Another Towmax victim

[MO_Trout_Bum]

Decided to take a winter camping trip over the weekend, and had a wonderful time. Except on the way home. About 30 minutes into the trip, left rear time blew a baseball sized hole in the top sidewall. Pulled over and changed to the spare (never been on the ground), and headed back out. 45 minutes later, the left rear tire (former spare) blew again... software sized hole in the same position. Called Good Sam roadside (scary/humorous experience there as well:E)and was back on the road with 2 new tires in a few hours. Thank heavens there was no damnage to the coach. Take away is, replace those POS Towmax tires as soon as you can. BTW, anyone have experience with Sotera? Assume it's another Chinese brand, but it's all the warehouse had. Will try to post some pictures/links of the first blowout. Hole is just left of 12:00 in the first picture and 5:00 in the second.

[sail2liv]

Our trail express tires original on new trailer are still full of air but the starboard rt side front and rear...are weather cracking near the bead...so have 4 maxxis arriving on Tues for Wed install.....the cracking is 4-6 inches long...
not worth taking a chance....they have never carried more than 80% of the max load and never have been under max tp sitting or rolling.....never have been abused by running over stuff....they have 8000 - 8500 miles on them...they have never sat still over 44 days....and that was only 3 times .... they have never been over 60 mph...98% of time they ran 56-58 mph.....no wear on the tread, the layup nubs are still a quarter inch long and lots of them on all the tires so they have like new appearance....they never have been exposed to sun for any period of time other than on the move....or on one night stays.....hope maxxis will give me more service than these, is not worth taking the chance when you see deterioration.....good luck to all....make that visual inspection .....

[cbconway]

I just replaced the tires on my 3 week old fiver with a set of Goodyear Marathons, increasing the load range from C to D. No guarantees, but it evens the odds a bit and reduces my anxiety considerably. I see it as part of the purchase price.

[Dan50]

iawoody2 wrote:
After all the horror stories I replaced all 5 of mine shortly after we took delivery of our Sundance. Went with BFG Commercial TAs.

I did the same with same tires.

[Cummins12V98]

RustyJC wrote:

kennethwooster wrote:
A good rule. If your trailer has Chinese when you purchase it, you just need to add to the price new tires.

I agree and would only add that you'd better hope that the OEM tires last from the RV dealer's lot to the tire store.

Rusty

I have suggested to several people when negotiating the price for a new RV that has Chicom tires they wait until the deal has basically been done then say"I will sign if you install a quality set of US Made E or G rated tires". Depending on load what one. It has worked for the people I suggested it to.

[Ford_Man]

It should be against the Law for the RV or any trailer manufactures to use these cheap China Tires.

[C-Bears]

MO_Trout_Bum wrote:
Decided to take a winter camping trip over the weekend, and had a wonderful time. Except on the way home. About 30 minutes into the trip, left rear time blew a baseball sized hole in the top sidewall. Pulled over and changed to the spare (never been on the ground), and headed back out. 45 minutes later, the left rear tire (former spare) blew again... software sized hole in the same position. Called Good Sam roadside (scary/humorous experience there as well:E)and was back on the road with 2 new tires in a few hours. Thank heavens there was no damnage to the coach. Take away is, replace those POS Towmax tires as soon as you can. BTW, anyone have experience with Sotera? Assume it's another Chinese brand, but it's all the warehouse had. Will try to post some pictures/links of the first blowout. Hole is just left of 12:00 in the first picture and 5:00 in the second.

If you want to prevent that from ever happening again, or at least reduce your chances to about 5%, go weigh your unit prior to deciding on what tires to replace with. Once you determine what rated tires you actually need, then you can do some research to determine what brand and price you want to find.

[transamz9]

And the tires were how old?:h

[Bull_Rider]

We had a Blowmax tire explode while on the spare tire carrier. Blew apart the tire cover. That tire had exactly 40 miles of use and was correctly inflated at the time it blew.

Blowmax are CR@P tires.

[RustyJC]

kennethwooster wrote:
A good rule. If your trailer has Chinese when you purchase it, you just need to add to the price new tires.

I agree and would only add that you'd better hope that the OEM tires last from the RV dealer's lot to the tire store.

Rusty

[kennethwooster]

A good rule. If your trailer has Chinese when you purchase it, you just need to add to the price new tires. It's not worth the risk. Ive done this more then once and always went to LT tires. I've used Maxxis as well as Michelin. It's not worth the chance of major damage to your rig.

[spud1957]

Dandy Dan wrote:
Consider LT tires. Michelin owns BFGoodrich and Bridgestone. I had a set of BFG Commercial TA's but was fortunate enough to fall into a set of Michelin XPS. Liked them both. BFG Commercial TA is a cheaper tire than the XPS but was made well and heavy. Good Luck.

Michelin does not own Bridgestone. Bridgestone is part of the Bridgestone/Firestone group of companies.

[Paul_Clancy]

A 2012 bought in 2011. I'd guess those towmax tires date code 4-5 years.

[netaq]

At least the tires didn't completely disintegrate and rip up the fender well area. Luck 🙂

[time2roll]

Marathon, Maxxis or LT. Skip the Sotera.

Check that the tires will carry the full trailer GVWR or consider going up in size or load range as needed.

[JohnG3]

Michelin LT's all the way around, truck and trailer.