Firestone tires bouncing

[mbulriss]

The speed limit on IH-10 from Kerrville to outside of El Paso is
80MPH. Over 400 miles of road.

AFAIK, the most common 'dust type' material used to balance big rig
tires is a product named EQUAL. EQUAL is a plastic polymer granule
unaffected by moisture. It is discussed frequently on many RV and Bus
discussion boards.

From the EQUAL manufacturer's web site FAQ at
http://imiproducts.com/equal/faqs.aspx comes the following FAQ:

Q - If water is inside a tire, does it have any effect on EQUAL, and
if so, what is the effect?
Answer:
* EQUAL Tire Performance does NOT ABSORB water in any way.
* Due to the fact that EQUAL is a plastic polymer granule, water
or moisture will not change its composition.
* Moisture that accumulates inside the tire will evaporate due to
normal driving conditions and therefore is in contact with EQUAL for a
very short time.
* EQUAL, when in contact with large amounts of water, (to the
point where it is actually floating freely), will do just that, float.
This will interfere with the ability of EQUAL to optimize the given
tire in the way that the tire dealer or fleet had intended when
installing the product. Simply, this means that although EQUAL will
never damage the tire in any way, if it is in contact with large
amounts of water, it cannot perform its job. Again, it is important to
reiterate, that in most cases, moisture will evaporate due to the heat
build up in normal driving, and once the moisture has evaporated,
EQUAL will perform as it originally did.

FWIW,

Mike Bulriss
1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan"
San Antonio, TX


--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, Pete Masterson
wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if 78 mph is legal in any state -- and most heavy duty
> tires are rated to 70 or 75 mph maximum anyway.
>
> The "dust type material" used to balance tires is very sensitive to
> excess moisture -- it will clump if there's too much moisture in the
> tire (and the moisture comes in with the compressed air).
>
> Pete Masterson
> '95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42
> El Sobrante CA
> aeonix1@...
>
>
>
> On Aug 13, 2007, at 12:31 PM, Pete Amerson Jr wrote:
>
> > Back in Feb I had all tires replaced with Firestone. They put a dust
> > type material in the tires to balance them while it is being driven. I
> > then drove it about 10 miles to storage. A couple of weeks ago I drove
> > the RV and when I got to about 75 mph it started bouncing on one of
> > the
> > back tires. I carried it back to the tire store and they checked the
> > balance and said that it may be the tire or it may be the rim but they
> > would put another tire on anyway. Now it has a bounce about 78 mph.
> > Is this to be expected with firestone tires or should I not be driving
> > that fast anyway?
> > Since I got the tires I have put anout 200 miles on them, all below 70
> > mph.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>