plastic or metal fenders on the trailer?

On Dec 19, 2:04*pm, POPS wrote:
sisu1a;758236 Wrote:



-

I have steel fenders on my Cobra trailer. *A blowout took the back
half of the fender and folded it double inside itself. *So I am not
sure steel is any more durable than plastic. *-

Really? *Imagine what your fiberglass/aluminum trailer would have
looked like if that steel fender hadn't absorbed like 90% of the
energy of the blowout. In addition to a mangled trailer, your glider
would have probably been damaged inside as well like this recent
victim of plastic fenders:
http://tinyurl.com/2uy3vme

Another good reason for metal fenders is that they provide a little
more protection from other cars/trailers as well...

-Paul

Another blown tire? *That's your problem. Upgrade to proper heavy walled
trailer tires. Tires should never blow.

--
POPS

I assume you have no experience of driving in Arizona. If you can fry
an egg on the sidewalk what chance do you think tires stand. I've shed
treads on 3 car tires and 2 trailer tires since I've been resident in
this state. The explosive failures at 80mph were an interesting ride.

Andy

On 12/19/2010 3:29 PM, Andy wrote:
On Dec 19, 2:16 pm, Eric wrote:

For the last few years, I've had a tire pressure monitoring system on
the tow vehicle that includes the trailer tires, hoping to avoid the
tire failure in the first place. Looking the tires every time I gas up
helps, too. If the tread is beginning to separate, this will likely find
it before the tire pressure is affected.

In some cases, perhaps not all, I think the tread separates completely
and the tire continues to run inflated until the carcass fails. I
think that's what happened when my Cobra tire failed. There was no
damage as would have been caused by a flailing tread and only about 3
inches of the rear of the fender cleanly rubbed away along with half
the mud flap. I had a flailing tread failure on the Minden trailer and
it bent the hell out of the steel fender and the rear support bar.

My only total tire failure was preceded by a loud noise. I immediately
stopped. The tire was destroyed but still on the wheel; the tread and
the fender were a ways behind - drove back to pick things up. Did the
tread partially separate, leading to overheating or damage that caused
the tire to fail and lose the tread entirely? Don't know - didn't have
the TPMS on the vehicle at that time.

I don't know what goes on in detail when a tread begins to separate, but
I hope it raises the pressure enough to trigger the high alarm, or loses
enough to trigger the low alarm, before it fails catastrophically.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what
you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

On 12/19/2010 1:04 PM, POPS wrote:
sisu1a;758236 Wrote:
-



I have steel fenders on my Cobra trailer. *A blowout took the back
half of the fender and folded it double inside itself. *So I am not
sure steel is any more durable than plastic. *-

Really? Imagine what your fiberglass/aluminum trailer would have
looked like if that steel fender hadn't absorbed like 90% of the
energy of the blowout. In addition to a mangled trailer, your glider
would have probably been damaged inside as well like this recent
victim of plastic fenders:
http://tinyurl.com/2uy3vme

Another good reason for metal fenders is that they provide a little
more protection from other cars/trailers as well...

-Paul

Another blown tire? That's your problem. Upgrade to proper heavy walled
trailer tires. Tires should never blow.

You need to round out this claim with a description of what you mean by
"blow", because those of us that have heard a trailer rated tire make a
really loud noise are pretty confident that they _can_ "blow".

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl
- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what
you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

On Dec 19, 10:13 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 12/19/2010 1:04 PM, POPS wrote:
Another blown tire? That's your problem. Upgrade to proper heavy walled
trailer tires. Tires should never blow.

You need to round out this claim with a description of what you mean by
"blow", because those of us that have heard a trailer rated tire make a
really loud noise are pretty confident that they _can_ "blow".

He didn't mean "blow", he meant it POPS.

-John

"Eric Greenwell" wrote

I don't know what goes on in detail when a tread begins to separate, but I
hope it raises the pressure enough to trigger the high alarm, or loses
enough to trigger the low alarm, before it fails catastrophically.

There are two types of tread separation; one caused by the tread not having
a good bond to the cord, and one where the layers of the cord separate
taking the tread with it. Most old tires that are not retreads are the
second type, and retreads failing usually are the first type.

If the body of the tire stays whole, the pressure will not change, sorry to
say.
--
Jim in NC