Tire exploded in Florida

[solman]

Hello All,
I just returned from a round trip to Florida from New Jersey. Towing a Keystone cougar fifth wheel trailer with factory installed Trailer King tires. These tires are made in China and I believe are not up to the rigors of highway travel in the Florida heat. The tire exploded on I-95 without warning. I monitor tire pressure with a tire minder and checked with a pressure gauge before my return trip. The trailer was difficult to control for a moment but I got to the shoulder and put on the spare tire. It Was a harrowing experience on the side of a busy interstate road.
I know that many believe that our poor road conditions are the problem but I know of no major impacts to my tires and they have only about 5000 miles after I returned home. Tread is good on all tires and I see no reason for a tire to just explode while traveling. I run about 5mph below the speed limit in the right lane. I had the trailer weighed after loading up for a trip and I am well within limits. Tires must be able to withstand the heat and road conditions all across the country. We don't have glass smooth roads to be built to accommodate poorly made tires
I have heard of other incidents with are same and I believe these tires should have never been original equipment on an expensive fifth wheel camper.
I will replace all 4 tires after my insurance adjuster inspects the damaged tire. there is some damage to the trailer as well. Wheel skirt and J wrap is damaged and the insulation under the floor above the wheel well is torn out. I was lucky to be able to finish my trip without the camper being disabled on the road. The trailer brake wiring remained intact.
If you have these Chinese tires on your camper I would recommend that you change them out before you experience a similar incident. I was told Goodyear Advantage is a good trailer tire by my local tire guys.I think I will go with them after some more tire research.
All the best and stay safe on the road.
Solman

[Cummins12V98]

larry barnhart wrote:
We always had plywood under our trailer tires when it is parked. last trailer also expect for the last few days we had it in our driveway. Our chev will be on plywood for the winter also.

chevman

Honest question, WHY?

[larry_barnhart]

We always had plywood under our trailer tires when it is parked. last trailer also expect for the last few days we had it in our driveway. Our chev will be on plywood for the winter also.

chevman

[Cummins12V98]

Go with the GY ENDURANCE as they have been on the market for over 5 years with ZERO reported non road hazard claims.

First thing the naysayers said "they have not been on the market long enough". Then with years racking up they gave up on that claim and the only thing they can say now is "the tread is too thin". Well I am here to tell you I have plenty of tread left at 20k on mine that are dated 2517. They get driven nearly every day on my heavy Boat trailer at 70mph during the 6 Summer months. They are dropped into Salt water twice each trip. They get the heck "scrubbed out of them at the rough gravel parking lot/ and launch.

OH they also set on a concrete floor for 6 month at a time every winter.

[Grit_dog]

@solman,
Good luck in getting your rig fixed back up. And thank you for sharing. I been staring at my 5 year old china bomb camper tires thinking, “they made it last year”, trying to decide if I get myself bent over on tires that will literally hold my camper off the ground and nothing more for 360 days a year, to provide the assurance during the few days it does actually move.
Like Dedmiston, aside from a couple wonderful batches of GY Marathins back in the day, I believe I can a tribute most or all flats or blowouts to road hazards. Came home from a little trip up the mountain with my snomachines trailer last winter. 3 tires had steel stuck in them. 2 on the truck, 1 on the trailer, don’t know how I didn’t get a flat. Must’ve hit the remnants of an exploded tire chain just right!

But thanks to your post, your provided the folks here hours of debate and comment and speculation about everything and nothing at all!

[Grit_dog]

wa8yxm wrote:
Reading on the war in Ukraine (NO this is not political)
One of the reasons given for why Russia is not doing nearly as well as one might expect with big mighty Russia attempting to squash tiny little Ukraine.

Chinese Tires. (I told you it was not political)

Now THAT is funny!!!

Edit, and Dedmiston’s last post too. I can picture exactly what you’re saying!

[Martyn]

Trailer King tires are about the worst tire out there. On my new Cougar one blew after only 50 miles. They have extremely thin walls and are thus very susceptible to blowing. I replaced all four of mine with Carlisles within a week of purchase. Have now driven thousands of miles with no issue. If you research Trailer King tires you will find many horror stories. IMHO It's actually quite interesting that the OP's tires lasted as long as they did.

[JIMNLIN]

Not all ST tires made in china are china bombs. Most brands in load C/D/E are though. Those are the ones that work better on a lawn service trailers that gets pulled around town...or utility trailers that sit most of the time....boat trailers that make local short runs to the local fishin spot...neither see very little if any long all day runs on the highway carrying a load like many rv trailers operate.

I pull a lot of miles per year on my rv trailers (8k-10K) with 5.2k-6k axles. I use LT tires so just like my trucks I don't have any tire issues at any speeds.

On my flatdeck trailers with 3500-4000 lb axles I use P tires and like the P tires on the wifes 1500 chevy they also have no issues.

OP didn't mention what size/load range is on his new trailer so not much in the way of a good tire recommendations.
But the OP is right about ST tires just letting go. BTDT years ago even when all ST tires were made in the USA.
Road hazards ?? Tires on our tow vehicle run over the same potholes/obstacles as the tires on the trailer. Doesn't take much to see what tire types make it and which ones don't.

[dedmiston]

way2roll wrote:

dedmiston wrote:
I've driven coast-to-coast twice already this year and the roads in Florida are some of the best I've seen.

My guess would be a road hazard like someone mentioned previously. Not much you can do about that but just drive defensively. It's kind of a "why do bad things happen to good people" thing. Eventually it's your turn.

Good for you for driving safely and keeping it under control.

Best of luck to you.

Wouldn't a road hazard get the truck tires too?

Not necessarily. I've only had one blowout on my current rig, but I've had plenty of nails and screws. The score is probably 6-1 of nails and screws in my trailer tires compared to my truck.

When you consider curves and lane changes, the trailer doesn't really track that closely behind the truck.

I think the real difference though is the multiple axles.

When I hit a nail or a screw with my truck tires, it throws the piece up and it goes who-knows-where. But when I hit that same debris with my front tire on my triple axle, it gets airborne and now I've got two more shots at hitting that thing that's pointed up instead of laying flat on the ground.

It's all theoretical since I can't see any of this happening, but my punctures are usually on my middle or rear tires, so the theory holds up pretty well.

Tangent:

One of my neighbors texted me a photo from his memories the other day. It was a gorgeous sunset out in the middle of the desert about 25-30 miles from camp with our off-road group.

His message was to look at the gorgeous sunset and wasn't that a fun ride. I looked closer at the photo though and I was down in the corner on my knees plugging a tire on our car. His "gorgeous sunset" moment was my "field repair" moment. Very different perspectives.

I remember his comment at the time. "Hey man, I didn't know you knew how to plug a tire."

"Yeah man, I didn't think you knew how to walk thirty miles, so I figured my way was easier."

[fj12ryder]

amxpress wrote:
I believe you meant Goodyear Endurance tires as their Adavantage line is designed for automobiles, not trailers. Maxxis M8008 are also a good choice.
Whatever non-Chinese tire you choose, be sure to have them balanced.

If you have the tires balanced, make sure the place knows they came off a trailer, and need to be balanced lug-centric, and not hub-centric. Many tire places cannot do a lug-centric balance, and a hub-centric balance could, and probably would, make things worse.

[CapriRacer]

My first reaction was to ask how old the tires were, but I see in OP's profile that they have a 2020 Keystone trailer listed - so 2 to 3 years old.

Second, we haven't ruled out a road hazard. A photo might help us here.

[solman]

I have the Tire Minder A1A. They measure temp as well as pressure. I find the pressure readings to be off a few pounds vs my gauge. Still good to have as I scan all the tires while underway every so often.
These systems are not perfect but better than nothing at all.

Yes I did mean the Goodyear Endurance tires.

[wa8yxm]

Pressure Pro.. at least some models. also measure heat (Temp) or so I'm told (I had an earlier model)

With sudden decompression you go from too many PSI to zero PSI in the time it take to type the first letter of BOOM.

[QCMan]

My standard procedure is to replace the factory tires with Goodyear endurance tires before 5k miles. Even this didn't work on one as two blew out at the same time with about4k on them. Trailer was 1k under max weight and I was doing about 35 on a new road. Right front and left rear blew within seconds of each other. Tpms had them about ten degrees above ambient and the system showed no pressure immediately. Alarm went off as it should and the tires did not have a chance to shred. Next trailer got Goodyears on the way home from the dealer.

[way2roll]

dedmiston wrote:
I've driven coast-to-coast twice already this year and the roads in Florida are some of the best I've seen.

My guess would be a road hazard like someone mentioned previously. Not much you can do about that but just drive defensively. It's kind of a "why do bad things happen to good people" thing. Eventually it's your turn.

Good for you for driving safely and keeping it under control.

Best of luck to you.

Wouldn't a road hazard get the truck tires too?

[dedmiston]

I've driven coast-to-coast twice already this year and the roads in Florida are some of the best I've seen.

My guess would be a road hazard like someone mentioned previously. Not much you can do about that but just drive defensively. It's kind of a "why do bad things happen to good people" thing. Eventually it's your turn.

Good for you for driving safely and keeping it under control.

Best of luck to you.