tires
Anyone have experience with Tow Max or Trailer King tires for a TT? Its difficult to find tires made in the USA that don't cost a fortune.
Forum Discussion
- Doesn't matter the brand name, if it's made in China it's a bomb waiting to explode on you. If you want cheap then buy cheap and that would be Made in China tires. Only USA made trailer tire is the Goodyear Endurance. Haven't priced Endurance but that's where I'd put my money if I wasn't running truck tires on my trailer.
- Don't bother with Tow Max or Trailer King, go with the tried and true Carlisle Radial Trail HD.
- No one said an RV was cheap did they?
- I don't run cheap tires, Goodyear Wrangler HT in the size of LT215/75-15 might be a good idea. You didn't post the size you currently have.
- The China bomb era ended in about 2012 or so. Some folks didn't get the memo.
It is true the that performance characteristic of the high dollar tires include improved speed rating, improved compounds and more efficient tread designs. That plus the fact that they are a low volume is why they cost more.
The TT and 5ver OEM market has consumed over 2,000,000 tires annually for the last four years, add the horses, utility and large boat trailers and they have quite a track record. I doubt any of the high dollar tires have sold a million units yet.
To answer your question, I replaced my seven year old OEM tires with Tow Max tires 18,000 miles ago. I did purchase based on my local tire shop's recommendations, rather then Wal-Mart or TSC type stores.
However, in the end, facts are only facts but the choice of tires is based on your personal comfort level.
Good luck - Go to the Heartland owners forum and type in Towmax tires and check out all the pictures of damage from blowouts with Towmax tires. They used to put them on all their trailers because they were so cheap. So many failures and threatened lawsuits and they now only put them on their lightest trailers. My tire dealer quit selling them because he had so many customers that came back angry from the damage from blowouts. Every once in a while I see someone that has had good luck with them but many many more that were very dissapointed. They're cheap for a reason.
- When a tire blows on a TT, the damage is often severe. It can run into the thousands. you really can't feel a blown tire on a TT in the TV. So you keep on going with the steel belts ripping your TT apart like a chainsaw.
So a cheap tire, that blows isn't a bargain at all.
Personally, I no longer use ST tires at all. They are pretty much all on the cheap side.
There just isn't any high end ST tires to be had at any price.
LT tires offer a variety of good, better, best along with corrosponding price points.. But any of them are better and more reliable than STs.
A good part of the reason is the govt. test standards, that LT tires must pass. Since LTs are rated for passenger automobile service, their standards are much more severe than what STs have to pass. In fact, it says right on the side of ST tires "Not for passenger car service". You will not find any such warning on the side of an LT tire.
There are many that will say I am full of it. I wish I had all of the money I wasted on ST tires back. That won't happen of course, but I will not waste anymore money on ST tires.
And I will try to keep others from repeating my mistakes. - Why does one spend money on ST tires instead of LT tires anyway? I will be due soon and have this argument in my head to go with truck tires...
- Had TowMax or something like that the previous owner put on my trailer. By 5 years old (by tire date code) 3 of the 4 had failed (2 tread separation blowouts and caught the 3rd bulge in the tread). Got Maxxis tires. 5th year and all are still in great shape.
- Never mind folks, rbpru says the Chinese tires are now quality made since 2012 (can you post a copy of the memo or tell us your source?). We can start buying Chinese tires again with confidence knowing they're not going to bomb our trailers. BTW we're still getting exploded Chinese tires coming into the dealership. Seems they can't make the run from Indiana to Tucson. Hey, but what do I know.
