CapriRacer wrote:
FastEagle wrote:
Can you show us some references?
Here is mine.....TowMax
FE
I note with geat interest that the link leads us to a web site where all the tire loading information is according to the published industry standards - with one exception. That exception MIGHT be a typo (It's only off by a single digit.) It could also be that these guys have decided to deviate from the standard. (That's allowed, but those of us who have been in the business a long time do not recommend that.)
And to address Chris's concern: Industry standards are kind of fixed in stone. They don't vary (much).
In the area we are discussing - ST tires, there is only a single published industry standard - The Tire and Rim Association.
However, there are some folks who do not seem to be following the industry standard - and I point out that every one of those is not a major tire manufacturer - and by "not a major", I mean "Not in the top ten" worldwide.
I can understand that this would look confusing to an outsider.
A side note: We would not be having this conversation if the tires were not failing - and more precisely, failing in fairly large numbers. An odd tire failure or 2 can be dismissed as isloated cases.
But the situation seems to be that there aren't any particular brands of ST tires that are immune to this. This leads me to believe there is something else going on - something generic.
I said on the very first post that I think ST tires need to be sized so the loading is at 85% of the rated load - and this thread has not convinced me otherwise. If anything, it has reinforced it.
Changing to a different tire size/Load Range is not a simple process. Higher load ranges require checking the wheels. Larger tires require checking the fender clearances and rim widths. At the top end, there doesn't appear to be a suitable answer.
I wish there were simple answers here. But there aren't.
This is spot on. The high failure rates are reality and FastEagle has reinforced in the past couple of days with his trips to the RV shows that the industry is cutting things to the bone.
It is not just the RV industry. My daughter wanted me to take her to the Horse Expo World in Harrisburg PA yesterday (actually I guess she took me because she drove -- but I had to go because she only has a learners permit). They make some really nice horse trailers (much better construction than a lot of RVs), but they do the same thing on the tires as the RV industry. And I think I saw most of the tires we talk about on these forums -- Triangle, Goodyear, Kenda, Towmaster, etc. The only thing I did'nt see was Mission.
