Just thought I toss out my experience on this. Most of you guys probably already know this.
If you have rubber valve stems, replace them with the full chrome bolt on valve stems. Save yourself a headache, especially if you load your truck down often. The stores refer to them a high pressure valve stems. You can buy them online, I got mine a autozone from their commerical accounts, you have to ask for them, they are not in their DYI sections.

I had a valve stem fail on my F250 while running 35's (do not have a 35 spare). The stem cracked or seperated where it went into the rim (procomps 16x10 modulars). While I was looking at the flat and playing with the stem I found it would quit or slow down the leaking by pushing towards the rim. Well my redneck engineering degree kick in, I tyrapped the stem towards the rim and filled it up with my portable 12v compressor (45 mins). I limped home and had the stem replaced.
I realized I had tire plugs and sealant in the truck for a tire repair but nothing for a valve stem failure. The valve stems were new a year ago when I had the new tires installed. Looking at the others I found them to be cracked in the same place.
Decided it was time to rotate and balance anyway. I had them check the inside of the tire and yeah, I scuffed the insides with the rim bad enough to have to replace the tire ($180). I now have four 1/2" all chrome bolt valve stems.

 

You're not alone in this happening - I lost a complete valvestem @ 70mph on I-81 while towing. This trashed a perfectly good tire. I got lucky - I didn't get the rim along with it. I make it a point now to check the valve stems when I rotate the tires & plan to replace them about every 20K miles. (roughly 1/2 of the tire's life) This is cheap insurance esp when you regularly tow a lot of weight at high speeds.

I hadn't gone the high pressure route but that sounds like a good idea.

DG

 

You can actually get high pressure stems that you dont have to bolt on. The bad thing about the bolt on ones is they can get a little corrosion under the nut and leak there. Sometimes you can tighten them up to fix them, sometimes ya have to take them right off to fix them, which can be a pita.

 

I had 2 flats with my Excursion from the low pressure rubber valve stems and went to the high pressure metal ones. No problems after that.

 

I've run 35s and 36's, but not over 60lbs. When does this come about?

Could it be an environmental problem or just cheap valve stems?

 

AT 60 psi it would not be a problem. I always ran 80 psi in the Excursion. In my 450 I run 75 front / 80 rear when empty; 100/100 with the camper on.

 

I think its just cheap valve stems - my rear tires are set @ 70lbs & the fronts @ 60 lbs. I am running BFG commercial rated tires although this shouldn't make a hoot of a difference as far as the stems go.

One thing I've noticed lately is the local tire places around here are starting to push 'valve stem' replacements @ the tire alignment & rotation/balance intervals. It doesn't take a tire tech long to pop a new stem in.

Wonder if they've seen more issues lately - guess I'll ask next time I send a truck over to have the tires balanced/rotated.

DG

 

When i worked at a tire shop, I installed a new stem in each time i did a flat repair, or installed a new or used tire. it just makes sence to do that. The stems can get wear and tear on them quite abit from taking a tire on a rim, and putting it back on.

A good tire tech should ask how much psi a guy is gonna have in his tire, and know what kind of stem to install too.