Newell Gurus

I blew an inside drive tire on the passenger side. The flailing tire took out the forward airbag and destroyed the Height Control Valve. 

Getting a roadside tire fix was as straightforward as it normally is. But with the airbag gone and the HCV wrecked there were two other problems that needed a hack before we could leave the emergency lane. 

Lucky for me I had a handsaw on board, so I cut two pieces of the 4x4 cribbing I carry to put between the frame and the suspension to replace the airbag. The piece for the drive axle should be 8 inches tall, and the piece to put between the tag suspension and the frame should be 7 inches tall. Cut the pieces so the end grain carries the load. I had pressure treated lumber but I think oak would be stronger. 

Next, I removed the air supply to the HCV and capped it. Of course this was easier with the tires removed !!!

The point of this post is to hopefully help a guru in the future if you have this incident. So, cut these two pieces of wood before your next trip and put them in the coach. Second make sure you have the fittings to cap and seal both 1/4 and 3/8 tubing. That's a handy hack for many airline problems.

I spent yesterday installing the bag and the HCV, and the new tires went on this morn, so we are good to resume our journey south. 

Now for the Thank You's. The gurus are a remarkable gang. @"encantotom" Tom had me the airbag info in minutes. @"ron skeen" Ron Skeen had a spare bag at his shop less than an hour away. @"bikestuff" Bill Johnson offered to overnite me a bag. I took Ron up on his offer and plundered his shop even though he wasn't at home. This forum is a fantastic resource with a fantastic bunch of guys.

Next, David's Commercial Tire in Knoxville deserves kudos for the initial rescue, crediting me for the temporary tire when I chose to install two new Michelins, and helping me get warranty coverage for the failed tire. These were really nice folks, and epitomized customer service

I chose to replace the outside dual for two reasons, the first being I did not know if the inside leaked pressure which would have overloaded the outside for some miles, and the tires would have been different diameters putting more load on the inside tire which already carries more load due to the crown in the road. I didn't want to wonder about potential tire damage whilst driving in hot weather

So the moral of this story is to follow Richard around since he's so darn handy! Bet those squirrels were really calculating.
Great outcome to what could have been a devastating occurrence.

Richard, you get an "atta boy" for a job well done. Thanks for the heads up.

As I have said previously Richard, YOU are Batman!

Richard, do you know what caused the tire to blow?  It seems to me that you replaced the tires not long ago.

Sorry to hear of your problem and so glad you were able to fix it without a lot of problems!
I noticed Foretravel used blocks on our coach way back when - they would use a couple of 4x4 posts cut down to about 10 inches and place them between the frame and suspension to 'disable' the air bags and keep the coach up when working on it. For clarification: should I cut a couple of 7" 4x4's or do I need some 8" pieces to lay in horizontally stacked on top of each other?
------- 7 inches (---- indicates a block)...
------- 7 inches
???

Blocks. Adrian cut so the end grain meets the frame . When I tried stacking them cross grain they split.

Chappell. The tires were two years old. I am no tire engineer, but it didn't explode, it looked to have deflated, lost the bead on the rim and wallowed around. The tire was still intact. It did have a quite a crack completely around both sides just where the tread meets the sidewall. I have no way of knowing if that was caused by extended running at a lower pressure or the crack caused the deflation. Any comments on the tire are SPECULATION on my part. I heard a muffled pop and at the same time developed a whoop whoop oscillation in the rear. I don't know if the pop was the tire or the airbag. I had been running for 200 miles in temps below 20 degrees. I do not have a tire monitoring system on my rear tires.
.

Richard those were tires you replaced at Newell when you bought it? Did you say something about warranty on them

Sorry to here of the tire issue. Always amazing to me how much damage can be caused by a flat or blow out. If you are replacing one of the dual drive tires is it ok not to do both? That would leave one a smaller diameter than the other remaining one. Is the tread wear between them critical?

I replaced both. Primarily because I did not know if I had run the other tire overloaded for a period of time.