Francesca Knowles wrote:
FastEagle wrote:
p.s. I went to a local RV show yesterday. It was a disappointing experience when checking some of the RV trailer specs and then looking at the OE tires. I found that a large dual axle fiver with 6750# (GAWR) axles listed on the certification label was fitted with ST235/80R16E tires rated at 3420# @ 80 psi. That particular trailer had a basement so large it looked like a Smart Car would fit in it.
Travel trailer tire fitment wasn’t much better. I found Certified GAWR 4000# axles fitted with ST205/75R15D tires rated at 2150# @ 65 psi.
Yes. Thanks, FastEagle!
Deliberately undersized original equipment (O.E.) tires is a problem almost always completely overlooked in these endless wrangles about tires.
People are so quick to blame a tire (especially if Chinese) itself for a "failure". Who stops to consider the LIKELIHOOD that the American Hero that built the RV for them put undersized tires on it to begin with?
This is an industry-wide practice, and yet it gets almost no attention. It seems to me that instead of hollering about foreign tires as some like to do, we might be better served by reading the American Made RV industry the Royal Riot Act as regards this glaring O.E. deficiency.
As for difficulties attributed to specific tire types/brands/etc.:
No matter WHAT a tire is made of, which letters it has stamped on it, or where it was made, it's going to fail "prematurely" if it isn't sized right for the job.
Duh!
Maybe it would be also wise if the tire companies would protect themselves by putting a 20% safety margin in their weight ratings and then the margin would not have to worried about! If the RV manufacturers would do the same maybe the whole problem would become noise level.
