The rig next to me had a no name 16" ST failure this last fall and a guy across the street and down a couple spaces had a GY G614 failure. Both had lots of damage with wiring and metal braces on the slide on the ST one ripped out. The G614 did similar damage including a gas line.
The G614 is an interesting issue. The guys I know that have lost 4 or 5 G614's had the failures over quite few years, with both older and newer G614's. I do not know their weights to know if they were overloaded. They were full timing in the rig and crossing back and forth across the country in the Southern (hot) States.
On paper the G614 is very similar to the Michelin XPS RIB, the Bridgestone Duravis R250 and the Goodyear G949RSA all steel LRE tires. They all weigh in at between 55-61 poounds.
The G614 is rated to 3750 at 110 pounds inflation and the other three are rated to 3042 pounds at 80 pounds inflation. So way do we hear about G614 failures and not about failures of the other three? Is it that extra 708 pounds of capacity is beyond the capability of a 16 tire or that the extra 30 pounds of inflation make it more prone to impact damage? Maybe a combination of both? Do G614's run hotter at heavy loads?
How many trailer tire failures are there with users that have TPMS verses those that do not have TPMS systems? I have what I think are some of the best tires available on my trailer, however I am exposed to a tire slowly losing air pressure and the cascading effect to failure that can occur. I was going to install a TPMS with my in R250's however they did not have the correct metal valve stems while we were mounting them.
It would be interesting to know on the Sumitomo failure above if it was a sudden failure and if the user had a TPMS system. Just about any tire that loses air over a period of time and continuing to run at highway speed is going to have a bad ending!
Chris
