Any personal experience with Westlake Super ST tires?

Well I see the China bashers are out. If you goggle Firestone 521 you will find U.S.A. tires that were made in the 70s that were blowing up all over the place.

Or how about the Wilderness AT recall-
At 11:00 am on Wednesday, August 9, 2000, Bridgestone/Firestone (Firestone) and Ford announced jointly that Firestone will recall approximately 14.4 million tires that contain a safety-related defect. (Most of the tires in question were original equipment on Ford vehicles, primarily the Ford Explorer, although a small number were used as original equipment on other manufacturers' vehicles, and they have been used as replacement tires on a wide variety of models.)

The recall will cover all P235/75 R15 Firestone ATX and ATX II tires (from 1991 to the present) and all P235/75R15 Wilderness AT tires (from 1996 to the present) manufactured at Firestone's Decatur, IL plant. Firestone does not plan to recall the approximately 5.6 million Wilderness AT tires manufactured at its other plants (Joliet, Canada and Wilson, NC) or other models of Wilderness tires. Firestone estimates that approximately 6.5 million of the tires covered by the recall (which include original equipment, replacement, and full-size, non-temporary spare tires) are still on the road.

How we conveniently forget. Enough said.

The new Westlake tire has a nylon cap it didn't have before. They are some of the recent manufacturers that have added the cap like the highly touted "Mx" brand.

They are as good as any other. Just watch your speed and inflation. Do not exceed 65mph.

wmoses wrote:

JJBIRISH wrote:
Normally manufacturers, must offer customers a remedy at no charge... NHTSA will monitor your corrective action and will oversee the management to ensure success… but with the manufacture being Chinese owned located in Communist China how much power does the NHTSA have to enforce an American ordered recall???

The fact is communism has nothing to do with the lack of influence of any US government agency on a company in another sovereign state. Heck the US has a hard enough time getting states to obey some federal laws. The rest of your point is generally fine stateside.

All of the major foreign tire manufacturer plants are operating with some ISO certifications. They are just not able to sell tires into the USA market without a DOT certification. That is going to require some degree of ISO certification.

Take a look at ISO/TS 16949 and ISO 14001.

FastEagle

JJBIRISH wrote:
Normally manufacturers, must offer customers a remedy at no charge... NHTSA will monitor your corrective action and will oversee the management to ensure success… but with the manufacture being Chinese owned located in Communist China how much power does the NHTSA have to enforce an American ordered recall???

The fact is communism has nothing to do with the lack of influence of any US government agency on a company in another sovereign state. Heck the US has a hard enough time getting states to obey some federal laws. The rest of your point is generally fine stateside.

JJBIRISH wrote:

FastEagle wrote:
Most tire brands and designs have had a share of the recall process. Most often the recalls are initiated by the brand manufacturer.

Most decisions to conduct a recall and remedy a safety defect are made voluntarily by manufacturers prior to any involvement by NHTSA. Through their own tests, inspection procedures, and information-gathering systems, manufacturers often discover that a safety defect exists or that the requirements of a Federal safety standard have not been met. The manufacturer is obligated to report such findings to the Government and take appropriate action to correct the problem.

Many well known brand name tires have had recall actions that have not proven to be detrimental to the manufacturers reputation for quality products. Mistakes are made, rectified and the product returns to the market.

The reference contains a random sample of a voluntary recall action by a major tire manufacturer.

Look Here!

FastEagle

The Westlake recall was not a voluntary recall by the tires manufacture… the mfg. denied there was a problem with the tire, even after testing and forensic analysis showed they were deficient…
Plus the problem with the tire wasn’t just a mistake… it was a deliberate decision to take short cuts in deleting known critical parts of the tire during its construction even though they were specified to be there… the importer notified the NHTSA of the problem who after investigating issued the recall to the importer that didn’t have the resources for it…

Normally manufacturers, must offer customers a remedy at no charge... NHTSA will monitor your corrective action and will oversee the management to ensure success… but with the manufacture being Chinese owned located in Communist China how much power does the NHTSA have to enforce an American ordered recall???

The American importer becomes the mfg. often without the resources to cover the recall…

Here is a news item about the recall.

Click Here!

In 2011, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. was the tenth largest tire maker in the world, with $4.26 billion worth of sales.

FastEagle

Added reference - 1
Added reference - 2
The recall document

FastEagle wrote:
Most tire brands and designs have had a share of the recall process. Most often the recalls are initiated by the brand manufacturer.

Most decisions to conduct a recall and remedy a safety defect are made voluntarily by manufacturers prior to any involvement by NHTSA. Through their own tests, inspection procedures, and information-gathering systems, manufacturers often discover that a safety defect exists or that the requirements of a Federal safety standard have not been met. The manufacturer is obligated to report such findings to the Government and take appropriate action to correct the problem.

Many well known brand name tires have had recall actions that have not proven to be detrimental to the manufacturers reputation for quality products. Mistakes are made, rectified and the product returns to the market.

The reference contains a random sample of a voluntary recall action by a major tire manufacturer.

Look Here!

FastEagle

The Westlake recall was not a voluntary recall by the tires manufacture… the mfg. denied there was a problem with the tire, even after testing and forensic analysis showed they were deficient…
Plus the problem with the tire wasn’t just a mistake… it was a deliberate decision to take short cuts in deleting known critical parts of the tire during its construction even though they were specified to be there… the importer notified the NHTSA of the problem who after investigating issued the recall to the importer that didn’t have the resources for it…

Normally manufacturers, must offer customers a remedy at no charge... NHTSA will monitor your corrective action and will oversee the management to ensure success… but with the manufacture being Chinese owned located in Communist China how much power does the NHTSA have to enforce an American ordered recall???

The American importer becomes the mfg. often without the resources to cover the recall…

Most tire brands and designs have had a share of the recall process. Most often the recalls are initiated by the brand manufacturer.

Most decisions to conduct a recall and remedy a safety defect are made voluntarily by manufacturers prior to any involvement by NHTSA. Through their own tests, inspection procedures, and information-gathering systems, manufacturers often discover that a safety defect exists or that the requirements of a Federal safety standard have not been met. The manufacturer is obligated to report such findings to the Government and take appropriate action to correct the problem.

Many well known brand name tires have had recall actions that have not proven to be detrimental to the manufacturers reputation for quality products. Mistakes are made, rectified and the product returns to the market.

The reference contains a random sample of a voluntary recall action by a major tire manufacturer.

Look Here!

FastEagle

JJBIRISH wrote:
Maybe it’s just me but for me it’s a question of trust… I distrust quality control in Chinese manufacturing to begin with and have a distrust for Chinese companies as well as foreign companies doing business there (I won’t even go there)… so even though this incident was several years ago it was deliberate and a typical case of quality fade in Chinese manufactured goods of all kinds…

I too have a distrust - in general - in Chinese quality control (especially hate soft / weak Chinese tools) and there are any reasons for that. We won't pause for a second to question Japanese QC or now even Korean QC. Manufacturers from these two countries were at one time in the same class as the Chinese now are. As on who frequently visits China (Shanghai) as an engineering auditor, I can assure you that will change. China is focused on proving something to the world as it marches on to world economic dominance. They will learn from the west and they will improve quality, of that I have no doubt. FWIW I have more confidence in the eventual improved quality of Chinese tires than I have in the Thai manufacturers of a certain tire brand whose name will not be uttered by me in my own thread.

Back on the topic - so far it appears that the Westlake Super ST tire owners are elsewhere since no one has posted on their personal experience. I will post my question on the FR Flagstaff forums and see what comes out of that.

Maybe it’s just me but for me it’s a question of trust… I distrust quality control in Chinese manufacturing to begin with and have a distrust for Chinese companies as well as foreign companies doing business there (I won’t even go there)… so even though this incident was several years ago it was deliberate and a typical case of quality fade in Chinese manufactured goods of all kinds…

gmw photos wrote:
The DOT code will get you right down to which physical factory the tire was made in. That is part of the tracking system in place so that manufacturers can recall tires made in a specific place when there is a problem related to a specific manufacturing facility.
If you want it, somewhere here I have the chart that is the decoder for all the production plants.

Thanks.

According to this list the tires I gave the code for are made in:

7D HANGZHOU GENERAL RUBBER FACTORY HANGZHOU CHINA

Not sure if that makes any difference vs plain ol' "Made in China". ;)

Looking at this Google search it seems that this is the largest tire manufacturer in China and 9th largest in the world. That in and of itself is not germane to whether or not current tires coming from them have quality issues ... which was my original enquiry. :)

wmoses wrote:

Chuck&Gail wrote:
If you tell us the DOT code on the tires, we can tell you where they were manufactured

DOT code = 7DJT YCT.

However the tire "proudly" says "Made in China" ... how specific do you hope to get with the DOT code. ;)

The DOT code will get you right down to which physical factory the tire was made in. That is part of the tracking system in place so that manufacturers can recall tires made in a specific place when there is a problem related to a specific manufacturing facility.
If you want it, somewhere here I have the chart that is the decoder for all the production plants.