If You Have a Tire Blowout, DON’T DO THIS!

If you have a tire blowout, your natural tendency might be to hit the brakes and try to pull off the road. But, in fact, that’s the most dangerous course of action you could take.

Today we’re covering a super important safety topic: what to do — and what NOT to do — in the event of a tire blowout.

What Does a Tire Blowout Feel Like?

If you experience a blowout on a rear tire, you’ll feel and hear changes alerting you to the situation. Vibration, noise, and possibly banging from a tire flying apart, as well as a disruption in driving stability, are most common.

A rear blowout is more likely to be felt in the body of the vehicle or even in your seat, and you’re more likely to feel the vehicle “wobbling” in a side-to-side or back-and-forth manner.

But a front tire blowout will generally have a sudden impact on steering control. The steering wheel may vibrate, and you’ll likely feel the vehicle pulling to the right or left. And it usually happens very suddenly, without warning.

If the blowout occurs on the right-front tire, you’ll feel your vehicle pull to the right. If it happens on the left-front tire, the pull is more likely to be to the left.

Can You Hear a Tire Blowout?

Depending on the vehicle and on the situation, you may hear a tire blowout.

If you hear the blowout, often you’ll initially hear a loud “bang” or a “pop” — a loud sound that reverberates within the vehicle.

Immediately following the initial loud sound, you may hear air releasing from the tire, depending on how sudden and catastrophic the tire failure is.

You may also hear the flapping of the blown-out tire rubber against the road and the bodywork of the rig.

And of course, if you have a good RV TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system), it will alert you to a sudden tire failure.

What Should I Do If a Tire Blows Out?

Let’s start by discussing what you should NOT do if your vehicle suffers a tire blowout.

A driver’s natural response to a sudden problem of any sort is likely to slow down and stop as soon as possible. The more serious the event, the more suddenly your reflexes will trigger you to stop NOW!

But slamming on the brakes in an attempt to stop as soon as possible is the exact opposite of what’s needed. As counterintuitive as it may seem, don’t hit the brakes! It’s the absolute worst course of action to take, especially in the event of a front-tire blowout.

Here’s why:

Braking shifts the vehicle’s weight forward onto the damaged tire, increasing the pull of the steering toward that side. This can result in a loss of control and even a rollover, particularly if you’re traveling at high speed.

Instead, the first thing you should do in the event of a blowout is to accelerate, then gradually release the gas pedal.

While this may seem counterintuitive, it will help maintain control, allowing you to slowly come to a stop without braking hard.

So, if your RV or any other vehicle you may be driving suffers a tire blowout, here are the actions you’ll want to take, in this order:

1. Take a deep breath, stay calm, and keep a firm grip on the steering wheel (this is why driving with two hands is so important — for unexpected events).
2. Accelerate for a few moments to stabilize and regain control of the vehicle.
3. Slowly release the accelerator to allow the vehicle to slow down to a safe speed while adjusting your steering as necessary to maintain control.
4. Activate your turn signal to alert other drivers that you’ll be moving over, and gently steer to the side of the road.
5. Once you’ve safely pulled off the road and come to a stop, activate your hazard lights. Use extreme caution exiting your RV to obtain your spare tire, etc. Call for roadside assistance if you have such a plan.

For a good visual tutorial on how to respond to a tire blowout, we recommend this YouTube video, where you’ll see a tire blowout on a motorhome and how to respond:

What Causes Most Tire Blowouts?

As we noted in our post “Why Do RV Tires Blow Out?“, most tire blowouts occur due to improper tire pressure or tire age and wear.

Essentially, this means that most tire blowouts are entirely preventable.

So, how can you prevent tire blowouts in your own rig?

First, we’d suggest visiting the post we linked to above on why RV tires blow out and what you can do to prevent this from happening, as well as our post on tire safety tips.

Proper tire inflation is crucial, and knowing how to check your tire pressures is just as important.

Second, we always suggest good care of your RV’s tires, including using good-quality RV tire covers and silicone-free, petroleum-free tire cleaning and protectant products.

We like these:

We also recommend regularly monitoring your tire pressures as you travel.

The best and easiest way to do this is with the use of a good RV TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system).

A TPMS uses a sensor at each tire to constantly monitor the tire’s pressure.

Should a tire drop below the proper pressure, your TPMS sends a notification to a screen mounted on your dashboard.

Our TPMS also offers customizable high- and low-pressure and high-temperature alerts.

We use and love this system:

PRO TIP: All subscribers to our newsletter have FREE access to our eBook: How To Inflate RV Tires Correctly! So if you’re not already receiving our daily RVing tips, that’s just one more reason to subscribe today! (If you’ve already subscribed, and can’t find the link we sent with access to the book, simply re-submit your email address (the one where you receive our newsletters) on the subscribe page. You’ll receive an email with the link to the book, but won’t be double subscribed.)

What Can Be Done to Make RV Tire Blowouts Less Dangerous?

In addition to properly maintaining and inspecting your tires (including proper pressure settings), there’s a product on the market that can save the day in the event a blowout should occur.

Rettroband is an RV tire protection/safety system from National Indoor RV Centers that we’ve posted about before.

Read our post on Rettroband, and check out the following video to see how it works.:

Have You Experienced a Tire Blowout?

We’d be interested to know if you’ve ever experienced a tire blowout as you’ve traveled down the road in your RV. What happened, and how did you handle it?

Drop us a comment with the details below.

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