Mikey Joins the Tow Max Blowout Club

pegmikef

Well-known member
POW! went the Tow Max tire and Mikey became an instant believer of all the horror stories he had read on this forum. Light weight trailer, rarely over sixty MPH, tires only had 14k miles on them and looked new, Mikey thought he was safe. Wrong! . . . now Mikey has noTow Max Tires.
 

Invizatu

Senior Road Warriors
Any damage?...
How old were they?
What did you replace them with?
I'm just full of questions tonight!
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Sorry to hear this Mike,

Seems like mostly larger 5vers having the TowMax issue, but your TT isn't that heavy. Really focuses on the quality of the tire.

We can recommend the Maxxis replacement.

Erika
 

pegmikef

Well-known member
Any damage?...
How old were they?
What did you replace them with?
I'm just full of questions tonight!

No damage except that cheap plastic fender deal over the wheels and I can fix that. I didn't feel a thing, but saw something poking out in the fender area so I stopped and surprise.

The trailer was made in April 2010, I bought it in December and will have had it two years in December. . . so a little over two years, but used less than that (14,000 miles). I faithfully monitored the air pressure to make sure it was 65 PSI as specified and inspected them for cracks. Looked new, but apparently that doesn't mean anything.

In Brady, TX you take what they have and they had Trianlge tires so I put two on. These are E rated rather than the D rating like the Tow Max. The place was mostly for trucks, but the guy said they had had really good luck with these. They are Chinese too, so we'll see. Triangle is supposed to be a premier tire manufacturer and has research and development facilities in the US. Time will tell. I had already replaced the other two with Maxxis because of abnormal wear (neither tire was balanced).
 

Paul & Nan

Well-known member
Sorry to hear of your blow out Mike. Glad there was not major damage. Hope you have better luck with these new ones. Nan
 

Hastey

Oklahoma Chapter Leaders
Sorry Mike, we lost ours coming to Thackerville for the rally. The BH was purchased at the National rally back in June. I think Heartland should consider finding a new tire vendor.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
No damage except that cheap plastic fender deal over the wheels and I can fix that. I didn't feel a thing, but saw something poking out in the fender area so I stopped and surprise.

Mike:
I'm glad things turned out relatively well. I think Santa should bring you a TPMS for Christmas. Its debatable whether it will prevent a catastrophic blowout, but it will sure let you know about it!!!
 

pegmikef

Well-known member
Mike:
I'm glad things turned out relatively well. I think Santa should bring you a TPMS for Christmas. Its debatable whether it will prevent a catastrophic blowout, but it will sure let you know about it!!!

Exactly what the guy Good Sam sent out said when he saw the condition of the tire! Santa bought be a fifty gallon in bed fuel tank last year, so hopefully I can get him to spring for a TPMS this year.
 

gvtahoe88

Member
On Oct. 31,2012 my wife and I became members of the BLOW MAX CLUB. Heading to NEEDLES Ca. at about 1pm the first blow out it took the fender and did a lot of damage to the entry side of trailer. Oh the trailer is a 2010 Heartland Bighorn 3585. Nice rig junk tires. They are load range E to light weight, should have G rated which we do now. I changed the first blow out and we continued on and 30 miles later another blowout and now no spare and still 50 miles to Needles Ca. MORE damage to the same side of the trailer and here we sit barely off of the freeway with trucks almost blowing us over as the pass. We called Good Sam towing and they sent a flat bed to haul us to Needles KOA arrived 10pm.
 

gvtahoe88

Member
Made a mistake on my typing the Model year of the trailer its a 2012 BigHorn not a 2010 sorry about the mistake the tiresprobably only had about 6000 miles. These heavy trailers should all have at least G rated tires. Trrailer is now in the shop should have EST. will let everyone know how much.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Made a mistake on my typing the Model year of the trailer its a 2012 BigHorn not a 2010 sorry about the mistake the tiresprobably only had about 6000 miles. These heavy trailers should all have at least G rated tires. Trrailer is now in the shop should have EST. will let everyone know how much.

GVTAHOE88 and All:
If you look at the bottom right of your postings, there is another clickable command "Edit Post" that just appears on postings YOU made. There is no time limit on this.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!!
 

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
We also claim membership to the TowMax Tire Blowout Club. I had on tire loose the complete center tread on the driver side, which beat the metal skirt to a pulp. The rear one on the passenger side had a tumor the size of a volleyball. Then the one in front of that one started to come off the cords in the center. It looked like a life ring. I replaced all the rime with 17.5" and put Goodyear G114 rubber. What a difference, RV is so stable you don't even feel it. I used the spare as a swing for my daughter. Laughing about it now, but not when I was stuck on the side of the road.
 

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tireman9

Well-known member
Sandpirate69
Looks like the failures are more properly called "Detachments" of the tread and upper sidewall rather than the generic "Blowout". I would strongly suggest that if you want to help get possibly defective tires off the road, you file a complaint with NHTSA. Be sure you include the complete and correct DOT serial information and let NHTSA know you have pictures available.
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
The bubbles and breaking/shifting belts from within seem to be a common theme. If you happen to catch it pre- blowout, you are very lucky.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

jimmar

Member
About an hour from home at a rest stop, we noticed that a belt had broken in one of our tires and it was rounded in one section. We made it home and yesterday we replaced all four tires with GY 614's. We had less than 3,000 on the towmax's. We were lucky we caught it before a blow out. Has anyone had any luck getting reimbursement on tires that are still under warranty? Also, Discount Tire said to keep the pressure at 90# . The wheels are rated at 110 psi but our trailer is not overly heavy. Does anyone else run 90# on their tires?
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Also, Discount Tire said to keep the pressure at 90# . The wheels are rated at 110 psi but our trailer is not overly heavy. Does anyone else run 90# on their tires?

Here's a link to the Goodyear Inflation Tables, which I've posted in the Tools/Owners Manual section of the forum. Look at the 2nd table, the row you want is LT235/85R16. 90 psi inflation will support 3300 lbs. on each tire (13,200 total). Assuming 2000 lbs on the pinbox, that would allow a GVWR of around 15,200. Your Elkridge is probably closer to 13,000 GVWR, which means you should have some margin at 90 psi.
 

jimmar

Member
Here's a link to the Goodyear Inflation Tables, which I've posted in the Tools/Owners Manual section of the forum. Look at the 2nd table, the row you want is LT235/85R16. 90 psi inflation will support 3300 lbs. on each tire (13,200 total). Assuming 2000 lbs on the pinbox, that would allow a GVWR of around 15,200. Your Elkridge is probably closer to 13,000 GVWR, which means you should have some margin at 90 psi.

Thank you - the chart is extremely helpful. Our GVWR is exactly 13,000 so now I can relax and enjoy our camping trips without worrying about tires blowing. We had a similar situation on our previous trailer that had duro tires on it. Parked at a campground and noticed the tread had separated, replaced all four tires and had no problem for the remainder of the 3 years we had the camper. We lucked out twice noticing bad tires while the camper was parked - I didn't want to risk it a third time so replaced all four tires on this new unit too.
 
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