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.

[path1]

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.

[guidry]

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!

[CKNSLS]

They are aged out at 5 years.....

[Y-Guy]

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.

[Lyrikz]

CarlT100 wrote:

midnightsadie wrote:
wow, glad your ok, but I have towmax on my boat there 5yrs old about 1k per year never a problem. big difference in weigh

At five years old, I would seriously consider replacing them regardless of the tread wear. Tires deteriorate with age and will blow out.

I feel like if i didnt slow down the remaining 50 miles or so one if not more would of detonated. The left front tire was minutes away from going it was so bad.

[CarlT100]

midnightsadie wrote:
wow, glad your ok, but I have towmax on my boat there 5yrs old about 1k per year never a problem. big difference in weigh

At five years old, I would seriously consider replacing them regardless of the tread wear. Tires deteriorate with age and will blow out.

[Lyrikz]

lawnspecialties wrote:
Here we go again. :S

One of my Towmax tires tore up the side of our Cyclone. Tread separation. I swapped the entire set out and used the best four tires on one of my landscape trailers. Although far less weight than a camper, they started separating treads shortly afterwards.

Like your tire guy, Heartland tried their best to convince me the Towmax tires were great and they'd never heard of anything like that happening before.

I think the reason the tire manufacturer paid this claim so quick is they dont want people getting upset and posting all over the internet.
Im not kidding when i said these tires felt softer then anything i have ever felt. Its supposed to be an E rated tire and it felt flimsier then most Passenger tires. The maxxis i put on felt about 3 times as thick. The rim and the tire (towmax) was almost as much as just the Maxxis tire with no rim. Maybe this will explain while the last trip or two the trailer has felt a bit off.. Now i know why.

I'd sure like to see the shackles and spring hangers. I had the same thing happen as you did but it was the suspension not the tires (that time).

Well, thats exactly what i did. Then i took it to a shop and had them do it also. All axles were perfectly aligned and everything was in perfect order. When i installed the new tires the gap is perfect again between those two tires. They sent a professional from les schwab out there to inspect the tires and he had no idea why they would do that. I have 20 years in this business and i had no idea, EXCEPT, the product is ****. Les schwab wont admit it because they sell that tire.

[Lyrikz]

2oldman wrote:
Good thing there wasn't a catastrophe. Towmax are not popular tires on here.

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

More like 6. Also blocked are gr-ape and c-ockpit and c-ocker spaniel. And that will likely be until we are 96.

HAHAHA. I was actually laughing out loud at work while everyone is staring at me.. Thanks for that.

[joebedford]

I'd sure like to see the shackles and spring hangers. I had the same thing happen as you did but it was the suspension not the tires (that time).

[lawnspecialties]

Here we go again. :S

One of my Towmax tires tore up the side of our Cyclone. Tread separation. I swapped the entire set out and used the best four tires on one of my landscape trailers. Although far less weight than a camper, they started separating treads shortly afterwards.

Like your tire guy, Heartland tried their best to convince me the Towmax tires were great and they'd never heard of anything like that happening before.

[midnightsadie]

wow, glad your ok, but I have towmax on my boat there 5yrs old about 1k per year never a problem. big difference in weigh

[2oldman]

Good thing there wasn't a catastrophe. Towmax are not popular tires on here.

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

More like 6. Also blocked are gr-ape and c-ockpit and c-ocker spaniel. And that will likely be until we are 96.