The subject of myths and rumors in the RV world is the tire blow out and how to handle the situation. The best way to describe a blow out is to first realize that not all tires fail by "exploding" and shredding into a million pieces. Tires can also fail from a slow leak as well. When a tire fails, the proper way to handle the situation is to first understand what happens when a tire looses air. The tire will settle down on the tire bead and rim. This settling causes the RV to "lean" in the direction of the low tire. This settling also causes the RV to be pulled in that same direction. For example, if your front left tire looses air, the RV will pull in that direction, to the left.
The first and almost always, even though incorrect, reaction is usually to take your foot off the accelerator or to press the brake pedal. These two reactions are incorrect because they will cause the RV to travel in the direction of the low tire even quicker, possibly causing a crash or roll-over. The correct response is to press the accelerator to the floor as quickly as possible and correcting the forward direction with the steering wheel. Now I know that some of you are thinking, "WHAT?!?! That makes no sense!" Let me explain. Newton's Law of Motion states that any object placed in motion will continue in that same direction until acted upon by an opposite force. To put that in perspective in the above example of loosing the front left tire, the RV is traveling forward. The left tire loosing air will now cause the RV to travel to the left. Stepping on the brake or taking your foot off the accelerator will cause it to move to the left quicker because you loose the forward momentum. This is why we must quickly press the accelerator to the floor to regain the forward momentum back for the RV. Once you have safely regained control of the RV, you now need to look for a safe place to pull over and get out of the RV.
At My RV School, we practice this during our driving lessons. We encourage every driver to practice this as well. How we accomplish this is by having the students go through the motions of actually simulating a blow out and pressing the accelerator to the floor after having someone yell. "BLOW OUT!" It is quite an eye opener to the students when they realize that they press the brake instead of the accelerator. This actions of controlling the air loss situation should become seamless and should be practiced every time you take the RV out on a trip. The more that you practice, the better trained you will be to handle the emergency situation.
Comments