China Bombs Got Me
I have read many posts about the poor quality of tires RV manufacturers are putting on new RV's. Well these tires (the infamous Tow Max Power King) blew on my 5er causing damage. I always check for p...
Forum Discussion
I see this as a multi-level problem:
1) We know that people don't do a good job of checking tire inflation pressures. We can verify that by looking at the results of surveys taken of tires in use.
2) We also know that trailer manufacturers haven't done a good job of supplying tires that have enough rated load carrying capacity. We can verify that by looking at the results of surveys taken of trailer in use - usually done at the same time the tire pressure loads surveys are done.
Side note: Either the trailer manufacturers need to do a better job of estimating the actual loading their trailers experience - OR - they need to do a better job of selecting tires that are rated to carry the loads the tires are being subjected to - or both! (Personally, I vote for both.)
Further, there seems to be a misconception that a) tires are loaded evenly (based on many many comments about weighing the trailer then dividing by 4 to get the tire load) and b) that the tire load tables are recommendations (It says "maximum load" for a given inflation pressure)
3) The tires themselves need to be further developed. I note with interest that most of the large tire manufacturers do not produce ST type tires. The only large manufacturers of note are Goodyear and Cheng Shin (Maxxis).
So I think it is fair to ask about the weight of the trailer (See #1 and #2 above). I see this as less a criticism of the owner and more a step in helping sort out what the cause of the tire failure was - and we know that there is some overloading taking place.
It's also fair to criticize the tire manufacturers.
It's also fair to criticize the trailer manufacturers.
I do not think there is a single answer to the broad question. I'll bet that the reason NHTSA hasn't done anything about ST tires (that we know of) is that they are aware of the loading issues and they are aware that very few trailer tire failures lead to personal injuries - and since "Traffic Safety" is what NHTSA is all about, the lack of personal injury reports doesn't make much of a case for their intervention.
So I say again: If you have a tire failure, report it to NHTSA. They will not act unless there are a large number of reports.
1) We know that people don't do a good job of checking tire inflation pressures. We can verify that by looking at the results of surveys taken of tires in use.
2) We also know that trailer manufacturers haven't done a good job of supplying tires that have enough rated load carrying capacity. We can verify that by looking at the results of surveys taken of trailer in use - usually done at the same time the tire pressure loads surveys are done.
Side note: Either the trailer manufacturers need to do a better job of estimating the actual loading their trailers experience - OR - they need to do a better job of selecting tires that are rated to carry the loads the tires are being subjected to - or both! (Personally, I vote for both.)
Further, there seems to be a misconception that a) tires are loaded evenly (based on many many comments about weighing the trailer then dividing by 4 to get the tire load) and b) that the tire load tables are recommendations (It says "maximum load" for a given inflation pressure)
3) The tires themselves need to be further developed. I note with interest that most of the large tire manufacturers do not produce ST type tires. The only large manufacturers of note are Goodyear and Cheng Shin (Maxxis).
So I think it is fair to ask about the weight of the trailer (See #1 and #2 above). I see this as less a criticism of the owner and more a step in helping sort out what the cause of the tire failure was - and we know that there is some overloading taking place.
It's also fair to criticize the tire manufacturers.
It's also fair to criticize the trailer manufacturers.
I do not think there is a single answer to the broad question. I'll bet that the reason NHTSA hasn't done anything about ST tires (that we know of) is that they are aware of the loading issues and they are aware that very few trailer tire failures lead to personal injuries - and since "Traffic Safety" is what NHTSA is all about, the lack of personal injury reports doesn't make much of a case for their intervention.
So I say again: If you have a tire failure, report it to NHTSA. They will not act unless there are a large number of reports.
