Other reasons ST tires fail??

gmw photos wrote:
Just to try to clarify, the Kumho is marketed around the world as a van/truck tire. It is marketed in the USA as a trailer tire. A likely guess is that Kumho sees little need to market a LT tire in the US that is a 14" tire, because trucks and SUV's here typically use 16" tires. I would guess the american marketing of this LT tire as suitable for trailers is a smart move on their part as they understand they are offering a high quality tire for the towable market at prices that compare to ST pricing from other providers.

The following quote from the Kumho site in the United Kingdom:
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"Radial 857

Modern tyres for people carriers

Excellent driving characteristics in dry and wet conditions
High steering precision
Superb traction
Durable for high mileage
Extremely smooth-running and comfortable
Robust carcass structure
For vans, people carriers and mobile homes"
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....and a pic of the sidewall of one of the 857's on my trailer:

Can't argue with what you said, but one should remember that the Kumho 857 is sort of a unique beast in that it is really not a tire designed or meant for the American market and my prior post on it not being a LT tire was mainly meant to caution one that as we think of LT tires this one is sort of out of the box in that all it's designations such as the size and even load range are European/Metric based and don't have a direct conversion to the standards used in the American market so simply lumping it into what we think of as a LT tire is IMO misleading and not accurate. Just the fact that it is a "commercial" tire puts it in a very small category of American LT tires that are meant for commercial use.

I now have 3 road trips totally close to 3,000 miles on my Kumhos and have been pleased with them so far. The biggest downside in these is the lack of universal availability. Of course this is also a negative for the ever popular and tauted Maxxis tires.

Larry