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 Hi Lawrie. sorry about your mishap, luckily no one was hurt.

PLEASE don't let this put you off going again. Happened to us once on the M6 at 11pm with 12month old twins in the car, very frightening at the time but you need to look on it as an experience (thankfully they don't happen very often)

There will probably more on telling you of their experiences.

Keep camping

Jo

hi as others have said this can happen at any time regardless off age of van or tyres ive known it to happen to brand new vans right off the dealers yard the liklyhood of it happening again to you are slim

i used to work in van repairs and have seen a few cases of this my advice to you would be to fit tyron bands(http://www.tyron.com/tyrongroup/mainframeset.htm )to your new tyres they are not realy expensive and realy reduce the risk of major damage to your van in event of a blowout and then you could have limped to the laybye and out of danger your local van dealer will prob fit them for you

please dont let it put you off

I had a blow-out on the M6 a couple of years ago, and was left with nothing more than a lump of rubber and "miles" of wire.Fortunately, I was using Tyron bands, and felt nothing other than a lot of vibration.No damage caused to 'van either.

Like you Lawrie, I suspected having run over some wire, BUT, the wheel had only just been fitted two months earlier, although it had been lying in the spare wheel carrier for almost five years, and I have since learned that a tyre lying idle that length  of time is more prone to a blowout than one that has been in use over the same period (something to do with delamination between the wire banding and the rubber I think).

I would agree with what 007cammie mentioned-get Tyron bands fitted. I would go a little bit further, and recommend changing the tyres every four years, including the spare, whether it has ever been used or not - it's a small price to pay for safety!

Finally, please don't let it put you off caravanning - it may never ever happen again, and I certainly hope that it doesn't.

Just to let you  folks know that the wire you see is used in the construction of tyres, but the main thing is tyres can be replaced-people cannot.

Tyre blowouts are a rarity so keep on caravanning.

Micky

Perhaps the caravan had been left standing for some considerable time prior to this first outing of yours?

It is usual for caravan tyres to need changing through ageing, rather than because of worn tread-depth.  It is quite easy for anyone giving them a look-over to think that the tyres are good because the tread looks fine, but they do break down and crack from all the UV exposure that they get.  It is possible that the van tyres were more than the recommended 5 years old? 

If the tyres were old and deteriorated, then there's no reason to suppose you would be likely to encounter this horrible experience again once the tyres have been replaced with new.

If they were thoroughly checked, in good condition and correctly inflated, then you were especially unlucky and again, it's unlikely that lightning will strike twice.

It can only get better!!

this is the site.........  http://www.tyron.com/tyron/tyron.htm

You can never forecast tyre problems. The trouble with caravan tyres is they tend to catch things picked up off the road by your car tyrs & it's just the luck of the draw. I would suggest that you change your caravan tyres regularly. I do mine after every third season. They stand in the garage over winter & I renew them before starting our first trip of the fourth season. We only do three or four 360 mile round trip a season too. Just inspect the condition of the tyres & any sign of cracking in the structure of the tyre, change it.

As you have already had several suggestions to fit Tyron Bands, I can whole heartedly support them. The things are superb, I've had two blowouts in 13 seasons & I wouldn't be without them. My new van has them in & they cost me £75 per wheel. I believe kwikfit mobile does them at home for around £65. If you have Tyrons fitted, ensure the supplier leaves you with a tool like a lon allen key, should you need to remove a tyre the tyre company will need this tool.

Don't give up caravanning for the sake of a blowout, kit yourself out properly, change tyres regularly or at the first sign of them being defective & enjoy your caravan.

BB  

Oh lawrie don't let this put ya off towing. Tin tents are just such a wonderful thing to have and use, you've just gotta put this behind ya and think to the future.

We had a blow out on one of our old Esprit's tyres some years back on a pitch black stretch of the M4 just before Membury services on our way to Cornwall. Our son, (then aged 18 and coming with us for a free holiday which btw...both he and his fiance still do coz they love caravanning too and they've just spent a week with us last week in Cornwall on our holidays!), was sparko laid out on the back seat of the car and my husband controlled the outfit so-o-o-o-o-o well that he didn't even wake up until he felt the cold night chill coming in through the open hatchback door!

Long story short, our whole experience was a total nightmare coz it turned out that while our spare caravan wheel was the same size......the stud pattern was different so...it didn't fit! Having kept it from our old van knowing that it was the right size, we'd never thought to check stud patterns! Well...you wouldn't would ya?

Anyhoo, then hubby got desperate and thought that if the car's spare wheel would just fit long enough to get us there, we'd get a new correct one at the first tyre place we come across at daylight. Nope! No good!

So...stuck on the hardshoulder of a pitch black M4 with no spare tyre and no idea what the hell we were gonna do, I resorted to ringing the AA for which I was only covered for 'roadside' assistance! What stars they were bless 'em.

After the first inconvenience of some weirdo breakdown bloke turning up, (uninvited - but they were monitoring the airwaves and heard our plea to the AA so sent a low loader out to 'recover' us! Ha!), and then his failed attempt to get our Esprit on this thing, which we had to stop him doing when the back of our caravan was in danger of being ruined on the ashpalt having tipped w-a-y too far backwards what with it only having TWO WHEELS IN THE MIDDLE OF IT unlike a car and it's FOUR wheels!!!! Thankfully it's only damage was a broken plastic carafoot on one of the steadies but it was so early the end of our van scraping the hardhsoulder. Dozey bloke!

Another call to the AA explained what had transpired and they apologized telling us that they hadn't actually sent a recovery wagon at all, so I made sure I gave them the details of this outfit for future reference. Then the ATS bloke that the AA did send to us, arrived and within minutes, he had the van up on those inflatable jack type thingies, and a new tyre on all from the back of his wagon.

We're thinking that this is all gonna cost an arm and a leg with me only having roadside cover, but no....only £38 for the whole thing and we didn't even have to pay there and then. In fact the bloke wouldn't take any money, just told us to either ring and pay on credit/debit card within 10 days or post a cheque off.

By this time it was getting on for 6am and the traffic was building up thick and fast and we didn't fancy trying to get our outfit out into the flow of traffic not being that speedy from standing with the tin tent on the back, but the ATS knight in shining armour, told us that he would get out behind us and have his yellow flashing roof lights and hazard lights going to warn oncoming traffic and he'd stay behind us until we were up to speed. What a gent!

But d'ya know the worst bit of all this......turned out we were literally only half a mile from Membury services which is where we'd been headed to do a tiddle stop just before this happened. I would have been breaking my neck by this time had I not managed to clamber in the van and into the loo whilst the bl**dy thing was up on the jack before help arrived! Yikes, ya don't arf wobble when the lorries go by ya know!

While we were away, we decided it would be a good idea to get the other tyre replaced too, so a trip to the local ATS was called for to put our minds at rest that the other one wouldn't blow on the way back...or ever again!

However.....it didn't put us off taking our tin tent away and I'm still yearning to get some towing in too.....just still trying to convince hubby that if I can be trusted to drive around the other caravans at the storage pitch and the 1/4 mile up to the security gates in safety that I should also be perfectly capable of doing the same on straight bl**dy motorways! Think it's a macho thang...he doesn't wanna see me doing a good, (or better), job of what he thinks of his domaine! Although...guess who's the one in charge of the Powrtouch motor mover now then???? Yep! Me and me thumbs!And he aint getting his hands on that remote peeps

Put this behind ya lawrie.....it was just a fluke and one of those unfortunate things. Chances are highly unlikely that it'll ever happen to you again. I'm sure

Hi

It must have been really scary for all of you,but i would definitely carry on caravanning.

We travelled to Spain earlier this year and before we went we had puncture seal come out and do all the tyres on our Pajero and caravan so it put our mind at ease a bit can be expensive but well worth it when it was a long run and when we cahange tyres we will do it again.

Reading your post  hippy chick has just made my day.It not put me off going to get the bands in the wheels and get over it.It's like riding a bike once you fall of you have to get striht back on.We live the caravan the people are so friendly.Got to say it beats camping in a tent and trailer tent as we priviosly have.thanks for all your advice and support once again.