TrackMaster grenade

I just finished a 3,000 mile road trip and did not see one travel trailer with a flat tire and no spares appeared to explode. However, I did see three semis on the shoulder with shredded tires. Does that mean that truck tires are lousy and ST tires are great? No. That is the same logic that the anti-ST tire folks use. As mentioned by many, there are a whole lot of factors that affect tire life.

With 16 inch rims I would go with reputable LT tire.

just seen this post why from what I have read would you put lt tire that carries about less weight than an st tire. Some 16 235 go from 3500 st tire down to 2900 on an lt tire

"Blowout" is the common term used for Run Low Flex Failures" these occur with an air leak usually due to puncture or cut to the tire or sometimes a valve leak.
TPM can warn of a pending Run Low Flex failure

"Tread Detachment" is the terminology for a separation of one or both belts and the tread from the carcass of the tire. Many times the carcass is still fully inflated. This is usually the result of rubber degradation due to a combination of age and heat. Heat is generated from low inflation, high load and high speed and direct exposure to an external heat source.
TPM will almost never warn of a tread detachment

Huntindog wrote:


To the OP: I used to have many ST tire problems. I have owned more sets of ST tires than I care to remember. When I ran STs, my TT was constatly sporting new tires. None of them made it to their second birthday

mabynack wrote:
I've had six blowouts with ST tires. The last two tires had less than 3000 miles on them and looked brand new. I'm definitely going with new LT tires before I take another long trip.

While it's just my opinion these two instances of issues with ST tires tells me something else is the problem more than just using ST tires. The VAST MAJORITY of ST tire users have no where near these sort of dismal experiences, myself included and in the close to 20 years of running Marathon ST tires I never had a tread separation, only one flat and routinely got 5 to 6 years use out of each tire.

Fast forward, In March 2013 I upgraded my wheels to aluminum ones which I always wanted anyway and at the same time went with the Kumho 857 195R14 tires that had a load capacity of 2094 (compared to the GY 205 of 1760) and a speed rating of over 100mph IIRC. These replaced the GY Marathons that came on the trailer that were at the time almost 7 years old and had just shy of 11K miles on them. Coming back from Fl. this past Feb I had one on the rear axle throw it's tread. At that time the tire was less than 3 years old and had only been on my trailer for just under two years and 6400 total miles. During this time I routinely traveled at a solid 65mph up from my normal 58 to 60 I had always ran before on the GY Marathons. This was the first real tire failure since some passenger car tires I ran on my previous trailer from about 1988 to 1996 started self destructing at which time I became an exclusive GY Marathon user for the next 17 years. Because Kumho evidently stopped marketing the 195R14 tires here I had to replace the bad tire with a GY Marathon 205R75x14 and have now invested in a 5th aluminum rim and one more new GY ST tire and now am running Kumhos on the front axle and GY marathons on the rear axle and carrying one GY marathon and one Kumho 857 spare. I'm going to drop my speed towing back to my previous 58 to 60 and see what happens with this "MIXED COMBO" next.

BTW I was running a TPMS at the time, but forgot to have my "range extender" plugged in so I wasn't getting reliable signals bacause the sensor batteries were several years old:S ... live and learn ... even the best stuff doesn't help if you forget to make sure it's working correctly.

Larry

MM49 wrote:
All these so called experts and not one mention about trailer hitch setup for a level trailer during towing. They tout the same BS; go with a heavier tire until the problem goes away.
mm49

There is a lot of truth in what you say. There is a LOT that goes into tire loading and these failures... (LT tires fail too)

My friend whose tire I posted a pic of earlier was one of two tires that experienced a blow out. Both were on the curb side. The other tire lost the entire tread.

His trailer was a quad slide fifth wheel. The street side had THREE slides and the curb side only had ONE slide.

I could only scratch my head, why did the tires that should have less weight on them fail? The only thing I could figure is UV... Maybe the curb side sat towards the sun and the street side sat in the shade? IDK... The truck and trailer sat pretty level, nothing crazy.

My AWESOME POP UP needs new tires. It's still wearing the original tires that were manufactured in 2007. The PO of the pup has thousands and thousands of miles on these tires, heck the tires still look great!

However, before I tow far I will be buying a new set of tires, I will probably be buying Maxxis M8008 ST tires... Sized 185/80r13... And I will only accept FRESH tires manufactured recently.

I do think Maxxis ST tires are some of the best ST tires available.... I have had a great experience with them in the past. I picked up a nail in one of my previous TT's Maxxis tires, so that proves that the are not immune from road debris. I noticed the leak once I got to the local campground. had I been on the road that Maxxis would have blown as I did not have a TPMS.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

All these so called experts and not one mention about trailer hitch setup for a level trailer during towing. They tout the same BS; go with a heavier tire until the problem goes away.
mm49

Tire engineers must not know as much about tire design as some of our forum members, or else there would be no ST tires. Maybe some will read this thread and get the message?

Heat would likely have gone up pretty quickly in the tire, tpms would likely have given a heads up. Appears to be straight up tread separation.

With all this talk about replacing ST tires with LT tires, I have to ask:

I thought the main difference between ST and LT (aside from the lower max speed) was that ST were specifically engineered for the high side loads caused by tight turns with double-axle trailers, which most autos and 2-axle trucks (and single-axle trailers) don't have. So isn't an LT tire wrong for this application (even if there are more choices available, including more that are not made in China)?