Maxxis M8008 self-destruct
Hi all,
I wanted to post an experience I had with Maxxis M8008 trailer tires. This is my first post here, so I hope this is the right forum for trailer tire issues, and I hope this is not too long!
In April of 2011, I bought a new set of 4 Maxxis M8008 ST205/75R14 tires for my 2009 North Trail 28' BHS travel trailer (5700lbs on trailer axles according to truck scale). After installation at America's Tire, I was annoyed to find that they were already 2 years old (2009 date code), but I was feeling sick that day and didn't have the energy to fight about it, so they are 5 years old now, with 3+ years of use. I would say I have put about 15K miles on these tires, all of which were on freeways or highways, and typically at a speed of 65mph. Compared to our previous tires, they are in excellent condition, no cracks, little evidence of wear, just all around great tires.
Coming home from a trip a week ago, we were on I5 northbound near Portland, Oregon, going about 65mph, temperature about 85F, when I happened to notice what looked like a chunk of tire flying off one of my passenger side trailer tires as I glanced in the mirror. Now, I always see stuff like this on the road, but this time I really felt like I should have noticed it on the road in front of me if it was already there, so I had this nagging feeling that it was from my trailer. But on the other hand, there was no indication that anything was wrong, and I figured I was being paranoid. I was tired, and we were almost home, and I really wanted it not to be a problem, so it was easy to ignore.
A few miles later, we hit a slowdown due to traffic, and I started to notice a lot of vibration I'd never felt before. At this time, I got really suspicious and decided I had to pull over, but it was a few more miles before there was somewhere safe to do so.
When I stopped and made my way back to the trailer, I saw nothing out of the ordinary at first. But upon closer inspection, I realized that about 1/3 of the tread was missing from the passenger side rear tire. I had been driving on the steel belts, but amazingly it was still holding air (which was pretty scary, because I pictured it exploding at any second).
Luckily, we had a usable spare tire, and there was minimal damage to the trailer, which I was able to repair later.
But I thought people might be interested in seeing this, since Maxxis are supposed to be the best trailer tires out there. I still believe this is probably true, and I suppose I'll replace this one with the same model, but even so, I continue to be shocked at just how often trailer tires fail. If car & truck tires were this bad, the manufacturers would have been sued out of business long ago.
On the plus side, the tire held air pressure and allowed us to drive something like 10+ miles in this condition. I've seen the aftermath of a few other blowouts, and I realize it could have been a lot worse.
Okay, so on to the photos:
The damage -- not really much at all:
The repair, before undercoating:
I wanted to post an experience I had with Maxxis M8008 trailer tires. This is my first post here, so I hope this is the right forum for trailer tire issues, and I hope this is not too long!
In April of 2011, I bought a new set of 4 Maxxis M8008 ST205/75R14 tires for my 2009 North Trail 28' BHS travel trailer (5700lbs on trailer axles according to truck scale). After installation at America's Tire, I was annoyed to find that they were already 2 years old (2009 date code), but I was feeling sick that day and didn't have the energy to fight about it, so they are 5 years old now, with 3+ years of use. I would say I have put about 15K miles on these tires, all of which were on freeways or highways, and typically at a speed of 65mph. Compared to our previous tires, they are in excellent condition, no cracks, little evidence of wear, just all around great tires.
Coming home from a trip a week ago, we were on I5 northbound near Portland, Oregon, going about 65mph, temperature about 85F, when I happened to notice what looked like a chunk of tire flying off one of my passenger side trailer tires as I glanced in the mirror. Now, I always see stuff like this on the road, but this time I really felt like I should have noticed it on the road in front of me if it was already there, so I had this nagging feeling that it was from my trailer. But on the other hand, there was no indication that anything was wrong, and I figured I was being paranoid. I was tired, and we were almost home, and I really wanted it not to be a problem, so it was easy to ignore.
A few miles later, we hit a slowdown due to traffic, and I started to notice a lot of vibration I'd never felt before. At this time, I got really suspicious and decided I had to pull over, but it was a few more miles before there was somewhere safe to do so.
When I stopped and made my way back to the trailer, I saw nothing out of the ordinary at first. But upon closer inspection, I realized that about 1/3 of the tread was missing from the passenger side rear tire. I had been driving on the steel belts, but amazingly it was still holding air (which was pretty scary, because I pictured it exploding at any second).
Luckily, we had a usable spare tire, and there was minimal damage to the trailer, which I was able to repair later.
But I thought people might be interested in seeing this, since Maxxis are supposed to be the best trailer tires out there. I still believe this is probably true, and I suppose I'll replace this one with the same model, but even so, I continue to be shocked at just how often trailer tires fail. If car & truck tires were this bad, the manufacturers would have been sued out of business long ago.
On the plus side, the tire held air pressure and allowed us to drive something like 10+ miles in this condition. I've seen the aftermath of a few other blowouts, and I realize it could have been a lot worse.
Okay, so on to the photos:
The damage -- not really much at all:
The repair, before undercoating:
