Yesterday while heading home from a weekend outing I got to experience not one, but two occurrences of these well designed and Quality Assured tires. First setting the scene: tires at proper pressure (80lb), speed under 65MPH, trailer weight below 14,000lbs, miles on tires TOTAL less than 1,000, road condition dry and smooth. Tire #1: blew out the center of the tread, no coach damage after ~70 miles of travel (lost 3hrs sitting on roadside); Tire #2: failed spectacularly (after only 30 miles) taking out the fender skirt, the heater cover, rear step plastic frame, and lots of side panel (lost 4 hrs of my life that I will never get back). What made the second one more frustrating is I had no spare as it was already in use...finally rescued by a friend that took the spare off his coach and drove 40miles to assist me. Heartland....I suggest you take a look at what is happening to GM and address the safety factor of these tires.
Another TowMax victim reporting in....
- Thread starter SCPOBob
- Start date
Roller4tan
Well-known member
Avoided the Blowmax Syndrome, having Goodyear G614's put on tomorrow... Whew
mobilcastle
Well-known member
Sorry to see your tire popped.good luck with new ones.
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
I have advocated the G114 in the past and in fact bought the 114's. Im glad I have them and they give me a tremendous comfort when towing. But I recently weighed my rig and paid close attention to the weighing technique that I used, I weighed each axle. Now I wish I would have gone with the G614. They are completely adequate and you already own the rims. Given another opportunity I would buy the G614's. But since I have them already the G114s are great.
If you can, make towmax replace that tire, they sent me a check for $125 and a little form letter telling me that they examined the tire and my rig was overloaded. I knew it was not and I confirmed it on the scales last week.
I have determined that you can overload a Towmax without violating the weight rating printed on the side of the tire. LOL.
BTW my insurance co paid for my damage.
If you can, make towmax replace that tire, they sent me a check for $125 and a little form letter telling me that they examined the tire and my rig was overloaded. I knew it was not and I confirmed it on the scales last week.
I have determined that you can overload a Towmax without violating the weight rating printed on the side of the tire. LOL.
BTW my insurance co paid for my damage.
Miltp920
Well-known member
Hopefully you have read to keep the damaged tires. The warranty may require you to send in the shredded tires. I changed my blowmax out this spring with under 500 miles including delivery to dealer. Replaced with Carlisle 12 ply RH. 1500 miles on new 12 plys, not worried like I was with those 10 plys. My rig weighs in at 15600 lbs with golf cart and full tank of gas.
danemayer
Well-known member
I haven't seen a post on it yet, but 2PSNAPOD had blowouts on two of his G614s over the past few days. The first didn't cause any damage, but the second one took out quit a bit of fender skirt and other areas.
They're running Goodyear G614s.
Thought I would update the thread...contact TowMax Distributor, they want me to: 1) prep the carcasses for shipment (will do this over the weekend); 2) Get repair estimates for the rig (unfortunately I can't get an appointment until 10/03). The manufacturer will be contacting me about FedEx picking up the tires and will be asking about repair costs (crossing my fingers they don't find a reason not to pay up).
Last edited:
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
Let me save you the trouble, Once you are assigned a claim number
1) You get the quote,
2) They send shipping label
3) You ship tire (at their expense), don't forget to get all the papers because its going to Canada and you have to provide customs documents.
4) You email quote for damages
5) You give them plenty of time to evaluate the tire and respond
6) One day you realize that you have not heard from them,
7) You call or e-mail
8) They send form letter stating that the tire failed because you overloaded it, and the letter denies culpability for the damage even if it was their fault, BUT out of the goodness of their heart they will send you $125 for the tire if you just return the enclosed release of liability. LOL
9) one day, after all this is over you decide to weigh your rig you find out that the tire was never overloaded and in fact was never near being overloaded. Then it finally dawns on you that the tire was so cheap it was overloaded the day the tire was made. Then you reflect on the fact that China can't even be trusted to make and ship dog food the the US because they put their industrial waste in it. You shake your head and start noticing all the junk that is made in China. Even your rims are last years miller light cans, and are this years aluminum alloy rims from China. Sorry, but LOL.
But there is a bright side;
I got my insurance company to pay my damages and there was no deductible as well. They paid the whole ticket.
Since I changed the rims and tires out on my rig, I intended to sell the tires to someone who owns a utility trailer; like a landscaping company. So in lieu of $125, I asked if they would ship a tire. That whole process took 4 months. I received the tire just the other day. So now I have 5 wheels with tires for sale.
My advice to you is: Buy G614 tires for your rig if your rims are compatible, take the $125 offered, and sell the remaining tires on craigslist, get a couple of hundred for them or what ever you can get. That 125 from towmax will cover the expense of the estimate (my dealer charged for the estimate but would credit if I did the work with him.) The tail wags the dog in this industry.
File the claim with your insurance (which you are going to have to do anyway), if under 5,000 your insurance company should send the money directly to you and not involve your lender. Fix it yourself, (I know I could have done a better job than the dealer.) Use the money to buy a set of G614s. Problem solved. Spend the extra money on a dinner and a movie with the wife.
BTW, tell the dealer you want two estimates, one for your insurance company and one for Towmax. Or just one copy for you, and tell them nothing about your insurance or Towmax, but whatever you do file with both your insurance company and Towmax.
If you collect from both of them more power to you, it is none of the dealers business where the money is coming from, tell him he will be paid in cash and he need not worry about the details, my dealer was a part time lawyer and tried to tell me I was going to jail for fraud. I told him it was between me, towmax, and liberty mutual and not him, and that if he suspected fraud he should immediately call the police so that they could send out a detective to take a report. LOL, RV mechanic and part time lawyer giving me advice what a joke. If you do manage to collect from Towmax and your insurance company, and you have some kind of guilt complex about taking money then, send it back to them or call your insurance company and sign the check over to them, but otherwise I would just take a trip in my RV. Your insurance company would not know what to do with the returned funds anyway. They might. But is is a sure bet that your insurance will have paid the claim before you get your package across the border into Canada to Dynamic Tire company, (that is where mine had to go). The tire serial number will tell where the tire will have to be returned to.
Heartland has the parts prefabricated and painted already, but even if they were not painted, you could install the parts and have a local body shop paint it. Its just a piece of sheet metal so it will not require much preparation, just some basic paint matching. My skirt/fender was already painted and only needed to be trimmed. All I needed was the skirt/fender and the plastic wheel well trim and a few screws. By the time I realized that I paid 2k to fix it......it, was too late, I could have fixed it for 500 in a 1/2 day, and my rig would not have had to stay at the dealer for a month. AND I could have done a better job as well.
Good luck
P.S. I know you are PO'd now, but just sit back and know what to expect. Get your money and move on.
If you have any questions about how to get an insurance company to pay for the damage to your rig because of a blown tire let me know, I'm sure many would like to know "what to say and how to say it". You can screw yourself out of a claim in a hurry if you say the wrong thing. Many already know what to say and thats cool, but many do not know how to get paid, and many fear that their rate will go up which is not true unless you are filing an unreasonable number of comprehensive claims. You could have knocked me over with a stick when I found out that my insurance company was going to pay 100% of the damage.
1) You get the quote,
2) They send shipping label
3) You ship tire (at their expense), don't forget to get all the papers because its going to Canada and you have to provide customs documents.
4) You email quote for damages
5) You give them plenty of time to evaluate the tire and respond
6) One day you realize that you have not heard from them,
7) You call or e-mail
8) They send form letter stating that the tire failed because you overloaded it, and the letter denies culpability for the damage even if it was their fault, BUT out of the goodness of their heart they will send you $125 for the tire if you just return the enclosed release of liability. LOL
9) one day, after all this is over you decide to weigh your rig you find out that the tire was never overloaded and in fact was never near being overloaded. Then it finally dawns on you that the tire was so cheap it was overloaded the day the tire was made. Then you reflect on the fact that China can't even be trusted to make and ship dog food the the US because they put their industrial waste in it. You shake your head and start noticing all the junk that is made in China. Even your rims are last years miller light cans, and are this years aluminum alloy rims from China. Sorry, but LOL.
But there is a bright side;
I got my insurance company to pay my damages and there was no deductible as well. They paid the whole ticket.
Since I changed the rims and tires out on my rig, I intended to sell the tires to someone who owns a utility trailer; like a landscaping company. So in lieu of $125, I asked if they would ship a tire. That whole process took 4 months. I received the tire just the other day. So now I have 5 wheels with tires for sale.
My advice to you is: Buy G614 tires for your rig if your rims are compatible, take the $125 offered, and sell the remaining tires on craigslist, get a couple of hundred for them or what ever you can get. That 125 from towmax will cover the expense of the estimate (my dealer charged for the estimate but would credit if I did the work with him.) The tail wags the dog in this industry.
File the claim with your insurance (which you are going to have to do anyway), if under 5,000 your insurance company should send the money directly to you and not involve your lender. Fix it yourself, (I know I could have done a better job than the dealer.) Use the money to buy a set of G614s. Problem solved. Spend the extra money on a dinner and a movie with the wife.
BTW, tell the dealer you want two estimates, one for your insurance company and one for Towmax. Or just one copy for you, and tell them nothing about your insurance or Towmax, but whatever you do file with both your insurance company and Towmax.
If you collect from both of them more power to you, it is none of the dealers business where the money is coming from, tell him he will be paid in cash and he need not worry about the details, my dealer was a part time lawyer and tried to tell me I was going to jail for fraud. I told him it was between me, towmax, and liberty mutual and not him, and that if he suspected fraud he should immediately call the police so that they could send out a detective to take a report. LOL, RV mechanic and part time lawyer giving me advice what a joke. If you do manage to collect from Towmax and your insurance company, and you have some kind of guilt complex about taking money then, send it back to them or call your insurance company and sign the check over to them, but otherwise I would just take a trip in my RV. Your insurance company would not know what to do with the returned funds anyway. They might. But is is a sure bet that your insurance will have paid the claim before you get your package across the border into Canada to Dynamic Tire company, (that is where mine had to go). The tire serial number will tell where the tire will have to be returned to.
Heartland has the parts prefabricated and painted already, but even if they were not painted, you could install the parts and have a local body shop paint it. Its just a piece of sheet metal so it will not require much preparation, just some basic paint matching. My skirt/fender was already painted and only needed to be trimmed. All I needed was the skirt/fender and the plastic wheel well trim and a few screws. By the time I realized that I paid 2k to fix it......it, was too late, I could have fixed it for 500 in a 1/2 day, and my rig would not have had to stay at the dealer for a month. AND I could have done a better job as well.
Good luck
P.S. I know you are PO'd now, but just sit back and know what to expect. Get your money and move on.
If you have any questions about how to get an insurance company to pay for the damage to your rig because of a blown tire let me know, I'm sure many would like to know "what to say and how to say it". You can screw yourself out of a claim in a hurry if you say the wrong thing. Many already know what to say and thats cool, but many do not know how to get paid, and many fear that their rate will go up which is not true unless you are filing an unreasonable number of comprehensive claims. You could have knocked me over with a stick when I found out that my insurance company was going to pay 100% of the damage.
Jim.Allison
Well-known member
If a GY tire fails, it is not because it was made cheaply just to get by enough to get a rig out of the manufacturer, to the dealer and into the hands of the consumer. It will have failed because of a specific defect (in which case you will be compensated by goodyear), misapplication or an incident which induced a failure (and you still might be compensated by goodyear).
When I ride on my GY, I ride knowing I have done all I can do to prevent a tire failure, and that I have chosen well, in all the categories in which a tire is measured. And Im doing business with a company that is eager to assist buyers of their products rather than send out a form letter stating untruths. And, I know that an American got a job because I at least replaced a Chinese tire with an American product, making my wheel assembly at least half American. I also know that GY knows more about manufacturing tires than anyone in the world. If you can find a tire that instills that much confidence in you, then buy it it will be the right choice for you.
It makes little sense to me why anyone would buy a foreign built tire, to save a couple hundred bucks. Only to have to do it again. When everything is added up I BET that mile for mile the GY is 5 times the tire than any other non American trailer tire. ESPECIALLY ST tires, including the GY Marathon.
BTW As owners, we should try not to turn our rigs in such a manner that almost rolls the tire off the rim, we would blow fewer tires. Im not saying this is the cause of all tire failures but I do say that it is a problem.
When I ride on my GY, I ride knowing I have done all I can do to prevent a tire failure, and that I have chosen well, in all the categories in which a tire is measured. And Im doing business with a company that is eager to assist buyers of their products rather than send out a form letter stating untruths. And, I know that an American got a job because I at least replaced a Chinese tire with an American product, making my wheel assembly at least half American. I also know that GY knows more about manufacturing tires than anyone in the world. If you can find a tire that instills that much confidence in you, then buy it it will be the right choice for you.
It makes little sense to me why anyone would buy a foreign built tire, to save a couple hundred bucks. Only to have to do it again. When everything is added up I BET that mile for mile the GY is 5 times the tire than any other non American trailer tire. ESPECIALLY ST tires, including the GY Marathon.
BTW As owners, we should try not to turn our rigs in such a manner that almost rolls the tire off the rim, we would blow fewer tires. Im not saying this is the cause of all tire failures but I do say that it is a problem.
Thanks Jim for the advise and insight...
I have already started down to paths you outline, as for weighing my rig...did that last year under similar circumstances so I am fairly confident it wasn't or hasn't been overloaded, as for tire pressure I check that before each trip, that leaves speed and I never exceeded 65 for more than a few seconds (normally cruise is set at 61 or 62) on any trip.
I have already started down to paths you outline, as for weighing my rig...did that last year under similar circumstances so I am fairly confident it wasn't or hasn't been overloaded, as for tire pressure I check that before each trip, that leaves speed and I never exceeded 65 for more than a few seconds (normally cruise is set at 61 or 62) on any trip.
You may have put only 1,000 miles on the tires but don't forget about the miles it was towed from Heartland to the selling dealer before your purchase. Also consider Mitchlien XPS Ribs as an alternate to the Goodyear G614. They run at 80 psi so no need to change your rim and a lot easier to add air to than a 110 psi tire.
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