Not happy with tires on Cyclone 3950

tgreening · Apr 10, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

BuckandJen said:
http://s850.photobucket.com/albums/ab65/nifferg/tires/
it would help if I added the link.

Your dealer screwed the pooch on this one and the excuse of "I was only told to get American tires" doesn't and shouldn't fly. It goes without saying that when changing out the tires to an American brand, they have to change to properly sized tires as well.

The reason the gap changes is because you have leaf sprung axles and multiple axles at that. Because of the shackle system used the axles/tires will move forward or backwards depending on what is compressing and what is de-compressing as the various leaf springs go through their cycles. As long as the tires are sized properly this shouldn't be an issue, but with your new tires I couldn't really say. If it's any help, I have the factory original China Bombs on mine. They are wearing well and have given me no issues to date and so far they've been all up and down the Eastern US from Florida to Maine. I have no intentions to change them out just because they're of Chinese persuasion.

dh3235 · Apr 22, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

I too have this issue on my 2009 3950. In fact, I noticed a general progression in the narrowing of the gap between my passenger side rear and middle tires over time. On the return trip from our last trip out to the river in Parker AZ, the tires actually started rubbing together and caused a flat (luckily I caught it before the tire self destructed).

Now, here is the strange part; replacing the failed tire with the spare increased the gap! One further point to mention; I suspected that my rear axle was out of alignment, thinking it was pushed forward, and sure enough, the alignment shop validated that and fixed it after my trip. So, I'm thinking what happened here was that the tire that blew was loosing it's structural integrity and getting larger in diameter over time, to the point where it finally contacted the center tire and had the issue. Can nybody with tire knowledge validate that assumption?

I'm just now researching what tires to replace the existing Mission 235/80R16E ST with. Anyone have any good recommendations for ST tires (liked the post above that mentioned the tire deflection when turning tight, it is truely amazing to see how these things twist).

Gotta love having these forums for research!

Thanks,
Dave

gmc · Apr 22, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

I have maxxis on my bighorn now, and so far they have a been great tire. My bighorn came with china bombs and I had no problems with them either, just wore them out. But I am a stickler for not overloading them and watching the air pressure. I plan on getting tire monitors in the near future

Cycloner3950 · Jun 12, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

Jen - good thread and I share your concern. I would have preferred to have paid the extra $$ directly to Heartland as an option for upgraded tires but I know that they are trying to keep the cost down. Perhaps Jim can send this suggestion through to Heartland on our behalf vs. being so defensive.......

For peace of mind, I have a 2010 3950 and have put on lots of miles with the stock Chinese tires, zero issues but then again I rotate them every 2500 miles, keep them properly inflated and keep them covered from the sun. i would say they are at 40% wear so they will be replaced end of this season. I just pulled back from Pocono Nascar yesterday, 93 degrees and hauled 6 hours straight. Tires hauled good, temperatures normal. They will last a few seasons, not to worry but BOO to Heartland for cheaping out on safety.......As consumers of these units, quality is very important. Price buyers will go buy a Raptor.....

BuckandJen said:
We drove 496 mile sto Michigan on Firday to pick up our new 2011 Cyclone 3950 (we got an unbelievable deal from them since the 2013's were coming out soon)
Anyways, in the past we have not had good luck with chinese tires. Our Cedar Creek had chinese tires and we lost all of them on one camping trip to FL. So my husband will NOT tow a vehicle if it has chinese tires. So when we made the agreement with the dealer to purchase the cyclone we told them it had to have american tires. There service managers brother in law worked at a good year place and was told we could get the wrangler for 1600.00 for 6 tires. I asked what size and they said the same size that came off and i said ok. So we get there and noticed that the last set of tires is extremely close , less than an inch, to the 2nd set. and there is about a 2-3 inch distance between 1st set and 2nd set. My husband wasnt even able to put his fingers in sideways between the two back tires. we were not happy about that as we had huge safety concerns. The service manager said they are 235/85/16 tires and then he made a comment that all he was told was to get american tires. that really upset me as it seems he had no regard for our safety our or concern. we told them we wouldnt buy the camper unless we got something from heartland saying this size tire is fine. We did get it, but we are still very concerned about this. My husband was white knucked driving the entire way home especially when we hit bumps. My question is shouldn't there be more of a clearance between the tires? and why would there be a bigger gap between the first two sets than the 2nd and 3rd? We honestly feel like we have wasted 1600.00 on tires. They also did not give us credit for the towmax tires and we ended up bringing them home with us. Has anyone had this problem with the bigger tires?

TravelTiger · Jun 15, 2012

Regarding the "expansion" of the tire... This happened on one of ours... I caught it, just because I was laying under the rig taking pics of our new axels.... One tire appeared to be bulging out on the tread slightly. When we had the tire removed, it looked like a hexagon! All the belts had broken inside the tire, but the tire was still intact. Looking back at pics, I could see it appeared "bigger" than the tire next to it, and thus closer together than the opposite side tires. It was a TowMax tire. We replaced all 5 with Maxxis.

Here at the Gillette Rally, the Tredit rep recommended Goodyear 614s, because they use an all steel mesh, rather than a nylon mesh in many ST tires (if your rims are rated for them).

Nifferg · Jul 26, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

Just wanted to let everyone know that we were able to get everything straightened out. Our Dealer paid for new tires to be put on if we agreed they could have the wrangler tires plus the towmax tires. We went with the Michelin XPS ribs 245/75/16. These came very close in size to the towmax that came on it (looking at the actual diameters, specs, etc. for each tire). They were american made, AND it increased the space between the tires to where we were comfortable towing it. Now I can relax and enjoy our new camper which I love!

Ray LeTourneau · Jul 26, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

Nifferg said:
Just wanted to let everyone know that we were able to get everything straightened out. Our Dealer paid for new tires to be put on if we agreed they could have the wrangler tires plus the towmax tires. We went with the Michelin XPS ribs 245/75/16. These came very close in size to the towmax that came on it (looking at the actual diameters, specs, etc. for each tire). They were american made, AND it increased the space between the tires to where we were comfortable towing it. Now I can relax and enjoy our new camper which I love!

Nifferg, Welcome to the Heartland Forum. I guess I'm a little confused. This appears to be your first post on the heartland Forum. Could you enlighten us as to what your initial problem was? Thanks!
On edit, I think I have it figured out "Buck & Jen" started the original thread and "Nifferg" is either Buck or Jen right?

SAMSAM · Jul 30, 2012

Re: New Cyclone 3950 owner - not happy with Tires

Dear friend,
I know your pain, We have a 2009 cyclone and have had tire problems with 5 out of 6 mission tires. They all separated at the tread and side wall causing them to rub and fail. We only had one blow out, because others on the road helped us when they noticed them going down. I did some research and found out that Goodyear marrathons came highly recommended by many of my brother evangelist that travel 15-20 thousand miles a year. We have had them a year now and no trouble.
Scott

Not happy with tires on Cyclone 3950

tgreening

Active Member

dh3235

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gmc

Reitired - California-Central Chapter Leaders

Cycloner3950

Crazy for Camping!

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired

Nifferg

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Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator

SAMSAM

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