RV tires put up with a lot. They carry heavy loads, usually without complaint. Often they’re underinflated or overloaded, and usually we don’t give them a second thought. Add to the problem, when winter rolls around and many RVers are summarily “dismissed” for the season, the tires suffer the indignity of sitting around doing largely nothing.
In that time of “doing nothing” those normally round tires begin to leave their round state. Like the man says, “but they’re only flat on the bottom.” The trouble with parking tires for long periods of time while doing nothing is the tendency to “flat spot,” which as it sounds, is to develop a flat spot. That’s because tires do have a bit of memory, and they don’t get Alzheimer’s. Pull “out of the dock” next spring and your tires will remind you of their memory with a rough ride. In extreme cases they may hold a permanent flat spot.
What’s to do? Always leave your tires inflated. Don’t take the philosophy that decreasing tire pressure for storage will help–it will only make it worse. If possible, move the rig if you can, say at least once a month. If you can’t, then if there’s a way to carefully (and safely) jack and block the rig to keep the rig from sitting on the tires, you’ll be miles ahead. There’s various schools of thought that seem to think you should park your rig so the tires aren’t in direct contact with the ground or even concrete. We’ll provide the answer to that perenial issue in an upcoming posting.
cartoon courtesy city of houston, texas
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