Flat Spot On Tires. Now What?

gksmith · 04-04-2019, 10:47 PM

By locking my brakes during a sudden slow down, I developed flat spots on my tires. Is it harmful to endure the thumping (especially noticeable at slower speeds)? At high speeds, it is not bothersome. The tires have about 30,000 miles on them. I am a long ways away from my normal tire dealer. Advice will be appreciated!

booster · 04-04-2019, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gksmith

By locking my brakes during a sudden slow down, I developed flat spots on my tires. Is it harmful to endure the thumping (especially noticeable at slower speeds)? At high speeds, it is not bothersome. The tires have about 30,000 miles on them. I am a long ways away from my normal tire dealer. Advice will be appreciated!

Unless the flatspotting is severe, they should be able to take a truing cut on them, if you can find someone who still does that. Most likely a truck repair and tire place would be the best bet.

Nic7320 · 04-07-2019, 07:15 PM

Most tire blow-outs happen when tires have insufficient tread or are at the end of their life. Don't risk it.

bigfelipe · 04-08-2019, 04:24 AM

If the tread is worn past the wear bars on the flats, new tires. If not and you can handle the noise, ride them out of tread and keep an eye when rotating.

gksmith · 04-08-2019, 06:01 PM

Other than the noise and tire safety, another concern was wear on the suspension. Will this cause more wear on it? Thank you to those who have posted!

bigfelipe · 04-09-2019, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gksmith

Other than the noise and tire safety, another concern was wear on the suspension. Will this cause more wear on it? Thank you to those who have posted!

Can't imagine it would cause suspension issues unless it's so bad you can't stand it.

henknoordermeer · 04-09-2019, 06:46 PM

I'd say that the amount of wear and tear on the suspension system is comparable to driving on a bumby road that would cause the same vibrations in the van. Whether the road has a dip, or the tire a flat spot is mostly comparable.. (not entirely true when the wheel starts bouncing due to too much tire pressure or worn shocks but won't focus on that now).
You may reduce the vibrations by not overinflating the tires to a safe load pressure (e.g. 80 psi for maximum laod capacity), but to use the manufacturers recommended pressure for actual load conditions (based on actual weighed axle load in a weighing station) Still better to err on the high side since your left and right wheel may not carry identical loads so that one of them could be over just the axle weight devided by two.

Like mentioned, if it doesnt bother you too much wear them out until either the tire depth becomes too low, or the manfufacturing date is reason to change them out. Or have them them re-rounded at a specialist tire shop.. IT's possible and depeding on left lifetime of the tires it may be worth it..

Changing them for new / other tires is allways a possbility as a last resort.

booster · 04-09-2019, 06:57 PM

You might get lucky and not have a resonance in the suspension at the frequency of the bounce generated by the flat spot, or you may not. As for wear, it is like any other bump or bounce, but it happens every revolution of every mile, moving the parts and heating the shock oil. How bad, hard to tell with feeling it.

Me, if I could feel it, I would measure the tread depth at the lowest point, and if it was close to minimum I would replace the tires. If it was significantly above minimum like at least 1/2 left, I would look at getting them cut (trued).

These are very heavy vans, so there really is not any good reason to abuse the tires and suspension any more than you have to, IMO. We all have seen the carnage of tire failures on class b's in numerous pix, I think, so good to be not the next one.

gksmith · 04-10-2019, 02:09 AM

Lots of good advice given. I have found a tire shop that includes tire truing services so I hope to visit it before returning home . Thanks to all for the advice.

jbucking · 04-11-2019, 06:16 PM

I don't what year your coach is, but flat spotting is somewhat unusual with any newer vehicle with ABS (built since the 1980's). Unless you actually locked up all 4 tires (in which case your ABS isn't working) your problem might not be flat spotting. Are your lug nuts all torqued down to spec ? In any case, a good inspection by a tire shop is in order. Your problem might not be flat spotting.

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