Bighorn Down, 2 G614's gone

[Ray LeTourneau]

Pictures later. Made it from Hilton Head as far as Exit 125 on I-26. Lost the tread on the right rear, put on the spare in a rest area. We got a few miles down the road and lost the 2nd tire on the same side. Currently waiting for the tire guy. Bringing out 2 Hercules LR-F @ $317 for both tires. No Goodyears available. Progressive is covering the service call. My G614's are nearing 5 years old..
I'll update when we get to Waynesville.




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[Invizatu]

Ray... With both on same side, is it possible that it was road debris or pot hole that caused them both to go so close together? Do you have a tpms? Any damage to trailer? Good luck getting home safely, hopefully the other side will make it home.

 

[JJnVA]

Ray,
Sorry to hear about the tires but assuming no damage otherwise - except to the budget. Hope u r on your way shortly with smooth cruising to Waynesville.

We feel fortunate to have reached Mt. Pleasant safely. Two separate but crazy incidents happened in the left lane right next to us on the way here that could have caused us to be involved in an accident....held our breath for a few seconds until the situations cleared. We can share stories in Waynesville but know that yours is more "painful". Glad u r safe.

 

[Garypowell]

I was told by Tread-it Tire when I was doing my investigation on buying my 614's that when one tire blows it puts all the weight on the other tire on that same side and normally it is damaged because of this....and if it is weak it will/can blow soon. I had two blow outs close in time and asked them what they thought. My guess this is what happened to Ray. Ray.....sorry to hear what happened....hope you get up and running soon. No fun to be sitting in a rest area.

 

[JohnDar]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, Ray. Hope your rig didn't take it in the keister. 5 years and how many miles?

 

[ihsolutions]

What's this, now?

I've never heard of a G614 failure before!

Glad nobody was hurt and you will be back on the road soon. That's no fun, for sure.

My G614's are wearing on the outside edges, both sides, all four tires. Weird. They will certainly wear out there before they dry rot. These thing's ain't cheap. Last quote I got was nearing $1900 for a set of FOUR.

 

[trdeal]

Ray,sorry to hear about your blow outs. A bad ending to a great weekend. Glad you and Lin are both safe.

 

[jbeletti]

What's this, now?

I've never heard of a G614 failure before!

Glad nobody was hurt and you will be back on the road soon. That's no fun, for sure.

My G614's are wearing on the outside edges, both sides, all four tires. Weird. They will certainly wear out there before they dry rot. These thing's ain't cheap. Last quote I got was nearing $1900 for a set of FOUR.

Goodyear had a period where they put out some back G614s a few years back. I think Ray's tires pre-date that though. That he got 5-years out of his is great. That they threw a tread - not so great. He will likely be able to file a claim with Goodyear for relief on replacements and another claim for damage (if any). That said, at 5 years of service, that may be outside their warranty consideration period.

Best of luck Ray! See you in a couple days.

 

[kakampers]

What's this, now?

I've never heard of a G614 failure before!
P
Glad nobody was hurt and you will be back on the road soon. That's no fun, for sure.

My G614's are wearing on the outside edges, both sides, all four tires. Weird. They will certainly wear out there before they dry rot. These thing's ain't cheap. Last quote I got was nearing $1900 for a set of FOUR.

Oh yeah...they are notorious for throwing their tread...took out the side of our Bighorn. That's the reason we finally upgraded to 17.5 rims and G114's.

Sorry about what happened Ray...hope you saved the carcasses...file a claim with Goodyear, they bought us all new tires and paid the repairs to the trailer.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

OK! For now all is good. When the first (front) tire lost the tread, I never realized it. It did not lose any air. TPMS showed 120 psi and temps near the rest of the other tires so I had no idea yet. When we stopped for a rest area, I found the damage and right away noticed the tread missing. The rear tire looked OK both inner and outer sidewalls and tread seemed OK. I changed the bad tire to the spare and hit the road after about an hour. I had to fire up the genny to use the compressor to air up the spare to 90psi. It was a Karrier Loadstar that came with the Bighorn.

12 miles up the road, the 2nd (rear) tire blew. It took about 2 hours for service to arrive from Charleston. Progressive paid the full service charge of $325. Nice. They brought out 2 Hercules 235-85X16 Load Range F tires. Right off the boat! They had no equipment in the van so they changed out the 2 tires by hand with tire irons. That took about 2 more hours. I had them take the old tires with. After almost 5 years I didn't feel Goodyear would help. Not really too concerned about it. The 2 Hercules cost $317.00

The interesting fact is the other 2 G614"s were running 121 to 123 psi. Cold inflation was 105 this morning. So a gain of 15+ psi while running. The Herc's were inflated to 95 psi cold and never went over 102 for the rest of the trip. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with that. I need to do some research tomorrow to see how the Hercs have been reviewed. I may just buy 2 more and see how they work out. I need to get the 2 I just received balanced asap.

The damage isn't too terrible. Fender skirt gone. Rear wrap is rolled under just aft of the rear tire and I think there's some pieces missing under the door. Not as bad as it could have been.

We arrived at Waynesville and set up by 9:45. A pretty long day... No water at my site. I'm sure glad I have some in the fresh tank. G'nite ya'll!
BTW, Dave is here but the trailer was dark.??

 

[JohnDar]

Does this mean that replacing my Freestars with G614's is not such a good idea? I'm considering new tires this year, but don't want to jump from the pan into the fire. The Freestars are still looking almost new and have less than 4000 miles on them. Mold date code is 5207, though.

 

[jbeletti]

Personally - I would not be worried about the G614s produced in the last few years. Seems to be holding up for most everyone from what I read online. Seems a lot of people like Maxxis too.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Does this mean that replacing my Freestars with G614's is not such a good idea? I'm considering new tires this year, but don't want to jump from the pan into the fire. The Freestars are still looking almost new and have less than 4000 miles on them. Mold date code is 5207, though.

John, my G614's were nearing 5 years old. They're due!!!

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[Rob_Fla]

We bought Sailun S637 Tires for our 5th Wheel, very similar construction to the G614.They are "G" Rated 14 Ply tires that run 110 lbs of air.Been running them for about a year and 1/2 now, no problems and they are wearing great after about 10k miles.The Sailun's are getting a pretty good reputation and cost is around $200 each

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

We bought Sailun S637 Tires for our 5th Wheel, very similar construction to the G614.They are "G" Rated 14 Ply tires that run 110 lbs of air.Been running them for about a year and 1/2 now, no problems and they are wearing great after about 10k miles.The Sailun's are getting a pretty good reputation and cost is around $200 each

Thanks Rob, I'm still undecided about what replacements to get. Looking at several options at this point.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Does this mean that replacing my Freestars with G614's is not such a good idea? I'm considering new tires this year, but don't want to jump from the pan into the fire. The Freestars are still looking almost new and have less than 4000 miles on them. Mold date code is 5207, though.

John, the purchase date for my G614"s was April, 2008. The date code on the tires is 3707. Not too much older than yours.

 

[ultrafarmer]

I have been too Alaska, Maine, CA. 2 times Colorado and several other trips, and the Maxxas tires are all holding up great. Will buy again..............

 

[wdk450]

Are all of these tire suggestions the original 16 inch size, or are some of them on bigger (must buy new $) rims?

 

[brianharrison]

They brought out 2 Hercules 235-85X16 Load Range F tires.

The interesting fact is the other 2 G614"s were running 121 to 123 psi. Cold inflation was 105 this morning. So a gain of 15+ psi while running. The Herc's were inflated to 95 psi cold and never went over 102 for the rest of the trip. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with that. I need to do some research tomorrow to see how the Hercs have been reviewed. I may just buy 2 more and see how they work out. I need to get the 2 I just received balanced asap.

I am interested to know any difference in your TPSM running temperatures between the old GY and the new Herc's. I am wondering if a lower running temperature on the new tires (stiffer? material? different construction?) reduced the delta on cold/running pressures. Or are the herc's softer - allowing more "Ballooning" of the tire keeping delta pressure down between cold/running?

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Are all of these tire suggestions the original 16 inch size, or are some of them on bigger (must buy new $) rims?

Bill, the Hercules are the same numeric size and the G614's St235-85r16 but they are one inch larger in diameter. I lost an inch in the space between the tires with the Hercules. They are LR-F (12ply) with a 3900 payload at 95 psi.

I realize Goodyears G114 with 17.5 wheels are the way to go but I don't have an extra $2500 smackers laying around in addition to the $320 I already have out. I've decided to go with 2 more Hercules to replace the remaining G614's. Maybe not the best option but I don't have to use plastic to pay for them.