maxxis trailer tires

Sometimes you do get a few bad ones.
I bought 4 new Maxxis tires in November 2011. When installed each was 6-18 months from manufacture. In the next 4000 miles/18 months they all failed, separated by at least 2 months and 600+ towing miles.
One deflated with a screw through the sidewall (screw from my own yard, my fault).
One blew spectacularly at speed (less than an hour from home after a 3 week/2200 mile trip), tore up a wheel well.
One threw all the tread (on the Interstate in Nashville; across 4 lanes to an exit) but remained inflated.
One showed a palm-sized bulge on my morning walkaround (Finger Lakes area, NY).
Replacements for the evil 4 above: 2 Maxxis, 2 whatever I could find on the road - one Towmaster and one Gremax.
In 40 years before 2011, I remember one trailer tire that blew – and was more than a decade old.
In the 5500 miles since May, zero tire problems.
Per CAT scales, the tires are loaded at 82% of capacity. I check tire pressure every travel day. Every couple of hours when we stop, I walk around with a thermometer and check/inspect each tire – that’s how I found the screw, and the bulge. The tires are stored outside and under load but covered. I drive at 58, almost never over 60. None of that has changed since 2010. I do check tire dates now, but none of the 4 above were more than 3 years old.
The tires that failed can’t have been in a bad batch: each was built in a different month. The two curbside tires went first; for a while I thought shoulder debris was the problem. The next two were the streetside pair. The trailer moved less than 600 yards on the blown tire.
I think sometimes something interesting happens to tires waiting in storage before sale. Maybe they bake in Phoenix too long. Maybe someone drove a forklift over these four.
Or, of course, sometimes the tire fairy just feels devilish.

smkettner wrote:

Me Again wrote:

smkettner wrote:


Oh, I have read posts of even the XPS ribs coming apart.
NOTHING is 100%

Could you link to those posts. I have asked FE to do that and he has never provided even one. The only one I have ever read was someone said it happen on an inside dual on a old MH. However they omitted that then most likely drove with it flat for many miles before it came apart, while the outside dual held up that side.

Chris

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27068732/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1

I had a blowout on my second set of Michelin 16” LT load range E tires. They were only a year old

Did you read that thread? It is about a Michelin LTX M/S failure! I made quite a few post in it and just read it again, all 14 pages. Some one assumed early on it was a RIB, but that was soon clarified. Chris

smkettner wrote:


Oh, I have read posts of even the XPS ribs coming apart.
NOTHING is 100%

Too true...

Michelin Ribs front right blowout
Two instances of M.Ribs sidewall cracking

And not that anyone asked, but Michelin's LTX gets its share of complaints,too. link to a few

Me Again wrote:

smkettner wrote:


Oh, I have read posts of even the XPS ribs coming apart.
NOTHING is 100%

Could you link to those posts. I have asked FE to do that and he has never provided even one. The only one I have ever read was someone said it happen on an inside dual on a old MH. However they omitted that then most likely drove with it flat for many miles before it came apart, while the outside dual held up that side.

Chris

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27068732/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1

I had a blowout on my second set of Michelin 16” LT load range E tires. They were only a year old

I'm getting a new set of Marathons today. mfg. date 25/13
my current set are originals from 2004!!!!!!

ktmrfs wrote:


Between my neighbor and I we've put on close to 200,000 miles with ST tires. (50K for me, 150K for him)

If I send you money each week, will you and your neighbor buy me Power Ball tickets? Chris. :B:B:B

smkettner wrote:


Oh, I have read posts of even the XPS ribs coming apart.
NOTHING is 100%

Could you link to those posts. I have asked FE to do that and he has never provided even one. The only one I have ever read was someone said it happen on an inside dual on a old MH. However they omitted that then most likely drove with it flat for many miles before it came apart, while the outside dual held up that side.

Chris

I just got a set of five new Maxxis tires to replace the Maxxis on my trailer.

I stayed with Maxxis because of the service I got out of them. The tires replaced were born eight years ago, and were in service for seven years. They had a several nail flats through the years, all but one caught in the campgrounds from low air pressure as reported by a PressurePro the next mornings, and once during a rest stop on the road where the low pressure showed up. The flats were always repaired with plugs while at campgrounds.

I was prepared to replace the original set of Maxxis this year due to age, but got in a hurry and took a long trip to Key West first. On the trip, I ran into a particularly bad road, especially a series of brutal speed bumps on Alligator Alley Hwy 41 in extreme southern Florida which was under extensive repairs/reconstruction. The contractor evidently was having trouble with speeders, so built himself a series of highway speed bumps ahead of certain construction zones. To say it was jarring experience is accurate, since I couldn't slow too much for the bumps due to the heavy traffic behind me which wanted to go twice as fast as me already.

Well, on the way home I noticed one of the Maxxis on the right side of the trailer was beginning to separate, as was one of the LT tires on the truck also on the right side. They didn't look particularly bad (a mistaken analysis) and I was just 300 miles from home at the time, so I left them on until I got home.

Well, on the way home the PressurePro reported the LT on the right side of the truck was losing air, so I pulled off the Interstate and changed it. The Maxxis didn't seem any worse on the trailer, so I rode it home.

A few days later, I looked at the Maxxis which showed signs of separation on the trip and found it was now showing metal! Also, the tire right behind it on the same side was showing some metal from tread separation. The Maxxis's on the other side of the trailer looked perfect.

A couple of observations: The roads I was on (namely Fla 41) may have been tougher on the right side tires, both to TV and Trailer, or maybe it was just coincidental that three out of four tires on that side either failed on the road or after I got home. And, I should have changed out the eight-year-old trailer tries BEFORE leaving home. The failed LT tire on the truck was only five years old, so its failure was presumably not due to aging although some may argue with me aboutthat.

Today, I have a new set of Maxxis and a new LT for the truck. Now I'm ready to see colored leaves in the fall.

smkettner wrote:

Donnoh wrote:
Being an observer in all of these ST vs LT threads, the one thing I've learned is I've never, not once heard of an owner of LT tires complain of a failure or blowout.

Take that for what its worth, I think I'd buy the LT tires.

Oh, I have read posts of even the XPS ribs coming apart.
NOTHING is 100%

I would consider LT as well, but the choices of a LRD or LRE 225/75-15 is VERY VERY limited. there are a few LRD, but at least one the mfg says is NOT rated or recomended for trailer use. So unless I convert to 16" I can't readily get a LT 15" in LRE.

Between my neighbor and I we've put on close to 200,000 miles with ST tires. (50K for me, 150K for him) Results, I had one nail flat I caught before it did any damage. Neighbor had two nail flats, one of which came close to being a blowout. We now run TPMS.
No tread seperations, etc. we each get about 25K-30K miles/set of tires. Both trailers are pushing 10K loaded with tandem axles and we both run 65ish on the highway. We both run 225/75-15 LRE so we have some margin but not much, both have about 9K on the axles when loaded.

Brands have varied between maxxis, towmax, carslie, and whatever Les Schwab sells.

smkettner wrote:
OP never lost pressure. Just the tread came off or was separating. No additional load placed on remaining tires.

True. On re-reading I see that he did not have a blowout or flat. According to these links manufacturing defects, over inflation, potholes, etc. can lead to tread separation. I doubt if the OP would be able to definitively comment on these. We know it can't be manufacturing defects since they are Maxxis tires. ;)