TIRE TIME!
Time to replace the 4 tires on out fiver as they ar 6 years old... We have the Goodyear Marathon G614 tires LT235/85R16 "G" and have had no problems with them... The place I go for tires is main...
Forum Discussion
Me Again wrote:
The problems with ST tires started before they were made in china! ST tires are a contradiction in engineering. Take a light weight thinly constructed tire and give it a higher rating than industry standards for automotive/light truck tires and expect it to do well on a heavy RV trailer with a high static weight defyies the laws of physics.
True commercial grade tires like the Michelin XPS Rib and Bridgestone Duravis R250 weight 10 or more lbs more than most poly carcass tires in the same size. I recently installed commercial grade poly carcass LT265/75R16E Bridgestone Duravis R500HD on my truck. They weigh 55 lbs each and have two ply poly side wall, two steel belts and a Nylon cap. The M&S2 in this size weighs 47 lbs. I will be posting about this R500 tire over time.
If someone built a trailer tire to those kind of standards we would not see all the failures. They would however cost a lot more.
So we can blame the chinese but the real problem lies with an industry that pushs these problematic tires off onto the consumer. The inflated ratings give them more capacity at bargain basement prices. For years they also supplied wheels that did not allow an upgrade to LRG tires. Once it is out the door it is no longer their problem. It is sad that the RV trailer industry does this!
Chris
Chris, I don't think that they =would= cost a lot more. If the tire companies that are selling the LTs that we're using on these middle-weight RVs would simply take say, an R250 or XPS, and rebrand it as an ST with a =reasonable= upstep in capacity, we'd all be satisfied, I think. The big thing is that LTs are passenger-rated and have a much higher "safety margin" than do trailer tires, where no passengers are involved (in most cases), so they simply don't need that "safety margin". You'd have economies of scale in that you'd be making virtually the same carcass, just with a different sidewall pattern in the mold and you wouldn't run into the dealers that "won't install an LT tire" on a trailer. Maybe it's just too damn logical... :h
Lyle
