Multiple Tire Blowouts

[ItsMeCarlos]

Hi all!

Noobie to the forum but have been lurking for a while.

Thanks for all the info you all share in this forum. It helps a lot more people that you know.

So I have an issue....

We own a 2017 Forest River Salem 30KQBSS TT. This is our first RV and we love it.

We usually just go up the road to Orlando maybe 2-3 times a year. This is just shy of 400 miles round trip.

During the summer of 2018, we make our 4th trip to Orlando and we get our first blowout on the passenger side. These were the original factory tires (I do not have the tire info on hand). The tires probably had around 1400 miles on them.

A little bit of background, I am very meticulous when it come to towing safety. I have towed in the past. I check all air pressures, inspect all tires, grease, lube, etc, etc... The tires looked in good shape.

Back to the blowout, I change the tire and I see the tire behind it (non blowout) has some of the steel threads embedded in it from the blowout tire.

I decided to change it out also as a safety precaution. Luckily I carry two spares.

It caused a lot of undercarriage damage as well as fender damage but I was able to duct tape and tie wrap everything so I can get back on the road. It was a mess.

We get to our destination and had roadside come and replace one of the tires since I now had no spare.

So now I had one spare tire on (can't remember the make), one new tire that roadside installed and the two original tires that came with the TT.

Made it home with no issues.

Before our next trip I installed two new tires. This time I purchased Load Range E tires. Originally all the tires before were Load Range D tires so I figured I would go with a higher range tire.

All my tires up to that point were Load Range D as per the manufactures recommendations.

I install my 2 new E tires (1 on front passenger, 1 on front driver) and I install my newer tire (roadside assistance replacement) as well as my newest spare tire.

Fast forward to this July 2019 (6th trip). This would be our second trip since our last blowout (about 500 miles on the new tires). One hour into our trip we get a blowout on the drivers side, rear tire. This was a load D tire. I replace it with one of my spares (Load D). It was another mess but got back on the road and finally made it to Orlando from Ft. Lauderdale.

Same trip driving back home (remember, this is a 200 mile trip one way), I get a low air pressure reading from my new wireless TMPS system I had purchased before our trip. On a side note I highly recommend one of these. It gave me peace of mind.

I pull over and sure enough as the TMPS said my passenger side rear wheel was way low on air and it was (air leak). This tire was also a Load D tire. Down to my 2nd and last spare, I change it out. This tire is also Load D.

Get back on the road.

About an hour later BOOM! Tire I just replaced blows out! @!%#%

Luckily it happened next to the rest area.

With no spare tires left, I call a local, mobile tire repair shop.

While I was waiting for him I'm trying to figure, 1. What the heck is going on. 2. I still will not have a spare if it happens again.

I called the tire guy before he got there and I told him to bring me two tires.

Gentleman comes out and replaces the blowout and the last remaining Load D tire with a Load E as per his recommendations.

A couple of hours later we (wife, our two kids and our dog) get back on the road. We made it home with no more issues.

Any ideas what can be happening?

I'm thinking of weight issues, so I looked at the manufactures weight and tire info on the trailer.

The GVWR is 9699 lbs.

On the tire and loading information sticker, it says " The combination weight of Cargo should Never Exceed 2731 lbs."

There is another yellow sticker that is labeled Recreational Vehicle Trailer Cargo Carrying Capacity that states the same thing. "The weight of the cargo should never exceeded 2731 lbs."

So am I missing something?

There is no way I am carrying more that 2,700 lbs of stuff in my trailer. Clothes and food for 7 days, games and the kids scooters, etc should be no where near that. I know, I should take the trailer to a local scale to know for sure.

So if by the manufactures numbers, GVWR 9699 lbs. plus Cargo 2731 lbs. totaling 12.430 lbs. can be safely towed.

Now here is the kicker, the tires that came with the trailer and the tires that are recommended from factory are Load Range D tires. Load range D tires have a max load 2540 lbs. per tire. My trailer is a dual axle (4 tires), so the total of the max weight for the tires should be 10,160 lbs. This is almost the weight of the TT without anything in it!!!

As per the TT label I should be able to load another 2700 lbs but there is no way these factory tires are manufactured to hold this.

So, am I missing something?
Am I reading the label wrong?
Did the manufacture mess something up?

Six tires on a two and a half year old TT with around 2700 miles.

I am in the process of contacting Forest River but I wanted to get some advice before I do.

Sorry for the long read.

I look forward to hearing your replies.

Thank you in advance!
Carlos

[Bert_Ackerman]

mlh wrote:
In my opinion, I believe a lot of the China Bomb posts lately are caused by using tires that can't handle the weight. (Maybe the user is overloading the TT, maybe the factory installed too low of a load range tire) Since most of the TT's come with the china made tires, there are a lot of them out there. That means a greater number will fail when you are talking percentages. When they fail, all people hear are "change to good year endurance." When they replace tires, most go to load range E and above and no other issues. I'd be willing to bet that the load range fixed the issues and NOT the fact that it was a Good Year endurance tire. But....everyone has their own kool-aid to drink.

beemerphile1 wrote:
Consider this, if 90 percent of the tires on towables are made in China, doesn't it also make sense that 90 percent of the failures will be tires made in China? People piling on about China made tires failing are missing this obvious fact.

For example; if 90 percent of all cars on the road are pink, it would make sense that 90 percent of the cars involved in accidents are pink.

You guys are wasting your breath. None of that matters on these boards. The fact that the RV Industry puts at least 1,300,000 new tires on the road every year, most of which come from China, and the roads are not choked with traffic jams from all these exploding tires matters not. Don't forget the amount of Chinese tires on landscape/flat/utility trailers, horse trailers, box trailers etc, most made in China. By the comments on RV boards you should see multiple trailers with flat tires every time you venture out on the highway. In any case you should see one every time you drive anywhere. Then there is the fact that you see hardly any recalls if any on these Chinese tires over at the NHTSA, but that does not apply on these boards either.

[CapriRacer]

Perhaps I can add something to this thread. Retired tire engineer here.

My expereince with tire failures is that they peak in the third year, but you get a solid, quantifiable, indication in the second year. Also, that tire failures are a summer phenomenon. They are virtually non-existant in Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb.

The earliest production of the Goodyear Endurance ST tire line is in the tail end of its 3rd summer, and the second summer for the second year of production. I haven't heard of any failures, so my experince says the problems that occurred with the Marathon have been fixed

[tomman58]

Huntindog wrote:

tomman58 wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

tomman58 wrote:
Our latest TT came with the new Goodyears on it . They are a larger tire than the sts and there rates at 85mph. I spoke to a Jayco engineer and he said the tt builders were in on the design of this tire it has thicker side walls and is designed for a straight tow. We put on no less than 7000 miles per season ..... so far so go after 9000 miles.
I will add these tires on MY trailer came filled with Nitrogen and they have only needed a pound or two of air to maintain their max air pressure.

They are likely the Goodyear Endurance. Goodyear says they are an upgraded ST tire.
On paper, it should be a better tire.

But Goodyear, along with Carlise, and Maxxis spent many years telling us how great their previous ST tires were.

The way I see it, those companies lied to us for years. Even if they are telling the truth now.... They do not deserve any more of my money.

The Endurance is still a relative newcomer to the scene. It would not tbe the first time that a new ST tire was introduced to great fanfare, and the masses rushed to buy them... Then there was a honeymoon period with glowing testimonials..... Then as the miles and years mounted up, failures happened with increasing frequency.

Perhaps this time will be different... But this new tire experiment will proceed without me.

As for the current beta testers.... If this movie turns out to be a rerun for you.... You still have the LT option. You may have to make some changes to make them fit... But it will be worth it.

Please read that the Goodyears have been out now for about 3 years. They are a totally redesigned tire with heavy side walls and are for straight towing in mind. They also inflate to 80 pounds ( another nice feature for us that forget stuff is the inflation max is in 3" letters on the side of the tire) The tire on my Jayco are quite a bit larger than those in the past also. My truck has 20" wheels and that coupled with the larger ones on the trailer does alter the towing aspect some in high winds but as with anything else in life you learn by doing. After 12,000 miles I am quite used to my setup and wind and weather are not a problem.

I know exactly how long they have been out... And that availability was thin in the begining. Goodyear wanted to push out their previous tires first.

I wish you well... Thougfh I see a lot of marketing in the statement "made for straight line towing" Really? Just what is that. ANY tire can rotate in a straight line. I bet the reas on your TV never do anything but that.
Do you have special tires on your TVs rearend? No? Then how do they meet that challanging task.

Sounds like the sort of BS reasoning they have been using for years to sell us junk.

I really do wish you well... And if it doesn't work out for you in the future... There are some of here that have found a solution that works. You can too.


Ohyeah, I noticed that yesterday it was 9000 miles. Today it is 12000. You sure do put on miles in a hurry.:B

OMG LOOKS LIKE I MISSED KEYED AND WROTE GO INSTEAD OF GOOD. HURRY AND BRING BACK THE JURY!!!!! Varys from time to time depending were we go. The info I stated was given to me from the head of Jayco engineering that spent over an hour with me explaining my concerns on my past trailers. It is not often you can sit down with someone so in tune with people that RV. You may be an above board skeptic but if you wish to learn call JAYCO and talk then and have them try to explain this tire.

[Huntindog]

tomman58 wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

tomman58 wrote:
Our latest TT came with the new Goodyears on it . They are a larger tire than the sts and there rates at 85mph. I spoke to a Jayco engineer and he said the tt builders were in on the design of this tire it has thicker side walls and is designed for a straight tow. We put on no less than 7000 miles per season ..... so far so go after 9000 miles.
I will add these tires on MY trailer came filled with Nitrogen and they have only needed a pound or two of air to maintain their max air pressure.

They are likely the Goodyear Endurance. Goodyear says they are an upgraded ST tire.
On paper, it should be a better tire.

But Goodyear, along with Carlise, and Maxxis spent many years telling us how great their previous ST tires were.

The way I see it, those companies lied to us for years. Even if they are telling the truth now.... They do not deserve any more of my money.

The Endurance is still a relative newcomer to the scene. It would not tbe the first time that a new ST tire was introduced to great fanfare, and the masses rushed to buy them... Then there was a honeymoon period with glowing testimonials..... Then as the miles and years mounted up, failures happened with increasing frequency.

Perhaps this time will be different... But this new tire experiment will proceed without me.

As for the current beta testers.... If this movie turns out to be a rerun for you.... You still have the LT option. You may have to make some changes to make them fit... But it will be worth it.

Please read that the Goodyears have been out now for about 3 years. They are a totally redesigned tire with heavy side walls and are for straight towing in mind. They also inflate to 80 pounds ( another nice feature for us that forget stuff is the inflation max is in 3" letters on the side of the tire) The tire on my Jayco are quite a bit larger than those in the past also. My truck has 20" wheels and that coupled with the larger ones on the trailer does alter the towing aspect some in high winds but as with anything else in life you learn by doing. After 12,000 miles I am quite used to my setup and wind and weather are not a problem.

I know exactly how long they have been out... And that availability was thin in the begining. Goodyear wanted to push out their previous tires first.

I wish you well... Thougfh I see a lot of marketing in the statement "made for straight line towing" Really? Just what is that. ANY tire can rotate in a straight line. I bet the reas on your TV never do anything but that.
Do you have special tires on your TVs rearend? No? Then how do they meet that challanging task.

Sounds like the sort of BS reasoning they have been using for years to sell us junk.

I really do wish you well... And if it doesn't work out for you in the future... There are some of here that have found a solution that works. You can too.


Ohyeah, I noticed that yesterday it was 9000 miles. Today it is 12000. You sure do put on miles in a hurry.:B

[tomman58]

Huntindog wrote:

tomman58 wrote:
Our latest TT came with the new Goodyears on it . They are a larger tire than the sts and there rates at 85mph. I spoke to a Jayco engineer and he said the tt builders were in on the design of this tire it has thicker side walls and is designed for a straight tow. We put on no less than 7000 miles per season ..... so far so go after 9000 miles.
I will add these tires on MY trailer came filled with Nitrogen and they have only needed a pound or two of air to maintain their max air pressure.

They are likely the Goodyear Endurance. Goodyear says they are an upgraded ST tire.
On paper, it should be a better tire.

But Goodyear, along with Carlise, and Maxxis spent many years telling us how great their previous ST tires were.

The way I see it, those companies lied to us for years. Even if they are telling the truth now.... They do not deserve any more of my money.

The Endurance is still a relative newcomer to the scene. It would not tbe the first time that a new ST tire was introduced to great fanfare, and the masses rushed to buy them... Then there was a honeymoon period with glowing testimonials..... Then as the miles and years mounted up, failures happened with increasing frequency.

Perhaps this time will be different... But this new tire experiment will proceed without me.

As for the current beta testers.... If this movie turns out to be a rerun for you.... You still have the LT option. You may have to make some changes to make them fit... But it will be worth it.

Please read that the Goodyears have been out now for about 3 years. They are a totally redesigned tire with heavy side walls and are for straight towing in mind. They also inflate to 80 pounds ( another nice feature for us that forget stuff is the inflation max is in 3" letters on the side of the tire) The tire on my Jayco are quite a bit larger than those in the past also. My truck has 20" wheels and that coupled with the larger ones on the trailer does alter the towing aspect some in high winds but as with anything else in life you learn by doing. After 12,000 miles I am quite used to my setup and wind and weather are not a problem.

[GrandpaKip]

beemerphile1 wrote:
Consider this, if 90 percent of the tires on towables are made in China, doesn't it also make sense that 90 percent of the failures will be tires made in China? People piling on about China made tires failing are missing this obvious fact.

For example; if 90 percent of all cars on the road are pink, it would make sense that 90 percent of the cars involved in accidents are pink.

Which would indicate that you should not buy a pink car.;)
If most trailers came with LT tires, then we would be hearing how bad they are, because mostly what is posted are complaints, not praise. Not just tires, but anything.

[beemerphile1]

Consider this, if 90 percent of the tires on towables are made in China, doesn't it also make sense that 90 percent of the failures will be tires made in China? People piling on about China made tires failing are missing this obvious fact.

For example; if 90 percent of all cars on the road are pink, it would make sense that 90 percent of the cars involved in accidents are pink.

[Edd505]

The nature of China ST tires. I had E LT's on mine before it left the sales lot. Going on 3 years with over 40,000 miles and not one flat. (knock on wood)

[allen8106]

Part of the issue could be wheel alignment causing the tires to wear out prematurely. I have my 5ver wheels checked for alignment and necessary adjustment every two years.

[lenr]

One additional thought: when a trailer tire blows, the other tire on the same side will likely experience additional load possibly being damaged by heat. When this happened to me, I moved the same side tire to the spare and put 2 new tires on that side.

[lenr]

A few comments: I believe that a good way to minimize problems is to install extra capacity. I have read on line (therefore it is true) that tires that carry passengers (such as LTs) are required to build in extra capacity. Comparing an ST to an LT of the same size and load ranger, the ST will be rated at more lbs. So, when moving up in size or load range in an LT to get the same capacity as an ST, you actually get some hidden capacity. Also, as mentioned above, until recently all ST tires were rated at 65 mph. LT tires would be rated for higher speeds (such as 96 mph) which again provides some built in safety margin when driving at 65 mph.

10 years ago after my OEM China Bombs started separating, I switched to Denman tires because this forum liked them as made in North America. After blowing one when a spring broke, and then blowing another just driving down the road, I switched to Maxxis. In fact I put my son's trailers on Maxxis as well. None of those tires ever had a problem, and 6 years later none of them showed any dry rot.

Being concerned about speed ratings, I tossed the OEMs that came with a new trailer 6 years ago and switched to LTs. Since I needed additional height, I purchased 16" wheels to get into 16" LTs. While also going from D to E range, I added additional tire capacity, not to mention the hidden capacity in the LT. I had zero problems in 6 years.

On the third trailer purchased this year, I immediately pulled the OEMs and replaced with Goodyear Endurance. When compared with most STs the Endurance weigh more and have an 87 mph speed rating. They have been just fine so far. The Endurance also come in both 235/80R16 and 235/85R16 so moving up to the taller tire gave me about 200 lbs. per tire additional capacity.

[Huntindog]

tomman58 wrote:
Our latest TT came with the new Goodyears on it . They are a larger tire than the sts and there rates at 85mph. I spoke to a Jayco engineer and he said the tt builders were in on the design of this tire it has thicker side walls and is designed for a straight tow. We put on no less than 7000 miles per season ..... so far so go after 9000 miles.
I will add these tires on MY trailer came filled with Nitrogen and they have only needed a pound or two of air to maintain their max air pressure.

They are likely the Goodyear Endurance. Goodyear says they are an upgraded ST tire.
On paper, it should be a better tire.

But Goodyear, along with Carlise, and Maxxis spent many years telling us how great their previous ST tires were.

The way I see it, those companies lied to us for years. Even if they are telling the truth now.... They do not deserve any more of my money.

The Endurance is still a relative newcomer to the scene. It would not tbe the first time that a new ST tire was introduced to great fanfare, and the masses rushed to buy them... Then there was a honeymoon period with glowing testimonials..... Then as the miles and years mounted up, failures happened with increasing frequency.

Perhaps this time will be different... But this new tire experiment will proceed without me.

As for the current beta testers.... If this movie turns out to be a rerun for you.... You still have the LT option. You may have to make some changes to make them fit... But it will be worth it.

[tomman58]

Our latest TT came with the new Goodyears on it . They are a larger tire than the sts and there rates at 85mph. I spoke to a Jayco engineer and he said the tt builders were in on the design of this tire it has thicker side walls and is designed for a straight tow. We put on no less than 7000 miles per season ..... so far so go after 9000 miles.
I will add these tires on MY trailer came filled with Nitrogen and they have only needed a pound or two of air to maintain their max air pressure.

[Huntindog]

JIMNLIN wrote:


Most ST tire per rv trailer owner I've seen was a member on our TH forum. He had 11 Maxxis ruined in a 3 year period before he switched to LT tires. No issues after that.

I probably had that many as well... I lost count. But I did many brand switches and load range and tire size upgrades along the way to finally arrive at what worked.

Michelin XPS RIBS. No tire issues since I made the swap in 2006. Over 100,000 miles in 13+ years and counting.
When I get a new TT, it is the first thing I do to it. In fact when I brought my present TT home, I parked it along side my old TT, and swapped my used Michelins from it to my new TT.
The buyer of my old TT was impressed that he was getting brand new ST tires. I was relieved that they got me home, and glad to be rid of them.
I will do whatever it takes to make LTs fit.

[coloelk]

Take your trailer to get an alignment done on it. AS they come out of the factory they are all junk this way. Some just worse than others.