The China-Bomb debate Put to rest
Almost every week or more a thread appears with someone with a tire question. And just as predictably the China Bomb experts come out and start decrying all Chinese made tires. Then usually they re...
Forum Discussion
Trying to equate blowouts with made in China is almost pointless. There could very well be some manufacturing quality issues in some cases but the supporting blowout evidence is always anecdotal, not scientific, therefore reports are of little value. If someone wants to blame the tire's quality, better have the cold hard facts.
You will never, ever know how often or by how much someone's ST tires ran over 65 mph, or how often they were under-inflated, or how often they hit potholes or speed bumps at speed, how often they turned 90 degree corners on pavement, or how often they ran on road shoulders, etc. How close were they to their max. load capacity rating? Internal damage from heat due to under-inflation and/or excess speed is cumulative and it can be many miles later that you have a failure and thus you can't relate the failure to what you recently did. If you bought a used TT, you can't possibly know how the tires were treated.
If you live on the west coast, you will never know how much the delivery guy drove over 65 mph or how many potholes or big cracks in concrete slab highways he hit. Your brand new TT can have over 2K miles on used tires in unknown condition. We followed a delivery guy last year in Ca. and saw how he treated the TT tires.
How many TTs come with tires that are loaded to near their load capacity rating? I saw a Keystone TT on display that had ST tires loaded to near their rating. How often does that happen on TTs & FWs? RV manufacturers do that because they can get away with it due to lack of regulations/standards. How often are tires overloaded on one side of a TT due to heavier components on one side like a slideout or kitchen? We upgraded from some Chinamaster brand LRC tires to Marathon LRD tires when we bought our TT and have approx. 40 percent reserve load capacity, way above the recommended min.
Another problem is that when you buy a new TT (or FW) nobody tells you how important it is to stay under 65 mph, to keep the tires inflated to the correct psi, etc. - not the RV manufacturer or dealer. How often have you seen other TTs & FW fly past on highways when you are under 65? For buyers that do not know anything about ST tires, their point of reference is their experience with tires on their cars and trucks. ST tires are very different. Maybe there ought to be a warning sticker on the side of a TT above the tires. Two years after some friends bought a new TT, when I suggested they check the psi on the LRD tires, they were all around 50-55 psi and they had no idea about maintaining the correct pressure let alone staying under 65 mph and all the rest. Fortunately they only do short local trips.
Seems to me that it takes an ongoing conscious effort to stay under 65 mph, the tires at correct psi (and routinely checked) and give all the other attention that ST tires need. I bet only a small percentage of ST tire owners actually consistently do that. In contrast to all the Chinese ST tire bashing, it's interesting how much absolute faith everyone puts in their Chinese made brakes, the wiring done by the TT manufacture and their brake controller not to mention the chances of grease on the brakes (grease contamination happened to us on 2 new TTs).
You will never, ever know how often or by how much someone's ST tires ran over 65 mph, or how often they were under-inflated, or how often they hit potholes or speed bumps at speed, how often they turned 90 degree corners on pavement, or how often they ran on road shoulders, etc. How close were they to their max. load capacity rating? Internal damage from heat due to under-inflation and/or excess speed is cumulative and it can be many miles later that you have a failure and thus you can't relate the failure to what you recently did. If you bought a used TT, you can't possibly know how the tires were treated.
If you live on the west coast, you will never know how much the delivery guy drove over 65 mph or how many potholes or big cracks in concrete slab highways he hit. Your brand new TT can have over 2K miles on used tires in unknown condition. We followed a delivery guy last year in Ca. and saw how he treated the TT tires.
How many TTs come with tires that are loaded to near their load capacity rating? I saw a Keystone TT on display that had ST tires loaded to near their rating. How often does that happen on TTs & FWs? RV manufacturers do that because they can get away with it due to lack of regulations/standards. How often are tires overloaded on one side of a TT due to heavier components on one side like a slideout or kitchen? We upgraded from some Chinamaster brand LRC tires to Marathon LRD tires when we bought our TT and have approx. 40 percent reserve load capacity, way above the recommended min.
Another problem is that when you buy a new TT (or FW) nobody tells you how important it is to stay under 65 mph, to keep the tires inflated to the correct psi, etc. - not the RV manufacturer or dealer. How often have you seen other TTs & FW fly past on highways when you are under 65? For buyers that do not know anything about ST tires, their point of reference is their experience with tires on their cars and trucks. ST tires are very different. Maybe there ought to be a warning sticker on the side of a TT above the tires. Two years after some friends bought a new TT, when I suggested they check the psi on the LRD tires, they were all around 50-55 psi and they had no idea about maintaining the correct pressure let alone staying under 65 mph and all the rest. Fortunately they only do short local trips.
Seems to me that it takes an ongoing conscious effort to stay under 65 mph, the tires at correct psi (and routinely checked) and give all the other attention that ST tires need. I bet only a small percentage of ST tire owners actually consistently do that. In contrast to all the Chinese ST tire bashing, it's interesting how much absolute faith everyone puts in their Chinese made brakes, the wiring done by the TT manufacture and their brake controller not to mention the chances of grease on the brakes (grease contamination happened to us on 2 new TTs).
