Sailun Tire Failure

To be honest with you all, I don't watch this forum closely. In fact a friend of mine sent me a link to this post.

After reading the posts, I was curious as to what Sailun reps would have to say. I reached out to a contact at Sailun and got this response:

I am the Segment Manager for Sailun Tire America. Thank you for being a Sailun customer and sorry that you had an issue with your Sailun S637.

I will try to be as brief and detailed with my reply as possible. I looked at the picture you included with your post. As other respondents indicated, it is difficult to fully analyze a tire failure from just a photo.

I will offer up the following. You indicated your tires are 2 years old. In my experience (30+ years primarily in commercial truck tires and retreading), if there is a manufacturing defect, it will normally rear itself very early (less than 6 months) in the life of the tire. So, I would like to rule that out.

In looking at the damage to the tire in your photo, the damage to the steel sidewall cord indicates the tire was run low on air (heat buildup) at some point in time. It may have been inflated to 100 psi during the trip you were currently on, however; the tire could have been run low at an earlier point in its life and the catastrophic failure may take days, weeks or months to occur due to the continued use under a compromised structure.

It is possible there was some kind of sidewall abrasion. Although, I would expect the failure to be more concentrated to a smaller area. Again, the damage could have occurred at an earlier point in time and the failure would be delayed.

In response to some of the respondents about Chinese made tires being "****", I would say it is the factory of origin that determines the quality of the tire, not the country of origin. Sailun tires are built in factories with some of the most advanced equipment in the tire manufacturing world. In fact, Mesnac equipment (a Sailun company) builds and supplies tire manufacturing equipment for many other tire manufacturers globally. Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear all have factories in China.

Our U.S. sales on the Sailun S637 ST are in excess of 120,000 tires per year. I have been with Sailun Tire for 5 years now and can count on two hands the number of warranty claims we've had. The tire works very well.

I won't go into load and inflation recommendations in this response but, should you want further information about the facts on load and inflation, I would love to provide details that you could post for all users.

Alan Eagleson, Segment Manager, Sailun Tire Americas

fj12ryder wrote:
My extremely snarky comment that started "I don't think there's much light ..." was in no way aimed at the OP. I do apologize to "Cummins2014" for seeming to make such a comment aimed at him. I'm very sorry for the misunderstanding. It would appear that I'm not quite as cute as I think I am. Although my wife constantly tells me so, it would appear she is correct. :)

Thanks, all is good.

My extremely snarky comment that started "I don't think there's much light ..." was in no way aimed at the OP. I do apologize to "Cummins2014" for seeming to make such a comment aimed at him. I'm very sorry for the misunderstanding. It would appear that I'm not quite as cute as I think I am. Although my wife constantly tells me so, it would appear she is correct. :)

philh wrote:
I wrote NTSB, I meant NHTSA

Here is the link

Thanks

I wrote NTSB, I meant NHTSA

Here is the link

philh wrote:
I've several reports of Sailun tire failures.

PLEASE report this to NTSB. They take tire failures very serious.

Say it ain't so Ethyl.

RollandB wrote:
A junk China tire would have beat the snot out of the rig.

The tire was pretty intact, no tread separation whatsoever . I am sure it would of not taken much longer for it to start really coming apart. Having never had this happen before, I didn't realize how hot a tire could get when flat ,and the amount of smoke coming off of it.

philh wrote:
I've several reports of Sailun tire failures.

PLEASE report this to NTSB. They take tire failures very serious.

That I can do, but I didn't keep the tire, or have any desire to pursue anything with Sailun. Not sure what NTSB needs from me .

I've several reports of Sailun tire failures.

PLEASE report this to NTSB. They take tire failures very serious.

JIMNLIN wrote:

You won't see American made tires that are two years old with the sidewalls blowing out.

And

Chinese tires are junk.

These type comments aren't made from anyone that has been around the industry using LDT pulling heavy GN/pintle trailers....or even pulled several heavy rv trailer for many years or miles.
Facts are Some of the better P/ST/LT tires on the road are made in china.
Lots of newbs to the trailering world come on a rv website and read about all the issues with chine made ST tires we were having especially some years back...then assume all china made tires are junk.:R
With over 1.2 million miles hauling LTL with LDT and these type tires and trailer sizes I and others have had the same issues pop up with all USA brand tires....rare but this can show up running that many miles. I personally have had more issues with Goodyear P...LT...ST tires but I'm not ignorant to say Goodyear makes junk tires.
.........................................

Yeah the American made G614 load G have the worst record of the G tire lineup although to their credit Goodyear has worked hard at making it a more durable tire and they have improved the last several years.

Other USA made 16" G load tires recommended for trailer service....haven't heard of any. There are several off shore made 16" G tires carrying old USA brand names like Gladiators......Hercules....others....which around here were mostly sold around small town stores...feed stores...grain elevators. Farm and ranch operations which also catered to construction types.

Maybe the OP can shed more light ??

Not sure what additional light I can shed on it. The DOT on the tire was three months old at the time I purchased it, as were the other three. This new replacement is 4 months old.

Close to 5k on the failed tire, its been run in 20 -100 degree weather, just over 2 years . Based on the weight of my trailer , average weight on each tire 2625. Granted thats not each axle being weighted separately , but a tire with a 4400 lb. rating ,its save to say I was far from overloaded .

I will go out on a limb here, there is argument to inflation charts, some say follow ,some say not. I run them at 10 psi under their max load inflation of 110 psi. I inflate my rear tires on my truck to 80 psi, when warmed up they are at 86-87 . Its save to say those Sailuns are running at least 110 psi when warm. I know they are designed to run 110 plus when running, but running them 10 psi under ,IMO has no effect on them ,nor did it have anything to do with the one failing.

Here is what I think, and I repeat. I either ran over something, although we could find nothing in the tread area , puncture, nail, whatever. Inside , or out. Or the jagged edge of a pothole got it, the damage is just below the tread area. The potholes were not minor, they were deep ,and rough, and there was no way to miss them all .

Other then a defective tire, no other clue, it was 100 psi when I left Las Vegas, I went 80 miles before it failed.