Unsafe at any speed....

Here's some background. Bought the RV new in 2006. It's a 294RLS Cougar tow behind 30'. The factory tires were TOWMAX ST, 225/75R15. The factory tires lasted for three years, then I changed out the four road tires for four Hercules tires of the same size.

Last year, all four of the Hercules tires failed. One blew out on a straight section of highway in California. I put on the spare and we drove to Quartzite AZ. The other three road tires were defective, they all three had various stages of tread separation. The rubber was separating from the carcass. Two other the three had steel belt showing through the tread and chunks of rubber were missing from the carcasses.

All four of these tires had been inspected before we left Washington State. The tires were inflated to 65 pounds per S.I. which is the maximum pressure. The pressures and temps. were being monitored by a TST-507 TPMS system and all of the pressures were constant and temp. were around 80 degrees. There had been no major impacts to the tires that I can recall. Our RV has been weighed and we have always been under the maximum loaded weight. I'm a grampa driver and we travel at 60-65 MPH maximum. The Hercules tires had less than 2/32's of tread wear. We did receive a refund of $250.00 from Hercules after they inspected the tires but they refused to discuss why they failed.

I replaced all four of the Hercules tires with Maxxis and we continued on our way. The dealer only had four Maxxis tires so I put the Towmax spare back on the spare tire holder.

Yesterday I was outside, and I heard a loud "bang", and I walked over to the trailer and the spare tire had exploded. See photos below. The spare tire had only been used the one time when the Hercules tire blew out in California, and had a total of 50 miles on the tread. The Towmax spare tire has always been covered and was inflated to 65 pounds. It was not hot, it was about 75 degrees.

The force of the rupture shredded our spare tire cover and you can see threads from the cover in the photos.

Something is really wrong when a tire can just explode while on the spare tire holder. Something is wrong when four Hercules tires all fail at the same approximate time, and they all show the same or similar defects. These substandard tires are dangerous and I wish there was an agency that would investigate why these crappy tires are failing.

We're careful and I've towed RV's since the mid 70's.