Best Travel Trailer Tires

SoundGuy wrote:
Recently one of the off shore tires that came stock on my 2014 Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS self destructed from the inside - steel belt simply blew apart. :M

Last Train wrote:
SoundGuy, since we tow the same rig (albeit mine is a '16 and yours a '14 model), I was wondering what the date code of your originally installed stock, Chinese made tires were.

We took delivery of our 2014 192RBS on July 31, 2013, the manufacturing label affixed to the street side wall indicates it was built May 13, 2013, and although I never noted the exact tire date codes I recall they were manufactured approximately 2 months earlier in the spring of 2013, making them just over 4 yrs old when this tire failed. I do still have the 5th unused spare tire so I could if necessary check it's date code. These were an off shore brand called Trail Express, the tire that failed was on the front curb side, and yes I regularly check all the tires for correct pressure. I had just returned from a trip, parked the trailer on the driveway, and didn't notice anything amiss. An hour later I went out to retrieve something from the trailer and immediately noticed that tire completely flat. Later inspection showed a large round section inside the tire had separated from the other plies and in the middle of this bubbled separation the metal plies had split about an inch. There was no indication at all that the tire had been penetrated by a nail, screw, etc - it simply split apart. When the other 3 tires were removed from the rims to install the Goodyear Endurance replacements none of them showed any signs of impending failure but I nonetheless decided to replace all 4 and avoid the possibility that one of these remaining 3 might in the future fail at highway speed. This is the first trailer tire failure I've had in nearly 20 yrs of towing so to say I was surprised at how this tire had failed while from the outside showing no apparent signs would be an understatement. As noted earlier, the other day I had the opportunity at my dealer to compare a new Endurance against a new Carlisle HD and new (left over stock) Goodyear Marathon for sidewall stiffness and there's no question the Endurance is a far stiffer tire. Just last weekend we camped with friends who just before their trip had replaced the off shore tires on their 2012 Rockwood 2701SS, a much longer, heavier trailer than my 192RBS, with the exact same size ST 205/75 R14 Endurance and interestingly his assessment matched mine exactly - far more stable towing, with no trailer bounce, as was the case with his (and my) previous tires. Time will tell the tale of course but to date I have ~ 1000 km on these Goodyear Endurance tires and so far I'm entirely satisfied with their performance. :B