Question Rettroband - are they worth it?

[Richpatty]

New member here—I greatly appreciate all the comments in this thread and am planning to contact NIRVC in Atlanta to install the Retrobands on our Dutch Star sometime before the spring.

RichPatty, (assuming you also installed new tires) did you also purchase your tires from them? Or did you have a third party ship them there?

Gary

I had two tires shipped to NIRVC Atlanta and they held them for me until I arrived. I had the other six tires installed locally before.

I did let the service manager know (of course) that they were on their way and put them to the managers attention. I had no issues. NIRVC will also quote tires from a local tire place as well.

Hope this helps
Rich

 

[LeslieGary]

Very helpful—thank you!

 

[Neal]

Some around here are eagerly waiting and wondering about this post...but I'm going to keep it pretty short.

I signed up for Newmar Hoots which I'm at the tail end of located at Hilton Head National RV Resort. When signing up I asked if they were doing RettroBand installs as NIRVC handles the sign up process, the answer was no, they are going to be at a conflicting event. I decided to get new tires installed the week prior to coming to this event and made arrangements to go to NIRVC in "Washington, DC" aka Manassas, VA on November 15th. I had hoped to go before coming to the Hoots rally but NIRVC didn't have the rettroband for my tire in stock.

I get to the event and learn that they ARE doing Rettroband installs and was disappointed as I'm carrying around two heavy tires in the back of my pickup for a month and would really like to have gotten it done here but they only have a few slots (2 a day I think) and they booked up before I got wind of it. Short story - they fit me in due to a cancellation. Great!

In the above thread, or another one, I expressed my concerns on the torsion placed on the tire during the install process and how it may damage the tire, etc. Short story again - they destroyed my brand new Toyo during the install process today, a torn bead they call it. According to one of the staff, it occurs every few months (he said 6-8, who knows, it happens). They are training a new guy here presumably and it happened. The sad situation is they could not find a tire and I was on the phone with my dealer in Virginia that I bought 8 tires from and he could get me one not too far from me mid next week. Finally the guys here found a tire and drove to Augusta, GA (2-1/2 hours) to get it. It's amazing that both Michelin and Toyo are hard to find when we thought Toyo should be the easy ones to find. Kudos to Corey G. for going the extra mile. He had a discussion with me afterwards about doing the right thing vs. trying the other tire. Ummm, that is not an option, I'm glad he chose to do the right thing!

I'm tired, it's been a long day in the heat and my day was pretty much trashed due to this so I got nothing done and couldn't partake in the activities due to the dog. I requested compensation for the situation, it was not met with a pleasant response, sadly, but in the end, it was granted and I'm pleased with the result. For the person I spoke with, if you're reading this, your answer to me immediately should have been "Don't worry, we will make it right."

My concern remains that some tire failures with Rettrobands may be due to the installation itself. While Rettrobands should give you confidence for a blowout situation, my concern is they could be a contributing factor but I hope I'm wrong. The total cost for my size tires which are 305's comes out to around $4k. It's done and I'm done, for the day. Hoping for the best with all 8 new tires now in play.

 

[Joe Hogan]

Neal, Thank you for sharing this. Glad they finally stepped up and took full responsibility.
Regarding your concern about MIF(Maintenance Induced Failure), always a risk. Just too many variables to quantify unless a unmistakable trend emerges like RetroBand V1 installation issues.
Hopefully the 365 tires give them more room to work on the DSDP.

 

[DennisT]

We used to call them “clean and destructs” in the service when doing required maintenance on old equipment. Always a risk.

Glad they did the right thing for you.

 

[DHudson]

Here is my 2 cents worth. Attached is a VERY horrible accident. I did not find a write up about it, but pretty sure the outcome was very bad. My guess is, they had a leak in the left front tire, and low tire pressure cause heat build up with the tire coming apart as a result. They may have struck something in the road and blew the tire as well.
A blowout usually happens when there is air loss and heat builds up in the tire, causing it to come apart..
Low air pressure settings on the Ford Explorer a few years back was the cause of all the blowouts/roll overs. Most of them happen in the hot Nevada type enviroment.
What I am getting at, If you do not have a coach with factory a installed TPMS system, I would highly recommend one. Reguardless if factory installed or aftermarket, maintain it and pay attention to it. Other than stricking something, destroying the tire, it will give you time to come to a stop before you have a accident. I would guess, the majority of blowouts is the result from air loss, that if you were warned of, you could have time to slow down and stop under control.
About the only time I see Rettrobands come into play, is when you strike something and destroy the tire. IF you have a TPMS in good working order, you should have time to slow down to avoid a accident, or worse.

 

[Richpatty]

Here is my 2 cents worth. Attached is a VERY horrible accident. I did not find a write up about it, but pretty sure the outcome was very bad. My guess is, they had a leak in the left front tire, and low tire pressure cause heat build up with the tire coming apart as a result. They may have struck something in the road and blew the tire as well.
A blowout usually happens when there is air loss and heat builds up in the tire, causing it to come apart..
Low air pressure settings on the Ford Explorer a few years back was the cause of all the blowouts/roll overs. Most of them happen in the hot Nevada type enviroment.
What I am getting at, If you do not have a coach with factory a installed TPMS system, I would highly recommend one. Reguardless if factory installed or aftermarket, maintain it and pay attention to it. Other than stricking something, destroying the tire, it will give you time to come to a stop before you have a accident. I would guess, the majority of blowouts is the result from air loss, that if you were warned of, you could have time to slow down and stop under control.
About the only time I see Rettrobands come into play, is when you strike something and destroy the tire. IF you have a TPMS in good working order, you should have time to slow down to avoid a accident, or worse.

If you are insulating that watching your tire pressures, having a TPMS and taking care of your tires you can avoid any issues with tire blow outs, I respectively disagree. I baby my tires in so many ways but still almost had a disaster when a bubble formed on the inside of my tire. I found this after a trip coming out of the VA mountains. This could have been ugly and life threatening. I got luckily. I now have Rettrobands as that extra insurance.

 

[Neal]

I’m an hour on the road and I’ve heard a loud bang twice and I don’t know what it is. I pulled over and inspected and all looks good and pressures are holding. I sent an email to Corey G and Chuck L. and hope someone will call. I’m going to resume my trip but I’m concerned a rettroband has separated. Posting for the record. Resuming travel as I have no idea what it was or what to do.

 

[Neemer]

@Neal , if it helps put your mind at ease, there would be a whole lot of shaking going on if the band had failed. At least that was the reporting of the ver 1.0 failures.

 

[sheridany]

I think @Neemer is right. I recall reading something a while back that if the two pieces became separated, you would know it right away.

 

[Neal]

Thank you both @Neemer and @sheridany. I am stopped at a rest area for a break and no more loud bangs and no vibration.

I emailed Corey and Chuck at the time and promptly got a call from Corey which is above and beyond as we all know on a Sunday morning. He said the same that if it separated I’d hear or feel it. He thinks it was the air bags reseating as he had all tires off the ground and also the camp sites are so out of level we have jacks at or beyond stops. The air bags popped when airing up this morning and I’ve had that happen before. I have never had it happen while driving.

The construction going through Spartanburg on I-26 is bad and certainly would have raised an issue if there was going to be one.

I just followed up with Corey all we well and go an immediate reply from him. Very pleased with the customer service. Now if I could have just borrowed @GlampDaddy’s bottle of bourbon things would be even better. What a few days it’s been!!

 

[sheridany]

Now if I could have just borrowed @GlampDaddy’s bottle of bourbon things would be even better. What a few days it’s been!!

Sounds like a trip to a lil smitty or walla walla is on your horizon.

 

[Neal]

Arrived Asheville with apparently the same number of RV parts I left with so all is well.

 

[Neal]

Here are pics I took during the install. This is the tire that got messed up by this machine that pulls it down while they install the rettroband. On the right side of the first picture is the wheel balancer. Watched them do the second tire, pretty neat system, worked well! This is all in their custom trailer they take to locations to install them.

 

[J&JD]

Toyo’s feel ok?

 

[Bigblockyeti]

The construction going through Spartanburg on I-26 is bad and certainly would have raised an issue if there was going to be one.

I'm out there more often than not and it's way, way better than I-85 between exit 80 and the NC line. That project seems to get 0.000000001% more complete every day.

 

[Neal]

Toyo’s feel ok?

Absolutely, they are balanced well (and have centramatic's now) - no concerns, no regrets, I would buy them again. My Michelin's got a lot of attention as they were out of round and/or had balance issues, two were warranty replaced they were so bad. My concern with the Michelin's being hard to get is "is there a production or supply problem?" And with that, are any corners being cut, etc. We'll see how these go but I am impressed.

 

[Neal]

Before I forget, again! In talking with a guy at Hoots that had a blowout with Rettroband (there were two there I think) he mentioned wishing NIRVC offered a tire replacement tool kit, i.e. the tools you needed to remove a RettroBand. I talked to Corey about this and he said it's nothing you don't already carry, I think he mentioned 13mm socket, so if you have a socket set, you have what you need EXCEPT for as shown in the picture above, you need a socket extension. I may have one on board, I know I have them at home and will put back on board.

One of these I suppose:

Amazon product ASIN B07R5C8RR9
or

Amazon product ASIN B08NFMPB5L

 

[DennisT]

Before I forget, again! In talking with a guy at Hoots that had a blowout with Rettroband (there were two there I think)

So, what were their, or his if you only met one, impressions of how the Rettrobands did during the blowout?

 

[Neal]

I don't have any details but heard nothing bad. At least one of them was on the Michelin 365 and they had a hard time finding a replacement (too) and Steve Showalter (mentioned in the Hoots thread) found a replacement and had it sent down - amazing!! The other one, if not the same one, was supposedly a mile or two prior to a gas station or truck stop and was told, from what I hear, it is okay to drive on the Rettroband to get to safety and that is apparently what they did, with police escort I believe. If anyone knows the real story on these two please chime in.

Brett did talk about the lifetime warranty etc. etc. and if you have a blowout it will be replaced and he stated why - they want to know about every blowout. Brett is very big into statistics as was apparent in his talk he gave.