Front Wheel Blowout
The RVers Worst Nightmare
The worst driving experience that can befall any RVer is to have a front wheel blowout while cruising down the road at 60+ mph! It is a harrowing experience that neither you nor your copilot wants to ever repeat—even if your RV comes out of the experience with no damage.
Usually, when you have a front wheel blowout your instinct is to hit the brakes and slow down—but with your RV you can cause even more loss of control.
The key point to make here is that the foremost need in a blowout situation is to maintain steering control of your vehicle until you can get it slowed down and maybe even off the road.
When you have a front wheel blowout, the sudden loss of tire pressure will cause your RV to suddenly veer violently toward the side where the blowout occurred. Knocking down a road side fence is not nearly as big an issue as hitting someone in the oncoming lane head-on—but neither experience need happen in the first place—if you know what to do and you do it immediately.
If you have a front wheel blowout, you need to ignore instinct and go pedal-to-the-metal with your accelerator—but only until you have regained steering control of your RV. Once you have regained steering control, slowly ease off the gas and try to get your RV over to the side of the road as far as possible.
Yes, I know that hitting the accelerator seems to be totally wrong, but in this case, it is the one thing that you can do to regain steering control. The sudden “push” from the drive wheels tends to straighten out your RV, letting you muscle the steering wheel trying to stay out of another traffic lane.
But this procedure assumes that you always have both hands on the steering wheel and don’t fall prey to the bad driving habits that many people have with their cars—often steering with only one hand and sometimes even with only one finger. Keep both hands on the steering wheel.
A quick reaction is of utmost importance when you have a front wheel blowout. Don’t wait, even a second or two to see what your motorhome is going to do. Mash the accelerator to the floor until you are once again going straight down the road, and then slowly ease off on your speed—but do not hit your brakes until you are almost stopped. Suddenly hitting your brakes is going to do the same thing as the blowout—cause your RV to pull violently toward the side with the blown tire.
At most FMCA and Escapees rallys, you can see an excellent video from one of the vendors that shows this technique. Think about it now, before you have a blowout—so that you can react quickly—and possibly save your RV from some serious damage.
Watch the Video, Now. Thanks to an RV acquaintance, here is a link for you to be able to watch the Front Tire Blowout video, now, without waiting to attend an FMCA or Escapees rally.
It is well worth about ten minutes of your time to find out what to do, now, before the unexpected happens!
