ST tires for 3055RL

I know this has been discussed many times, and here's another stab at it. We have ordered our new 3055RL from Explore USA in Texas and are expecting it by Thanksgiving. The dealer has told me that there is no telling what will be on the feet of the unit when it gets here. I questioned Goodyear, Goodrich, Michelin and Yokohama tire sites for the answer to the "ST" vs. "LT" tires. I'm not going to leave the Mission tires on for any longer than necessary. After 3 explosions on Goodyear G614ST's on the Doubletree, I've been very educated to speed, tire presure and age of tires. BF Goodrich was the only company to reply to me and this is their answer:

"Concerning your question, if the tire you are replacing was an ST tire, then a Commercial TA or LT tire will not work. Unfortunately, we do not make ST tires. Those are special trailer tires with higher load ratings. Please check the old tire and if it were an ST tire, we would need to defer you to someone else. We appreciate your interest in our products."

So...where do you get 16" ST tires? I can't find anybody (except Carlisle), and they have their own set of problems , that has the 235/85R16ST tires. Sorry for the repeated discussions, but it's obviously an important issue.

I to have been checking around on tires and this is a response from Michelin.

"Thank you for your email. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.

The XPS Rib is not a Special Trailer tire. If your trailer requires a ST
tire we do not recommend using any LT tires."

Seems there is a limited number of manufactures making ST tires.../Doug

There has been lots of information posted on the forum in the past about tires, pressures, speeds, etc. Here is one that seems to cover most aspects of trailer tires: http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoSeparationAnxiety.dos

John

Thanks John, that is a really good article..../Doug

Yes, that's good info about the ST vs LT points. I'm amazed at the tire dealers who only want to sell LT tires for RVs. Just today, I had a Shreveport dealer tell me that LT Marathon or Wrandler LT tires are "just right for RVs". He added that most RVs manufacturers are using the "cheap Chinese and Japanese tires, because they get a kick-back". Needless to say, he didn't make any sales or future business. However, he did say that he could get "Towmax" tires and there made by Goodrich overseas, but, they don't make my size. So...back to the drawing board and continuing the search for good quality ST tires.

My last trailer was a Sunnybrook and it came with LT 235/80R/16E HT Goodyear Wranglers.
This one came with Mission ST 235/80/16 E, I felt better with the Goodyear's.

Excellents article. We have the Loadstar St235/80R16 Radial. So far ok...

(The Wrangler tires we recvd on one of our new GM trucks. The tires separated before the first year was up. ) I won't ever buy a wrangler again. My new son-laws father is a tire rep for western canada, I'll see what his company recommends and let you all know.

I have the Karrier Loadstar's also......................6,500 miles so far and they still look good. Knock on wood, maybe these are one of the "OK chinese tires made"! I'm still looking for a brand to replace them with.............so far, none of the ST tires around the blog really excite me. Even the GY 614's are having serious problems.

As an aside, we are coming out of a '04 Doubltree 36TK3 that had Goodyear G614ST tires and we lost 3 on one trip to Washington DC. Damage was done to both sides and Goodyear stepped up and paid for all damage repairs and paid for 2 new tires. Foolishly, we discarded one tire. Hang on to them and they will take care of it for you. HOWEVER...I lost lots of sleep and faith in Goodyear tires. Nobody should have to go through that nightmare after only 2 years of service. I have extensively read forums all over the map on LT vs ST and there doesn't seem to be any hard written evidence from manufacturers on crossing over from ST to LT, except from Goodrich who states they don't make an ST and don't recommend crossing over. Thanks again to all who have replied.

I can tell you this...our experience is that the Michelin XPS Rib was the best thing we ever did when we used E load tires. The sidewall is extremely strong and they gave us absolutely NO PROBLEM in the more the 20,000 miles we put on them ON OUR TRAILER. Got very tired of dealing with the ST tire problems...changed from 15" to 16" rims, put on the Michelins and never looked back!

As for the Goodyear G614's...if you look closely you'll find that their problems were almost exclusively PRIOR to 2006. They have corrected the issues and the G614's are giving good service for those of us using G load tires. Had them on my 07' Holiday Rambler, put more than 15,000 miles on them, and they looked like new when I traded it in. They are now on my Bighorn, we've already got over 5,000 on them and no problem.

kakampers,

What do you make of that resent post with the link about the G614's having tread separation problems and GY stopping production of them? Is this in the past and GY has now fixed the problem? I've got a e-mail into GY and haven't heard back from them yet. We've ordered our Cyclone with G614's, but now I'm getting nervous. We're paying big bucks for this upgrade and it was supposed to give us "peace of mind"....

Thanks

Well...I wish you hadn't told us that you upgraded to G614's. I was told by 3 dealers we dealt with that no upgrades were available on tires. I don't know why they won't have optional tire packages. Maybe they will for future buyers.

Now where else for tires!!!

My wife and I have a new 3400 Bighorn and love it....in the first month traveled from Dallas to Yellowstone, Tetons, etc. We lost air on one tire and took it to the ONLY place I can say for sure deals with real RV trailer tires. A simple fix on a small nail hole and we were on our way in 30 minutes. (no charge)

Take your rig down to Discount Tires (we deal at the Lewisville, hwy 3040 store) and talk to them. For our first two rigs (this is our third) I could find the ST tires only at Discount and put a LOT of miles on them.

Hope this help.....

vangoes said:

I have the Karrier Loadstar's also......................6,500 miles so far and they still look good. Knock on wood, maybe these are one of the "OK chinese tires made"! I'm still looking for a brand to replace them with.............so far, none of the ST tires around the blog really excite me. Even the GY 614's are having serious problems.

Click to expand...

We also have the Loadstars and kncok on wood or something, still no problems. An interesting side note, the Loadstars are rated for 3500# @ 90 psi.. Isn't that a bit above the normal "E" rated tire? That makes our 4 tires rated at 14000# That's a plus too!

I have 4 Loadstar's on my 30' flat bed equipment trailer and have overloaded them many times without any trouble. I guess it's because I'm not traveling very far and that keeps the heat down??? So far (2 years) they've been good tires.....

You're right they're E's rated for 3500 lb @ 90 psi. This trailer has two 7k axles under it so all the ratings match...

caddojay,

Well, our tire/wheel/axle upgrade took a lot of talking to get done. We were also told by a few dealers that it couldn't be done. So I bypassed them and went straight to the factory. They listened and after a lot of back and forth talk agreed to accommodate us.

The good news for future buyers is that our unit will stand as a prototype and Heartland is working to have this as either an option or a new standard for the Cyclone line. I would not be surprised if they're offering it right now or in the very near future, but the dealers just might not know about it yet. Ours is rolling off the line today and we're eager to see it with the 16's. Now, I don't know if the G614's are going to be the tire offered. Most likely not, but at least you'll have the rims and axles to support that tire. If I had to guess, I'd say they will use 16' E rated GY Marathons since they've been using the 15 D's in a Marathon recently...
Keep in mind this is all speculation on my part. But the future looks good for much better running gear on the Cyclone.
Way to go Heartland!

Axle upgrade

Country,

We had the dealer upgrade our axle and tires when we ordered our trailer a month ago. He called Heartland and they said ok. I've seen several emails from BH owners that upgraded axles and tires. Not that unusual, just that some dealers don't want to do it and want to sell you the unit on the lot. Now I'm waiting to see the kind of tires on it.

Well, from our experience with the factory, this upgrade has never been done before on a Cyclone. I too had heard of people doing it with some of the other Heartland lines, but not the Cyclone. That is one of the things I used as persuasion to get our upgrade...

It seems that the different product lines are very independent from one another. Just because one offers an "unlisted" upgrade, another may not and might not of even heard of it before...

You had it easy, because Big Country is one of the lines that have offered the axle upgrade before and I can almost say for certain, from the factory, it will have China tires on it. If you have a good dealer, you should be able to work out a swap.

We purchased our 2900MK this last Summer. It came with the upgraded axles, 16" rims and Mission tires. From all my research and past experience with Maxxis ST tires, that is what we replaced the Missions with. We only do long weekend getaways and not a lot of mileage. However we do go to some remote dirt road areas in the Sierras as we did with our last 5er that had Maxxis tires without any problems.

todalake said:

Country,

We had the dealer upgrade our axle and tires when we ordered our trailer a month ago. He called Heartland and they said ok. I've seen several emails from BH owners that upgraded axles and tires. Not that unusual, just that some dealers don't want to do it and want to sell you the unit on the lot. Now I'm waiting to see the kind of tires on it.

Click to expand...

todalake,

I recently ordered a BH 3400RL with upgraded 7000lbs axel and G rated tires. The dealer didn't bat an eye and confirmed with the area Heartland rep. that this was doable. My BH is scheduled to come out of Elkhart Nov.21 with delivery in 3/5 days. Be interesting to see what shows up.

azbound

Gary and JB