A story of 6 blown tires.

[Lyrikz]

I will attach some pics and a short video. I have been in the automotive/tire business for over 20 years. When i first purchased my toy hauler a lot of people warned me about the ****py tires they come with. My toy hauler had towmax tires on them.

Well, a majority of tire failures happen from misuse. So, i went about my business. Every trip i made sure my tire pressures were perfect when we left, during, and on the way home. I never overloaded and i never went over 60mph. I have had the trailer for about 2000 miles since march 2014.

Last month we went on a 360 mile round trip. On the way there we had zero issues.. On the way back all hell broke loose. It was 100 degrees out. We were about 75 miles from home. As we were coming up on some traffic as we slowed down i started to feel a pulsation. As we almost came to a stop the rear of the trailer was hopping. I pulled over on the side of the road and as i got out i noticed the left front tire had 2 softball sized bumps in them. I was a bit relieved thinking i only had to replace a tire and be on my way. Thats when my wife said "ut oh" I walked to the right rear of my trailer and the two rear axles (triple axle)tires were touching. This is what i saw. The only difference is the two tires were physically touching.




The trailer was hopping because of the contact. I figured my axle had jumped/broke/moved or something. I managed to change my spare and shift the axle forward and i strapped it to the front axle and limped home the remaining miles.

I took the camper in and had them see what was going on. After a month of being in the shop they call and say my tires are bad. I asked which tires. All of them.... They ran frame and axle measurements and everything was within spec. I couldnt believe that all 6 tires had failed on the same trip at the same exact time. THe tires had ballooned and were touching.

The rv place stated they dont deal with tire warranties so they called the manufacturer for me and then had them call me. They were very nice and very fast. I spoke with the tire manufacturer and they ended up crediting me 80% of the tire replacement cost minus labor. Not to bad of a deal i guess. I ended up dragging the trailer home and replacing all six tires myself. I have NEVER seen a tire do what these tires did. Every single one was delaminating. When i let the air out of the tire it collapsed. I added a pic and a video. THe tires looked like old balloons when you let the air out of them. They were SOOOOO soft also.

****py video but hopefully you can see how out of round this was. This was just one of the tires. The other 5 were just as bad if not worse.

http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v675/jcemerson/Bella/20150820_130528_zpshr1tfgbk.mp4


THe tire manufacturer and the Les Schwab guy who went out and measured my tires both stated they have never seen tires do this. I dont really know how much truth is invloved in that statement. I just feel like i got lucky and i caught the problem before one exploded and hid the evidence. I know have a set of Maxxis on there now.

Edit: Does this site really block the word c r a p p y? What are we 12 years old.

Mod Edit: Adjusted photo width.

[Lyrikz]

CKNSLS wrote:

Lyrikz wrote:

CKNSLS wrote:
He could have been overloaded as well. If the OP knew his weight he would have mentioned it.

I don't tow unless I know my weight. Didn't realize you needed that information to validate my post.

The only reason it's nice to have that info is because many come on here complaining about blowouts-and after a few careful questions we find out they are in all likelihood overweight.

No disrespect intended.

Ahhh. Gotcha. I basically weight myself whenever something is different. I only have about 3 configurations I tow in. Even at my highest weight I still have over 2500 lbs left in tire capacity. Trailer max is 18k and the highest I have been is 17600.

I think I will be happier with these tires just with the thickness alone.

[CKNSLS]

Lyrikz wrote:

CKNSLS wrote:
He could have been overloaded as well. If the OP knew his weight he would have mentioned it.

I don't tow unless I know my weight. Didn't realize you needed that information to validate my post.

The only reason it's nice to have that info is because many come on here complaining about blowouts-and after a few careful questions we find out they are in all likelihood overweight.

No disrespect intended.

[Bob_Shaw]

I've posted this before, but after many tire failures, I finally went with Goodyear 614's and have not had an issue since. On my previous trailer, I switched to Michelin XP's and also eliminated tire trouble. My LoadStars were separating on the inside. When I removed the ones that weren't already flat, they had big bubbles on the inside casings.

[JIMNLIN]

Well, a majority of tire failures happen from misuse.

This may be true with the general public with a car/suv or even a pickup going to work every day and the usually daily runs around town.

I made a living towing heavy trailers for over 11 years and 800k+ miles.

We baby our tires as we depend on them to make our living 24/7. Their checked at each stop for heat differences and thumped with a tire thumper listening for a difference in sound. They are checked for max pressure each morning....and we still had tires suddenly blow or tread separation or sidewall zippers.

I changed tire types to all LT tires which eliminated 90 percent of tire issues on my trailers.

This from one of RV.net toy hauler members some years back;

rocmoc

Posted: 07/20/10 05:17pm Link | Quote | Print | Notify Moderator

We also have a 3612. After having 11 (ELEVEN) Maxxis fail we have upgraded to 16" BFGs. Just put them on the trailer TODAY. What a difference. There is a big difference in the two combos. We finally gave up on the 15s. After 11 failures in 3 years (and lucky enough to catch them before they blew, just separated) we gave up. We finally were carrying 3 spares and have come back with them all on the trailer. Maxxis did make a warranty adjustment (pennies on the dollar) on the first 6 but not anymore after that. Spend the money now to save more money in the long run. To put the 11 tires in prospective, we have over 95,000 miles on our Raptor in 4 years & we do max the load limits at times.

rocmoc n AZ/Baja

[GMandJM]

Y-Guy wrote:
Folk the recent update changed the word filter. They are working on this issue. But as to the question, yes this is a family friendly forum. As adults I figure we can all communicate without using certain words. Give them time to tone the filter down.

But until then can you (or someone), please at least change/fix entries where the "integrated watchdog" over reached?

Such as RainDove's post about having to put her dog to sleep?

[Lyrikz]

Bull Rider wrote:
We had four Hercules tires fail on the same day. One blew out, and the other three had tread separation when we checked them at the tire dealer. Replaced all four with new Maxxis. Not overloaded, driving at 60 MPH. Straight road, inflated to proper pressure and monitored by TPMS.

If these failures were on passenger car tires the problem would have been fixed years ago. But as there are few fatalities, no one pay much attention to the issue.

Remember the Firestone tire uproar about ten years ago?

I'm just so glad I didn't have a Huggggge tow bill or severe trailer damage. Insurance would cover that but I would of been without a trailer forever. These guys are slow around here. 6 weeks just to check alignment.

[Lyrikz]

CKNSLS wrote:
He could have been overloaded as well. If the OP knew his weight he would have mentioned it.

I don't tow unless I know my weight. Didn't realize you needed that information to validate my post.

[Lyrikz]

path1 wrote:
Do you happen to know how much weight you had on them compared to max load (reserve capacity)?

(Also from personal experience Les Schwab. My local Les Schwab lied to me. They told me Maxxis was on back order over 3 months to get them. I made the mistake of telling them when our trip was so they pimped their Tow Max. "There is no way to get Maxxis within 2 weeks").

Tires that I have do have a lot of reserve capacity for the weight I'm hauling around.

That's why I'm wondering how much reserve capacity you had.

Trailer was 17k. Tires are a 3500 load. So i had tons of room.

It took me a couple days to get my tires. Lucky for me I run a tire/automotive shop so I get them at cost. It most definetly wasn't an overload issue.
When the tire manufacturer has no idea and two seperate professionals have no idea I have to blame that on the quality. I'm not kidding when I day how light and thin these tires felt.

[Lyrikz]

trail-explorer wrote:
That one tire in the photo looks misaligned - the tire to the left.

That was my thought also. So i had had the axles measured and alignment checked out perfect. I didn't believe what they said so I went and looked at another road warrior and the axle placement is identical. It sits a bit forward in the wheel well.

As for weight. I have measured myself on 3 different trips depending on my load. I have never been over 17600. This trip I had no water and only 2 dirtbikes and a quad. I would guess in the high 16s.
I had well over 4000lbs of tire rating left. I'm sure it was the heat and the fact these tires are horribly made.

[Bull_Rider]

We had four Hercules tires fail on the same day. One blew out, and the other three had tread separation when we checked them at the tire dealer. Replaced all four with new Maxxis. Not overloaded, driving at 60 MPH. Straight road, inflated to proper pressure and monitored by TPMS.

If these failures were on passenger car tires the problem would have been fixed years ago. But as there are few fatalities, no one pay much attention to the issue.

Remember the Firestone tire uproar about ten years ago?

[nayther]

CKNSLS wrote:
They are aged out at 5 years.....

I've heard from a couple of knowledgeable tire people that 3 years is the safe life expectancy! My DW's car doesn't wear out tires that fast, let alone my trailer that sits 95'% of the time. I blame the tree huggers!

[CKNSLS]

He could have been overloaded as well. If the OP knew his weight he would have mentioned it.

[trail-explorer]

That one tire in the photo looks misaligned - the tire to the left.

[Lyrikz]

guidry wrote:
Same thing happened to me on my new 5th wheel last year. Except the tire manufacturer wouldn't even talk to me because they only warranty for one year and I was 3 months past! Tire separation on 3 of my 4 tires. Thank goodness for TPMS! Saved my tail!

wow I was actually 5 months out of my one year warranty and they paid for a pro-rated amount in 80 percent.