Who put that bomb there? Tire help. Blowmax victim. 4100 King

[pharmafrog]

All,

Just had my first Blowmax experience. Cruising along 95N near Baltimore and "BOOM". Pulled over to assess the damage. The blast took out almost the whole of the wiring under the drivers side slide, but other than that we were ok. I am in the process of doing the rewiring, so expect another post, as I cannot figure out a couple of wires.

I need to replace the tire obviously and have a couple of questions.

1. What have other 4100 owners replaced theirs with? I want to stay with the 16" rims and of course move to "G" rated. I have read positives and negatives on every brand (GY, MICH, FIRE etc...). I would like to know exactly what is working for people. Curious about the size change as well, so exact specs for the tires helps the best. I need to know they will fit, as there is not a lot of room between them.

2. I am not looking to spend my vacation replacing all 7 tires, but just one until I can get back home and order the others at a discount rate. Does anyone see a problem switching out the one and driving back and then hitting the rest. Or would you run on the spare and then change out at home. Don't really love the idea of running without a spare.

Thanks for the help. Stand by for the wiring post. I will post pictures and only have a few wires that I cannot figure out. Hopefully someone with a 4100 is camping right now and can take a look for me. Stay safe.

 

[scottyb]

pharmafrog, sorry for your troubles. If you read all the Towmax topics, you will see that there is often a 2nd failure shortly after. Not sure if it is due to damage caused during the 1st. I took my 4100 straight to Discount Tire and replaced 6 tires before ever hitting the road. I wouldn't drive any further than necessary to get to the nearest DT. I ran Michellin XPS Ribs, a commercial LT fully steel encased tire, for 17K trouble free miles on my 4100. I'm hearing nothing but good results for the Sailuns, and they are considerably less expensive than the Michellins or Goodyears.

 

[danemayer]

Hi pharmafrog,

I agree with Scottyb, there's often a 2nd failure shortly behind the first one. Depending on how far you are from home, you might want to change all the tires now.

If you do put one new tire on now and the rest in a few hundred miles, I don't know of any reason that would be a problem except for the possibility of another failure on one of the remaining tires.

Consider making the damaged tire available to NHTSA for independent analysis of the failure. If they determined it was due to a factory defect, that finding would help a lot of people.

 

[Lance & Jo]

The problem with changing only 1 (assuming your not going with Towmax) is finding a tire with the same dimension so as not to cause an alignment problem. Saliun looks to be close but at least 1 post here says it is an inch taller than the 614's. If you do elect to only get 1 new tire suggest you put it on spare and use the existing spare till you get home. The scary part is unless you can find a specific problem such as low pressure in the tire that blew then you have 5 others that probably are nearing the end of a short life span.

 

[pharmafrog]

The aftermath - Electrical disaster

All,

As promised, the blast effect. When the tire went, it took the electrical feeding the slide and components therein. I managed to rewire most of it and the crimp connection gave on most of the wires, giving me a road map to some success. The large black wire was the 110v feeding the outlets and major electrical on the slide (easy rewire) there are several color coded wires also easy fix (Pink, Purple, Brown, orange). Now comes the problem. Coming out of the frame I have a set of Blue and Whites (in photo) two whites are connected (common) and one blue and one white from the set are together, or were. Then I have another set of green and white coming out of the frame. Again two whites are together (common) and a green and a white are together. Here is the rub, from the slide all that is left unwired is a black and white set (oh and the side marker light). without knowing what got vaporized, what doesn't exist anymore or what the crazy connections are, combined with not having a working electrical blueprint or another 4100 sitting next to me, i am lost. If anyone is camping and can get under their driver side slide and take some pics or walk me through what connects to the black and white set (either the green and white bunch or blue and white bunch) I would be in your debt. I am mobile, so it is not a vacation ender, but I would like to crank out what I can. Here are the pics.

 

[wdk450]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

Pharmafrog:
Have you been talking to Heartland service on your rewiring? I suggest you call a service advisor there and e-mail him a copy of your post with your wiring questions. Maybe he can tell you what you need to know without sending out a wiring diagram. Otherwise you may need to resort to an RF tone tracer connected to the broken wires to sniff out where they go. Do you know what electrical items are NOT working?

 

[oscar]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

Welcome to the Blowmax Owners Club. Sorry your entry fee was a little steep. I got lucky with a little bent skirting which I straightened out and added a few screws to tighten it up. I was less than 100 miles from home and went home on spare right rear and dinged right center, slowly. Made it no problem and put 6 G614's on. They are slightly smaller than the Blowmaxes. They weigh as much by themselves as the BM's on the wheel...... Other people are happy with other solutions. Go here: //heartlandowners.org/forumdisplay.php/58-Tires-and-Wheels-(For-RV-s) lots of discussion.

If you have much further to go I would bite the bullet and do them all, now. The other ones are another boom waiting to happen.

 

[TahoeCamper]

We got lucky and found our Towmax on the door side both bad. It looked like the entire cap had shifted to the inside of the tire and a long "balloon" had appeared. Drove slowly to Les Schwab and purchased 4 Gladiator commercial trailer tires with 14-ply steel tread and 12-ply sidewall. We'll feel a lot more at ease driving down the now.

 

[Lance & Jo]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

Bill has the right idea, but another approach that worked for me was to hook a voltmeter to the wires coming from the frame, then turning on circuits till I found one that indicated on the voltmeter and that told me what the wires were for. On my trailer I found those kinds of wires were 12 volt, 1 to the slide and 1 for the marker light.

 

[Westwind]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

I wish there was a way we could contact everyone on the forum that has Towmax "Blowmax" tires on their Heartland product and tell them "Just get them off". There are alternatives out there that aren't bank busters and you will save yourself so much aggravation and stress. Sailiun and Maxxius.
Would have thought by now the word had gotten out there loud and clear. Dangerous and Junk.

 

[jmgratz]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

I wish there was a way we could contact everyone on the forum that has Towmax "Blowmax" tires on their Heartland product and tell them "Just get them off". There are alternatives out there that aren't bank busters and you will save yourself so much aggravation and stress. Sailiun and Maxxius.
Would have thought by now the word had gotten out there loud and clear. Dangerous and Junk.

I wish everyone who had the Towmax tire would file a complaint with the FTC and NTHSC and maybe they would take them off the market.

 

[danemayer]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

I wish everyone who had the Towmax tire would file a complaint with the FTC and NTHSC and maybe they would take them off the market.

Pretty sure that complaints alone won't get anything done. Has there been action on GY Marathon? Nope. Surprisingly I think there are more Marathon complaints on file at NHTSA than Towmax complaints.

There has to be evidence in order to take action. That won't happen until they get their hands on a failed tire and find a manufacturing defect caused the failure.

If you have a failed tire, consider making it available to NHTSA for failure analysis.

 

[oscar]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

I wish there was a way we could contact everyone on the forum that has Towmax "Blowmax" tires on their Heartland product and tell them "Just get them off". There are alternatives out there that aren't bank busters and you will save yourself so much aggravation and stress. Sailiun and Maxxius.
Would have thought by now the word had gotten out there loud and clear. Dangerous and Junk.

It's called Heartland sending a letter to registered owners.

 

[ILH]

I'm a bit late joining this thread, but let me welcome you to the blowmax survivors club.

The only club benefit is the ability to start a conversation at any Heartland rally!

 

[Sniper]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

The wires in the 3rd picture (green white, and white) go to the marker light. They are all crimped together in the SAME side of the yellow connector (the other end of the yellow connector probably never had a wire in it, at least mine didn't). The blue wire is most likely your electric brakes (again mine was crimped only on one side of the yellow connector with nothing on the the other end of it so it may be ok) If you can trace the commons beside the blue wire it may be the common for the brakes and only need to crimp those ends together. I have no idea why they didn't use simple pig-tail crimp connectors. Sorry I have nothing on the black and white wires in the second photo. Hope this helps you however little help it may be, and that the rest of your journey is safe and trouble free.

 

[Burnsze15]

Go right for 17.5" and Goodyear G114 H rated if you have the axle for it. Reason why others start to go after the first is you've put the weight of that wheel on the others, when as it is they're right at design limit, and the tires are awful. I went for the Goodyears. Big coin but feel much better about it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pharmafrog]

Re: The aftermath - Electrical disaster

One shot,

Thanks for the knowledge. I finally figure it out, through trial and error. The Green and White did indeed go to the marker lights. I was confused because the gauge was different from the wire to the light. The black and white from the slide actually linked up to the blue and white from the frame. They powered the LED ceiling lights for the slide. I metered them and found that there was constant LOWV power to them. Really didn't meter them but put a screwdriver next to them to see if they arced power. I have everything as it was, but for the life of me could not figure how to manage the wires under the slide. Then it occurred to me that something must have been vaporized, something like a trolley or articulating rack that carried the wires. I found one on the other side. A call to HL tomorrow and I should be good to go. Thanks again.

 

[ForsythTribe6]

I would be reluctant to travel very far on the Blowmax, based on my experience. I had my second blowout just about 100 miles after the first on my 4100. Sat on the side of the road waiting for roadside assistance to bring me 2 tires and mount them. Luckily, I was only about an hour from home by then. Replaced all 7 with the Sailuns mainly due to the cost factor. I'm very pleased with them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk