DId your RV company or dealer follow Federal law?

Been reading a number of posts on recalls, violations of federal safety standards in the RV industry and on tire and fire extinguisher recalls.
If you have been a reader of my blog you know that I am a strong proponent of filing complaints on failures of safety-related systems and of tires to NHTSA.

You can read a portion of the Federal Regulations on what RV companies are supposed to do HERE as far as the regulations relate to identifying who owns what tire in case there is a recall.
Obviously, if the S/N ( full DOT serial including the date numbers at the end) of a tire is not recorded when the tire is sold there is no reliable way for a tire company to contact owners of tires that are under a recall order.

Selling dealers have the following responsibility
"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires that tire dealers must provide every tire purchaser with a pre-addressed completed tire registration form OR complete the tire registration process electronically on behalf of the tire purchaser (49 CFR Part 574.8). This is not voluntary, tire dealers must do one or the other"

When a vehicle is sold (car, light truck, or RV) the tires are "sold" with the vehicle. The regulation says "tire dealer" but obviously just because a company sells vehicles and doesn't think of themselves as a "tire dealer" they are in fact selling tires.

However, I have found that few people have received the appropriate forms. Did you receive a form with the purchase of your last set of tires at the tire store, or with the tires that were shipped to you if you bought them online?  How about when you bought a new or used RV?

You say you bought your RV used so you don't think the tire ownership needs to be registered? Well, I know of nothing prohibiting a tire being covered under a recall just because ownership was transferred. The entire reason for this registration is simply to let either NHTSA or the tire company contact the owner of tires covered by a recall. The information is not used for any other purpose.

IMO the odds are that very few of you received the pre-addressed form or if you did you may not have bothered to complete the information.

Well HERE is a website that you can fill in the information and submit it online and don't even need a stamp.

I started this post and mentioned Fire Extinguishers. If you have following the RVTravel.com blog you know about the recall and free replacement of potentially defective extinguishers. You may have discovered you have one or more of the covered units. Unlike tires, fire extinguisher ownership is not registered so there will be millions of extinguishers that are not replaced simply because people do not know about the recall and Kiddy company has no way of contacting the owners.

Do yourself a favor and register all your tires RV, Car or truck. Who knows you may just end up with a new set of tires if the ones you have are covered under a recall.

RV tire recall - Cooper 22.5's

Here is some SAFETY info.
Report Receipt Date: MAR 15, 2016
NHTSA Campaign Number: 16T003000
Component(s): TIRES

Manufacturer: Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.

SUMMARY:

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (Cooper) is recalling certain Roadmaster RM234 tires, size 295/75R22.5, manufactured August 6, 2015, to September 5, 2015 (weeks 3115-3515). The affected tires may have a pin-sized hole in the sidewall that can result in a loss of air.

CONSEQUENCE:

A loss of tire air pressure can cause sudden tire failure, increasing the risk of a crash.

REMEDY:

Cooper will notify owners, and dealers will replace the tires including the mounting and balancing, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule. Owners may contact Cooper customer service at 1-800-854-6288. Cooper's number for this recall is 4Y.

NOTES:

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

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I have mentioned that reporting tire failures to NHTSA is something all RV owners should be doing. I also have mentioned that you need to be sure your tires are "registered" so that in the event of a recall the company can contact you.  In the above notice it says the tire company will notify owners of suspect tires but if the owners didn't bother to register their tires there is no way the company or NHTSA can contact the owner.

Do you have defective tires? How would you know your tires should be recalled?

While many may suspect their tires are defective because they have had a tire failure, that isn't really a recognized way to know for sure.

US DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does make official determinations on which tires are in a group that might fail. They do issue tire recall orders just as they issue recalls for other suspect defective automotive components.

 A major problem with tires, however, is that according to a brand new report only 1 in 5 tires that are subject to a recall are actually replaced. The suggested primary reason for the low replacement rate is blamed on the low level of tire registrations that are submitted by either vehicle sales outlets or retail tire dealers.

I bet if you think back to the last set of tires you purchased either for your car, truck or RV you were not given a form to complete and mail in to ensure that you would be notified in the event there was a recall issued by NHTSA. This might also apply to the purchase of the tires that came on your RV.
I know that my RV dealer didn't have a clue when I asked them, so I went online and registered them directly with the tire manufacturer.

I have written a number of times on the importance of filing a complaint with NHTSA when you suspect a tire was defective. NHTSA makes a decision on starting an investigation or not, based on complaints received and the seriousness of the consequences of a tire failure. So while you may think the failure is important, unless there are a number of complaints on file there will likely never be an investigation started and with no investigation there is almost certainly not going to be a recall. You need to remember that posting information on an RV forum grousing about tires while sitting around the campfire may make you feel better but it will never result in an investigation or recall or real improvement in the quality of tires applied to RVs.

I have also written a few times here on the importance of registering your tire and these two topics Registering and Recalls are closely related.

If you haven't registered your tires, it is never too late to do so. It doesn't have to be done when new -- it's just easier. Review my posts on the process. You can contact your tire dealer and ask about registration. If they can't or won't help, then I suggest a simple Google of "Tire Registration" will provide the information you need to complete the process.

Of course, a letter to NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, West Building, Washington DC 20590   about difficulty you may have in registering your tires might spur them to address the problem outlined in the article.

As Pogo said "We have met the enemy and he is us". When it comes to making the minor effort to file a complaint when you have a tire failure and to ensure you will be notified in the event of a recall by submitting the card with the appropriate information to register your tires, we RV owners as a group certainly have nothing to be proud of.


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Tire recalls and Registration

Here are some details on the recent RV tire recall:

 NHTSA Campaign ID Number: 14T015 
Synopsis: Dynamic Tire Corp. (Dynamic) is recalling certain Towmax STR tires, size ST225/75 R15 manufactured June 15, 2014, to October 14, 2014. The affected tires may have the Incorrect Load Capacity and Inflation Pressure Stampings. Thus, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 119. The misinformation on the label could lead a driver to over-inflate the tires. Tire over-inflation may increase the risk of a tire failure which can increase the risk of a crash. Dynamic will notify owners, and dealers will replace all eligible tires, free of charge. Owners may contact Dynamic customer service at 1-905-595-3593.

The details are that 17,000+ Load Range D Towmax tires with DOT serial ADB4GPD2414 through  ADB4GPD4214are subject to the recall and are to be replaced FREE of charge.

One bit of information that many will skip over is the part where it says Dynamic will notify owners. While this is standard language in recall notices it overlooks a major problem. Just how is Dynamic supposed to know the owner's name & address?

According to Federal law all DOT tires are supposed to be registered and that information is supposed to be entered in a big database to enable future contact in case of a recall. The problem is that according to various studies only about 17% of tires sold by dealers have the necessary registration forms completed and sent to the registration authority.

Do you know if all your tires have been registered? If not then you will probably never know about a tire safety recall.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
        Note this is not limited to Towmax brand tires but applies to all of your car, truck, trailer or motorhome tires.

Confirm that your RV Dealership registered the tires on your trailer or motorhome. If you bought your car or truck new from the company dealer the tires are probably registered.
 You might start by asking what their policy is. You may find some confusion or hemming and hawing on the part of the dealer, I would take as indication that they did not do the task they are supposed to do by law.

Car and truck dealers may do a better job but we all know what can happen if we "assume" someone is doing the job they are supposed to do.I would see nothing wrong with using the on-line registration process below,just to be sure.

If you bought tires directly from a tire dealer you should ask them what their policy is. Some will have clear statements such as we see from Tire Rack. BUT if you get that uncertain response there is a good chance the tires you bought were not registered. Probably the smaller the tire or RV dealership the lower the probability the tires were registered

You can do the job yourself at TireRegistration.com    or simply Google Tire registration and see if your tire brand has a sight just for registering your tires.

Please don't be concerned that this is some "Big Brother" conspiracy. I have never heard of this information being used for any purpose other than notification of a recall.

Finally if you have changed mailing address you might want to update the tire registration. Remember you will need the full DOT serial including the date codes for each tire.

If in doubt on how to read your tire serial number, reviewing THIS post will help.

	Subscribe to the weekly RVtravel.com newsletter or one of our other newsletters about RVing. Great information and advice. Now in our 14th year. Learn more or subscribe.