Maxxis M8008 Failures

[tnd2]

Just wanted to post up some info for tire shoppers.

I have a 22' car trailer, yea it's not a TT, but I figured it was applicable. In 2007 I upgraded to 225/75/15 Load E Maxxis M8008 tires, all 5. I only haul a light race car, so even with it being an older heavier trailer it grosses out at about 6,000# most of the time with occasional trips at 7,000# gross. The tires alone are good for 11,320#. Most of the trips are 1 to 2 times a month local(50 miles one-way), 60mph max-local roads, and average quality as far as pot holes. I don't curb my trailers, do everything I can to miss pot holes, check pressures monthly before each trip, and keep them covered when not in use. Most of the time the car is in the garage so the trailer sits there with 3,600# on the tires/tongue jack.
On average 3 times a year we travel to events that may range from 175-250 miles one-way at 7,000# and may reach 70mph. But usually its just 60/65.

Yesterday we loaded a friends car 3,600# so I was probably closer to 7,200# gross than my usual load, and we headed out to drop it off about 250 miles away at a race shop. Pressure check the night before we left showed 78# in all four tires(I usually run 80# max press for E tires), the tires looked good, plenty of tread, NO cracks.

After about an hour at varying 35-60mph we grabbed food(any time I stop I always touch each tire and hub just to see if one feels hotter than the rest). Then hit the interstate, 70mph zone, so I eased up to 70 and noticed how the road quality had deteriorated and felt less smooth than my last trip out that way(about 2yrs ago).

Roughly 75 miles later we hit 2 lane 60mph max for what should have been a good 100 miles, with the balance of the trip on mixed roads, nothing high speed. Air temp was in the mid 80's.

I noticed the trailer had started vibrating like when your front tires are out of balance, so we decided to stop since we had room to pull over as we entered a town. Both drivers side tires were splitting in the first outside groove of the tread surface and you could see the steel belts, passenger side was ok. It appeared the belts were failing in the tires. We threw the spare on, which I had plugged in the past and had rotated from use to being the spare, it has always been covered too. And we limped onward while my co-driver located a shop in route that only had one tire.(Its a DICO but figured it was better than my splitting one I had now, plus I figured it'll become a spare once I get my new set it looked like I was needing!)

Once we dropped the car off I was only running about 3,600#. A 90min layover for paperwork and lunch and I dropped the tire press to 50# and all the tires looked ok, so we hit the road.

Somewhere in the next hour we developed a vibration and the third Maxxis decided to join the rest. We made the 250 miles home, and the total score seems to be 1 DICO and 1 plugged Maxxis in good shape, 3 Maxxis doa. At least nothing blew out, and we weren't stranded.

Moral of the story: After 6 years its time to spend money, no matter how good you treat them, how good they are new, how good they look now(the tire guy even asked what was wrong with the tire-until I rolled it over toward him), trailer tires need replacing sooner than you want too.

I have run Maxxis M8008's on 4 different trailers, one a work trailer that takes a beating on and off road and actually wears the tires out before they age out. So even though these looked great but failed, i'm buying another set of Maxxis M8008's this week.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Lowsuv wrote:

Francesca Knowles wrote:
Six years- wow!
In my opinion, that's a glowing tribute to the quality of Maxxis. Here quoting from one of many sources:

3 to 5 years of service is the average life expectancy of a Trailer Tire. After three years of use you should consider replacing your trailer tires with new, even if the tires have adequate tread depth left. After five years of service, trailer tires are considered worn out and should be replaced.

Those Maxxis served you well.

I followed the link provided but found no recommendation from that particular tire dealer that maxxis tires were better .
Could you provide another link to one of the other tire tests that showed maxxis to be better than other brands , please ?
thanks,

Sorry I didn't get back sooner- I've been camping!

The link provided wasn't meant to promote/support Maxxis per se- its usefulness is only as a general description of the design/expected life of typical trailer tires. Differing as they do in purpose/stresses/materials/life expectancy, best expectations for useful life is really only three to five years.

Due to the superiority of design for following/rolling resistance characteristics, I put nothing but ST's on my trailers. Especially given their shorter replacement cycle, it's of course more expensive to run ST's than LT's. But returns in terms of performance make it worthwhile in my book.

I routinely replace my ST's at three years, obviously a more frequent rotation than one would need to adhere to with the performance-inferior LT tire. In this case, the Maxxis ST's survived for SIX years, a return I call outstanding if not miraculous.

[ReneeG]

After reading how bad TowMax tires are and panicking, I continued reading and found how bad Maxxair are and how others are very unhappy with their Goodyears or Marathons or Michelins. I continued reading and one guy said it all. After buying a used fifth wheel with new tires on them, in checking he found them to be Towmax. He panicked. He took them to a friend who owned a tire shop or worked in one. His friend told him that American made tires can fail like the Chinese ones, maybe not as much, but it all boils down to how fast you drive for the tire rating, how well you take care of them, and if you overload. As noted, no matter how good they look, even if they haven't failed by the recommended change time, buy new ones. Happy camping everyone.

[coolbreeze01]

ReneeG wrote:

coolbreeze01 wrote:
Good info. Mine have been on the trailer 4-years and over 12,000 miles. They still look perfect, but I'll keep the age thing in mind.

It's not how they look and how many miles you have on them, but how long they've been on. They should be replaced by the code on the tire. RV tires (or in this case a cargo trailer) sit longer and are not in constant use like passenger car or pickup tires. As for LT vs ST - I read a big write up on the advantage of ST tires for RV - one being the softer side walls advantageous in the way a towable's tires have to turn. LT have rigid sidewalls.

Yes, they are only warranted for 5-years...........

[Huntindog]

CapriRacer wrote:

tnd2 wrote:
The load chart brings up a question for those in the know.
Using my example 7200#, assume 700# on the tongue, leaving 6500# on the tires/4 = 1625# per tire, load chart shows a 225/75/15 will carry 1760# @ 35psi. I've never run that low, even the 50psi I ran home on was just to relive some pressure loading on the belts. Maby im wrong for running them at 80psi? Mine look like they have worn evenly and not just in the center from over inflation.

Just an FYI.
Inflation pressure only has a small affect on evenness of treadwear.

I have found that the higher quality tires wear pretty even on the tread no matter if the pressure is too high for the load.

I ran some bridgestones on my first dually, and they were definatly sensitive to PSI/treadwear. I replaced them with Michelins, and always run them at 80 psi. Tread wear is very good. I like this as adjusting PSI on the dually is a real pain.

[CapriRacer]

tnd2 wrote:
Just wanted to post up some info for tire shoppers.......Moral of the story: After 6 years its time to spend money, no matter how good you treat them, how good they are new, how good they look now(the tire guy even asked what was wrong with the tire-until I rolled it over toward him), trailer tires need replacing sooner than you want to.......

I truncated this to save space. Here's my take:

Good points: Light load, good inflation pressure checks.

Bad points: 6 years, lots of idle time, speed

Middle points: Locale isn't very hot.

Overall, this seems like pretty easy service and it would seem that the tires shouldn't have failed. In my view, this anecdote doesn't help Maxxis's reputation - but it doesn't hurt it either.

[CapriRacer]

tnd2 wrote:
The load chart brings up a question for those in the know.
Using my example 7200#, assume 700# on the tongue, leaving 6500# on the tires/4 = 1625# per tire, load chart shows a 225/75/15 will carry 1760# @ 35psi. I've never run that low, even the 50psi I ran home on was just to relive some pressure loading on the belts. Maby im wrong for running them at 80psi? Mine look like they have worn evenly and not just in the center from over inflation.

Just an FYI.

Inflation pressure only has a small affect on evenness of treadwear. Other factors have much more of an effect. Put another way, using more than the minimum inflation pressure is better for tire durability, and the wear shouldn't be much of a consideration. Since we are talking about trailer tires that don't wear much anyway, wear should be a non-factor in the consideration.

[FastEagle]

Good information for Maxxis tire users.

L@@K HERE!

FastEagle

[tnd2]

johnrbd wrote:



Did you happen to note the tire build date on the tire?

The Maxxis were all DOT 0107(build date 1st week of 2007, just in case somebody is reading that doesn't know how the DOT code works)
The DICO I bought is a 4711, go figure, but had I checked there it wouldn't matter since it was the only E load tire they had in my size.

[fla-gypsy]

My last set of Maxxis tires also lasted 6+ years before I encountered any issues with them. It is not clear what caused the one to fail when it did. It could have been from damage inflicted when I hit a RR crossing hard or just been age related. I put Maxxis back on the TT.

[wmoses]

Hehe .... This should be good. Hopefully it is a reputable organization doing the tests as well.

[Lowsuv]

Francesca Knowles wrote:
Six years- wow!
In my opinion, that's a glowing tribute to the quality of Maxxis. Here quoting from one of many sources:

3 to 5 years of service is the average life expectancy of a Trailer Tire. After three years of use you should consider replacing your trailer tires with new, even if the tires have adequate tread depth left. After five years of service, trailer tires are considered worn out and should be replaced.

Those Maxxis served you well.

I followed the link provided but found no recommendation from that particular tire dealer that maxxis tires were better .
Could you provide another link to one of the other tire tests that showed maxxis to be better than other brands , please ?
thanks,

[FastEagle]

myredracer wrote:
Is there something about ST tires that don't last as long as light truck LT tires? The original OEM tires on our old truck lasted 13 years (only close by around town use) and probably would have kept going except when we got a new TT and planned a new trip, decided it was time to replace them.

Are ST tires running on the edge at 65 mph?

A very high percentage are, as you say "running on the edge at 65 MPH".

At 65 MPH the ST tire is providing it's maximum load capacity, above that - depending on the actual load - they will degrade rapidly.

FastEagle

[johnrbd]

tnd2 wrote:
Just wanted to post up some info for tire shoppers.

I have a 22' car trailer, yea it's not a TT, but I figured it was applicable. In 2007 I upgraded to 225/75/15 Load E Maxxis M8008 tires, all 5. I only haul a light race car, so even with it being an older heavier trailer it grosses out at about 6,000# most of the time with occasional trips at 7,000# gross. The tires alone are good for 11,320#. Most of the trips are 1 to 2 times a month local(50 miles one-way), 60mph max-local roads, and average quality as far as pot holes. I don't curb my trailers, do everything I can to miss pot holes, check pressures monthly before each trip, and keep them covered when not in use. Most of the time the car is in the garage so the trailer sits there with 3,600# on the tires/tongue jack.
On average 3 times a year we travel to events that may range from 175-250 miles one-way at 7,000# and may reach 70mph. But usually its just 60/65.

Yesterday we loaded a friends car 3,600# so I was probably closer to 7,200# gross than my usual load, and we headed out to drop it off about 250 miles away at a race shop. Pressure check the night before we left showed 78# in all four tires(I usually run 80# max press for E tires), the tires looked good, plenty of tread, NO cracks.

After about an hour at varying 35-60mph we grabbed food(any time I stop I always touch each tire and hub just to see if one feels hotter than the rest). Then hit the interstate, 70mph zone, so I eased up to 70 and noticed how the road quality had deteriorated and felt less smooth than my last trip out that way(about 2yrs ago).

Roughly 75 miles later we hit 2 lane 60mph max for what should have been a good 100 miles, with the balance of the trip on mixed roads, nothing high speed. Air temp was in the mid 80's.

I noticed the trailer had started vibrating like when your front tires are out of balance, so we decided to stop since we had room to pull over as we entered a town. Both drivers side tires were splitting in the first outside groove of the tread surface and you could see the steel belts, passenger side was ok. It appeared the belts were failing in the tires. We threw the spare on, which I had plugged in the past and had rotated from use to being the spare, it has always been covered too. And we limped onward while my co-driver located a shop in route that only had one tire.(Its a DICO but figured it was better than my splitting one I had now, plus I figured it'll become a spare once I get my new set it looked like I was needing!)

Once we dropped the car off I was only running about 3,600#. A 90min layover for paperwork and lunch and I dropped the tire press to 50# and all the tires looked ok, so we hit the road.

Somewhere in the next hour we developed a vibration and the third Maxxis decided to join the rest. We made the 250 miles home, and the total score seems to be 1 DICO and 1 plugged Maxxis in good shape, 3 Maxxis doa. At least nothing blew out, and we weren't stranded.

Moral of the story: After 6 years its time to spend money, no matter how good you treat them, how good they are new, how good they look now(the tire guy even asked what was wrong with the tire-until I rolled it over toward him), trailer tires need replacing sooner than you want too.

I have run Maxxis M8008's on 4 different trailers, one a work trailer that takes a beating on and off road and actually wears the tires out before they age out. So even though these looked great but failed, i'm buying another set of Maxxis M8008's this week.

Did you happen to note the tire build date on the tire?

[Francesca_Knowl]

Six years- wow!
In my opinion, that's a glowing tribute to the quality of Maxxis. Here quoting from one of many sources:

3 to 5 years of service is the average life expectancy of a Trailer Tire. After three years of use you should consider replacing your trailer tires with new, even if the tires have adequate tread depth left. After five years of service, trailer tires are considered worn out and should be replaced.

Those Maxxis served you well.