 air jacks to lift the vehiclr...no way, nohow could I have changed the tire myself. We proceeded 500 miles to Atlanta on the spare where I purchased 4 new Michelins.

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