Tire Brand

gitane59 wrote:

boshog wrote:

I'm very interested in this subject, I'm getting ready to go full time traveling around our country. I don't need the grief or expense of tire blow-outs. I did purchase a TPMS system for the trailer tires which also reports back tire temperatures.

Keep in mind we have had numerous reports over the years of ST tires loosing their treads entirely doing damaged to the trailer sides with no lose of air pressure or any other warnings until the damaged was done.
True to the lack of factual data of trailer tire failures but unlike the Firestone/Explorer debacle in which many lives were lost with ST tires failures the result is only property damage. Therefore for every ST tire failure reported on internet trailer forums of all kinds I can only imagine how many hundreds of ST failures occur that never get discussed publicly only cussed privately.
For those of us that have experienced and followed this topic on may different trailer forums on the internet the ratio of LT failures compared to ST failures is infinitesimally small.
If you only intend to tow your trailer to your seasonal campground and back twice a season then leave the OEM delivery tires on, but if you plan to tow thousands of miles it seems cheap insurance to install a proven quality tires rather then leaving unknown no-name supplier provided cheapest OEM specified tires on your rig worth tens of thousands of dollars.
I do challenge any newcomer to this topic to avail themselves of a dismounted ST tire and a comparable sized dismounted LT tire and compared both sidewall strength and overall tires weight and comeback and tell me which tire they want under their trailer.

A 3" nail (under the right conditions) will take out any tire regardless of weight. That argument is not really a good one......At speed the nail will go through the tread and exit the sidewall, blowing the tire regardless of what it weighs.

Really depends on the weight of the trailer. Never had issues with STs on my previous 7Klb bumper pull but not willing to risk it on my new 12Klb GVWR 5er. Going in Wednesday for Bridgestone Duravis R250s. Not cheap but will never have to be concerned with blowouts when going down the road.

So the only way to be safe is to only buy a trailer that will allow LT tires on it? Everyone else is a danger to themselves and others and will have a blowout that will destroy part of their trailer.
That's what I gather from theses tire threads.

Not sure if I even want to take my trailer out anymore, since it has ST tires. Maybe I'll just stay close to home, like maybe a 40 mile round trip.

boshog wrote:

I'm very interested in this subject, I'm getting ready to go full time traveling around our country. I don't need the grief or expense of tire blow-outs. I did purchase a TPMS system for the trailer tires which also reports back tire temperatures.

Keep in mind we have had numerous reports over the years of ST tires loosing their treads entirely doing damaged to the trailer sides with no lose of air pressure or any other warnings until the damaged was done.
True to the lack of factual data of trailer tire failures but unlike the Firestone/Explorer debacle in which many lives were lost with ST tires failures the result is only property damage. Therefore for every ST tire failure reported on internet trailer forums of all kinds I can only imagine how many hundreds of ST failures occur that never get discussed publicly only cussed privately.
For those of us that have experienced and followed this topic on may different trailer forums on the internet the ratio of LT failures compared to ST failures is infinitesimally small.
If you only intend to tow your trailer to your seasonal campground and back twice a season then leave the OEM delivery tires on, but if you plan to tow thousands of miles it seems cheap insurance to install a proven quality tires rather then leaving unknown no-name supplier provided cheapest OEM specified tires on your rig worth tens of thousands of dollars.
I do challenge any newcomer to this topic to avail themselves of a dismounted ST tire and a comparable sized dismounted LT tire and compared both sidewall strength and overall tires weight and comeback and tell me which tire they want under their trailer.

I'm sold on proper spec LT tires for 5ers, looking forward to many miles of trouble free travel. Won't seem me with China Bombs anytime soon, not worth the risk.

After many years of towing trailers on the farm and now about 13 years of 5th wheels, I've found 2 different tires that have been trouble free. Both were LTs. I have a lot of sets of Maxxis. Right now on my 5th I have a set of Michelin LTs. The Michelins are 4 5o 5 years old. If I buy a new trailer and they are not name brand I get rid of them fast. I've only had one 5th that came with Michelins. all the rest I had to replace the tires.

I have mixed views on tire brands now,stopped in at trailer and rv sales centre and noticed all tires on travel and fifth plus cargo trailers had all none brand tires on them

As far as cheap st tires go I'll add this to the discussion.In 2008 my oem st tires began to fail on my current 5er one after another within a 100 miles or so of each other.

The cheap import st replacements also began to fail about 18 months later,luckily I caught all 8 tires before any catastrophic damage was done.

Now to the cheap part !! I worked in the industrial tire business for many many years and had access to distributor pricing as well as wholesale pricing for tires, otr / truck or passenger application.

My loose tire price for ST 235/80R/16 LRE ranged from $32.00 to $48.00 each and included several different import brands,some had the same tread pattern some didn't, some of the brands had the same DOT number hint...hint.

My distributor price on the least expensive Michelin LT 235/85R/16 LRE was $188.00 per tire (loose) I could buy 4 st's for what 1 Michelin cost !!

There is a huge difference between a high quality manufactured LT tire and a cheap overrated ST import... just pick 1 of each up and the difference is realized immediately,also pull on the sidewalls.

I ended up with 235/85R/16 LRE BFG Commercial TA's which were flawless... but got recalled and replaced with Michelin XPS Ribs of the same size and couldn't be more satisfied.

Returned from a south Georgia camping trip last week and the XPS ribs were slightly warm with the cruise set on 70mph turning 2000 rpm's.

Me Again wrote:
Come down to Arizona and spend some time with snowbirds that travel thousands of miles in a few days to get here and back home on these cheap ST tires and you will find a very high percent of failures. In the fall they are easy to identify, has the side of their trailer is still torn up.

What is the percentage of snowbird tire failures? One in ten? Come on guys, enough with the emotional posts, lets put down some facts and learn from it. What is a "cheap ST tire", are you going by country of manufactures, brand name, the price of the tire?

I did some simple research and discovered there is no US government mandated tire testing requirements. The closest I found is a recommendation from the NHTSA.

Light Vehicle Tire Standard
The agency proposes that a new tire standard FMVSS No. 139 apply to tires used on passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, buses and trailers with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less. It would apply to all P-metric and LT tires up to load range E, and would not apply to motorcycles.

www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/rulings/UpgradeTire/Econ/TireUpgradeII.html


Lack of Government Testing
Contrary to what many believe, tires are not subjected to any government testing, inspection or approval before they are sold. The tire industry is entirely self-regulated when it comes to design criteria. There are government regulations applicable to the industry, but the only government regulations that even arguably address tire safety are a set of wheel tests that were originally developed decades ago when tires did not even have steel belts to separate. The tests involve the tire company running a few sample tires for a matter of hours on a test wheel at varying speeds and loads, and also subjecting a few tires to some basic puncture resistance protocols. Determining whether a given tire design/production is safe is left entirely to the tire companies.

www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/general-information-about-tire-testing-and-regulation

Come down to Arizona and spend some time with snowbirds that travel thousands of miles in a few days to get here and back home on these cheap ST tires and you will find a very high percent of failures. In the fall they are easy to identify, has the side of their trailer is still torn up.

Driving in the hot SW fall and spring weather does not help.

My hat is off to Big Horn and Heartland. All of the new big Horns we have been looking at come with LRG Sailun OEM and 7K axles, which includes the smaller ones that could get by on 6K axles.

Chris