Towmax by Power King – Facts

As of this posting:

1. 37 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA.

2. Zero recalls, investigations or service bulletins have been issued by the NHTSA.

3. Out of the 37 complaints, 10 where filed by Heartland owners as follows:
4. 36 HOC Forum treads started with the word “Towmax” in the title.*

5. 69 mentions of Towmax in HOC Forum threads.*

6. Unknown millions of Towmax tires delivered each year.

7. Unknown thousands of Towmax tires delivered on Heartland brand each year.

8. Power King provides 24/7 Roadside Assistance for two years from the date of purchase.

9. Power King provides a Premium Limited Warranty (Affective Aug. 2012), Premium Limited Warranty (Prior to Aug. 1, 2012).

(*) Results from the HOC Forum search engine.

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Bonus tidbits:

105 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for the Goodyear Marathon tire. (34 during the same period as the Towmax above.)

6 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for the Mission ST tire.

15 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for the Loadstar ST tire by Kenda Karrier.

1 complaint has been filed at the NHTSA for the XPS Rib tire by Michelin.

Zero complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for the Maxxis ST Radial M8008.

Braking down the Carlisle stats is not easy. Carlisle currently has 5 different model trailer tires. I discovered in the past that there are several tire models reported in the wrong category by submitters on the NHTSA site. Below is the best I'll provide.

Also, in past research on Carlisle, the company made a significant shift in the product line and production in the year 2010. They purchased the Chinese plant that year and placed their company supervisors there to oversee the product line. Therefore, all the Carlisle tires made after 2010 are better.

Although I have had some Carlisle failures, none failed due to defects. Even the two tires I had that were made in 2010 failed due to an axle shifting that caused the tires to overheat from friction. They failed 6 months later.

53 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for the Radial Tail (RH) tire by Carlisle.
a. 2007 – 5
b. 2008 -14
c. 2009 -10
d. 2010 -7
e. 2011 -6
f. 2012 -5
g. 2013 -6

1 complaint has been filed at the NHTSA for the Sport Trail tire by Carlisle. (2011)

6 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for the USA Trail LRF tire by Carlisle. (2007-2010)

203 complaints have been filed at the NHTSA for a variety styles and sizes of tires by Carlisle. (2001-2012) **

** Sorry, I'm not going to spend the time to break that down. It looked like the majority were 15" tires.


All are welcome to perform your own search here: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchSafetyIssues

Interesting, Thanks Dave.

Warranty only applies to purchases after Aug 2012.


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TravelTiger said:

Warranty only applies to purchases after Aug 2012.


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Click to expand...

Added the other warranty.

By all of these facts . . . am I to believe that I should trust my TowMax (aka - BlowMax) Power King ST's that have barely 3000 miles on them?

What I would like to see is a breakdown of the types of trailers and loads these tires had when blown!

It seems to me from what I've read here in the forums is that most (if not all) of the blowuouts have been with 5th-wheel trailers.

So I'm left wondering if the BlowMax's are OK on the smaller bumper-pull trailers, but perhaps are extremely overloaded on those big heavy 5th-wheels?

I don't think the TowMax are overloaded -- I know ours weren't, but I am curious what causes the big bubbles on the sidewall that people have reported?


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Our 5th wheel was empty and we were taking it home from dealer maintenance, I watched the tech air the tires up because it had sat at the dealership for a month. We made it maybe 15 miles south of the dealership when we had a total tread separation from the passenger side real axle.

TravelTiger said:

I don't think the TowMax are overloaded -- I know ours weren't, but I am curious what causes the big bubbles on the sidewall that people have reported?


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Click to expand...

Not saying this is the case all the time, but last month in Florida, my neighbor pulled in with a 3 month old Big Horn. He had just had a blow out that took off the fender skirt. While I was talking with him he admitted that he had been running in excess of 70, and then went on to tell how he had hit a curb at a scale while trying to weigh it a couple weeks prior. Again not saying this is always the case, because I've changed my Towmax tires out to G614s, it's just sometimes we tend to forget road hazards.

It would be interesting to see how they stack up to name brand tires, running under the same conditions. I know there are a ton of people here that are running on tires other than Towmax and I'm not hearing many reports on them. Anybody up for starting a Pole? I'm not sure I know how or if I can.

TravelTiger said:

I don't think the TowMax are overloaded -- I know ours weren't, but I am curious what causes the big bubbles on the sidewall that people have reported?


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Click to expand...

I can tell you exactly what causes the big air bubbles on the sidewalls. It is from overheating that occurs after under inflation while traveling down the highway.

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JohnD said:

By all of these facts . . . am I to believe that I should trust my TowMax (aka - BlowMax) Power King ST's that have barely 3000 miles on them?

What I would like to see is a breakdown of the types of trailers and loads these tires had when blown!

It seems to me from what I've read here in the forums is that most (if not all) of the blowuouts have been with 5th-wheel trailers.

So I'm left wondering if the BlowMax's are OK on the smaller bumper-pull trailers, but perhaps are extremely overloaded on those big heavy 5th-wheels?

Click to expand...

I had tread separation on one and a blow out on another with my former TT North Trail LRSS. The trailer was less than 8600 pounds, the PSI was correct (I had just checked and corrected it 2 hours earlier) and I never pulled the NT over 60 MPH. Needless to say I replaced the others. . . . the tires always looked good, until I found the tread separation.

dw-GRAY Do you have any stats on Carlisle tires. I have them on my rig for the last 2 years and have had no problems Thanx

The data is interesting and at a glance indicate Towmax tires have a minimal number of failures as indicated by number of complaints filed. Certainly the unknown though is actual failures vs complaints filed. Compared to the millions of Towmax tires delivered the % that fail (based on complaints filed) seems relatively low. When I first looked at the number of complaints filed on the mission tires-6 and load star-15 compared to Towmax-37 the Towmax while higher didn't seem too stand out as exceptionally worse. However when compared from a % stand point the Towmax reported failures based on the data are 600% higher than mission tires and 240% higher than load star.

In two different SOB TT's I have had two Goodyear Marathon blowouts, one Carlisle blowout (back in 2008 before they were redesigned), and one Greenball blowout.

Three of the four TowMax tires on my new Heartland TH buldged... but I never had a TowMax tire blowout.
Replaced the TowMax with the new Carlisles.

When the rubber meets the road you are at risk of a tire failure, no matter what brand, heck I've even read on the forum where a G614 blew!!!

Thank you for posting this I just bought a brand new Cyclone 3100 I am starting to think joining this forum was a mistake for me. I tend to over think and over analyze everything. It seems as though everything on this forum is negative postings about the Heartland product and now I am second guessing my decision. At least this post put the tire issue into perspective. Is there a thread anywhere on here where owners talk about the things they LOVE about their Heartland products?

Dober,

I LOVE my Heartland TH so much, it is sitting out on Hwy 349 with a FOR SALE sign hangin' on it!!!
So I can buy me a bigger Heartland TH... that will probably have TowMax tires on it!!!

"Just can't live that negative way...make way for the positive day!"—Bob Marley

If your buying a new Heartland Fifth wheel I would work into the deal that the dealer change the tires out to another brand. If you are ordering it I would order the option of the Goodyear G614 tire or I would have the Towmax tires taken off and subbed with the G614 for piece of mind.

Rmcgrath53 said:

dw-GRAY Do you have any stats on Carlisle tires. I have them on my rig for the last 2 years and have had no problems Thanx

Click to expand...

Posted. It took a lot of time.

Re: Towmax by Power King – Facts . . . ?

Dober2004 said:

Thank you for posting this I just bought a brand new Cyclone 3100 I am starting to think joining this forum was a mistake for me. I tend to over think and over analyze everything. It seems as though everything on this forum is negative postings about the Heartland product and now I am second guessing my decision. At least this post put the tire issue into perspective. Is there a thread anywhere on here where owners talk about the things they LOVE about their Heartland products?

Click to expand...

Just because people post complaints about a product doesn't mean that they still don't love their purchase!

I've become extremely frustrated by some warranty issues I've had (and are still occurring) . . . but that doesn't mean that I hate my new trailer!

After you've had your new trailer out a couple of times you'll understand this.

Dober2004 said:

Thank you for posting this I just bought a brand new Cyclone 3100 I am starting to think joining this forum was a mistake for me. I tend to over think and over analyze everything. It seems as though everything on this forum is negative postings about the Heartland product and now I am second guessing my decision. At least this post put the tire issue into perspective. Is there a thread anywhere on here where owners talk about the things they LOVE about their Heartland products?

Click to expand...

OK, here goes. We love our Heartland Landmark. No problems. Just completed a 2000 mile round trip and it performed flawlessly. No tire problems (Goodyear G614) and nothing came apart.

Seriously, there are hundreds of threads on here with folks singing the praises of their RVs.


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