Another TowMax victim reporting in....

[cgaskins]

I have 5 slightly used TowMax tires I pulled off of my new Big Country 3650RL. Been trying to sell them on Craigslist for $30.00 each and no takers...

I replaced them with the Sailun S637 235/85R16. We just put about 2500 miles on them at Christmas with a trip from Austin, Texas to the great state of Georgia to see family. They performed great and the pressures were nice and steady the entire trip.

-Chris

 

[FiremanBill]

I have 5 slightly used TowMax tires I pulled off of my new Big Country 3650RL. Been trying to sell them on Craigslist for $30.00 each and no takers...

I replaced them with the Sailun S637 235/85R16. We just put about 2500 miles on them at Christmas with a trip from Austin, Texas to the great state of Georgia to see family. They performed great and the pressures were nice and steady the entire trip.

-Chris

HAHA!!! Imagine that.

 

[GOTTOYS]

I got $100.00 for mine they only had 1 short trip and the delivery miles on them. Put them on Craigslist. Took awhile to get rid of them They weren't an easy sale. Their reputation followed them....Don

 

[iawoody2]

I guess I really lucked out. My tire dealer gave me $300 for my 5 towmax, 4 with about 1500 miles, 1 new. Being in rural Iowa he said he could sell them to some farmers.

 

[Bob Vaughn]

We made a trip to Alaska and back during the summer (14) with our G614's and for the 20,000 miles we drove during our trip we did not even have to add air to them. I had heard horror stories about the roads up and back and and they were true. We even bought an extra spare for the trip. The only tire trouble we had was in Manora ND one day when we took our truck to the bank and ran over something . The closest tire repair place was 46 miles away in Dickinson. I was expecting to have troubles on the Alaska Highway because of how rough it was. Pot holes and frost heaves were rampant up in that part of the north country. The 614's are the way to go ......

 

[TxCowboy]

OK, these stories have really got me worried about these Towmax tires. I have a 2011 Greystone, have Towmax tires with the factory-to-dealer miles (south Texas) plus about 800 miles over the past three years. Am planning on moving the RV to the coast for a year in March, a distance of about 200 miles.

Am I hearing from this group that there should be a recall of these tires for safety & workmanship issues?

It does exceed the bounds of common sense that these tires are apparently failing at an unusually high rate and you can only blame the users so many times before DOT should take notice.

Are these tires safe to use at all?

 

[jeffdee]

To my knowledge there has been no deaths or injuries related to the use of these tires. For that reason DOT won't have an interest in a tire that fails to meet "performance" expectations.

 

[TxCowboy]

No worries. Just bought five new Goodyears.

 

[texasron]

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.

Sorry to here of your trouble's. I had almost the exact thing happen. I hope you have better luck on finding any help from Heartland because your not going to receive any from TowMax better as BLOWMAX in the RV world.

 

[nscaler2]

Went to the RV show in Tampa a couple of days ago. I looked at quite a few 5th wheels there and the tires that were on them. Some of the better brands had Goodyears on them. I didn't see any Towmax. However, I saw quite a few new names that I was not familiar with and they were ST tires. Since there are no ST tires made in this country, one can only assume they are Chinese. The manufactures of tires are getting cagey about tire names now since everyone knows that Towmax are c**p. So now we have the same c**p with new names.

 

[jimpav]

Went to the RV show in Tampa a couple of days ago. I looked at quite a few 5th wheels there and the tires that were on them. Some of the better brands had Goodyears on them. I didn't see any Towmax. However, I saw quite a few new names that I was not familiar with and they were ST tires. Since there are no ST tires made in this country, one can only assume they are Chinese. The manufactures of tires are getting cagey about tire names now since everyone knows that Towmax are c**p. So now we have the same c**p with new names.

We just attended the Grand Rapids, Mi RV show, and also noticed tire brands I have never heard of. Lakeland was on a few rigs. It;s sometimes hard to actually see the tires on a trailer at an indoor RV show, but I brought a flashlight. There were many rigs with Toxmax tires. The dealers shined them all up reaal pretty. Upon spotting a trailer with shiny new Toxmax tires, I would just shake my head and say "I'm so sorry" to the salesman who was wondering what I was looking at. No further words were necessary. I think they understood my comment and jester!!!

 

[Bob Vaughn]

Went to the RV show in Tampa a couple of days ago. I looked at quite a few 5th wheels there and the tires that were on them. Some of the better brands had Goodyears on them. I didn't see any Towmax. However, I saw quite a few new names that I was not familiar with and they were ST tires. Since there are no ST tires made in this country, one can only assume they are Chinese. The manufactures of tires are getting cagey about tire names now since everyone knows that Towmax are c**p. So now we have the same c**p with new names.

I too went to the Tampa show and was curious as to what tires were on rv's and I came to the conclusion that the only thing that changed was the names....that would be the easy part in tire making just a slight mold change.......to confuse the issue come up with a cute name......I gave up trying to make sense of it all....

 

[ILH]

I can tell you this, the next rig I buy will not have cheap tires on it - it will be a deal breaker. The dealer either needs to put appropriate tires on it, or give me a credit so that I can buy them.

...a blow max survivor.

 

[Chippendale]

I traded my SOB for a Gateway the end of October and the icing on the cake was that the dealer took my 2 year old Michelins off my old rig and put them on the new one. At that time, I had not read how bad the TowMax tires really are, I just knew I wanted no part of manufacturer provided Chinese tires. Someday, someone is going to get killed by one of these cheap tires the manufacturers use and all the money they have saved using them is going into some attorney's pocket.

 

[danemayer]

I just knew I wanted no part of manufacturer provided Chinese tires.

Michelin manufactures tires in China along with a few other locations around the world. Have you looked up the codes on your tires to see where they were actually manufactured?