SeattleLion
Well-known member
We are going to start off this season with Goodyear G614's. We can only afford four tires. Our plan is to keep the OEM spare. Is this a problem in any way? Should we hold off on the G614's until we can afford 5?
Can I get away with leaving the spare the TowMax OEM tire
- Thread starter SeattleLion
- Start date
MagnoliaTom
Well-known member
Four G614s are better than 5 towmax any day! I don't know much about the G614s other than they are the gold standard of trailer tires, but I suspect you won't hear too many stories of them blowing out so I think you'd be fine until you got the funds for replacing the spare.
AAdams
Well-known member
I would agree with the above post by MagnoliaTom. Get the GY tires now. Chances are you will not need the spare with the GY GS614 RST. I haven't looked but I think the size (diameter) will be different so the spare will effectively be useless. But looking at the odds, odds are with the GY you will never need the spare, odds are with towmax you will need your spare, and repair to your trailer. Just get a new spare when you can just in case.
danemayer
Well-known member
GY G614s don't fail often, but they do fail. One of ours threw a tread. I put on the spare and went another 175 miles to our planned stop where I replaced the failed tire. A second failure, from any cause, including road hazards, would have stranded us on the side of the road.
I'd suggest you plan on upgrading the spare as soon as possible.
You'll be fine with the Towmax as a spare for a while. Even if you had to put it on the trailer, being a slightly different size won't be the end of the world, especially since all four tires roll independently. That side of the trailer will potentially lean a bit, but a half inch difference in radius wouldn't worry me.
With that said, I'd consider the Towmax on par with a donut spare in most cars. In other words, I'd depend on it to carefully get me to the next place that I could repair or replace my failed Goodyear.
Edited to add real-life experience:
On our previous rig, we replaced the four on-the-ground Towmax tires with G614s on 4/29/13, leaving our original Towmax spare and white rim as the spare (we rode on the spare for a couple hundred miles after a flat). We rode on our four new G614s with Towmax spare for about 2500 miles over a month's travels.
While parked at a campground, I noticed we had a nail in the sidewall of one of our G614s. Nobody would repair it and we needed to move on before we could buy a replacement, so I put the Towmax on as the spare and we traveled 450 miles that way with no issues. At our next stop, we replaced the one with the nail in it and went ahead and had a fifth one put on as a spare.
Your miles may vary.
With that said, I'd consider the Towmax on par with a donut spare in most cars. In other words, I'd depend on it to carefully get me to the next place that I could repair or replace my failed Goodyear.
Edited to add real-life experience:
On our previous rig, we replaced the four on-the-ground Towmax tires with G614s on 4/29/13, leaving our original Towmax spare and white rim as the spare (we rode on the spare for a couple hundred miles after a flat). We rode on our four new G614s with Towmax spare for about 2500 miles over a month's travels.
While parked at a campground, I noticed we had a nail in the sidewall of one of our G614s. Nobody would repair it and we needed to move on before we could buy a replacement, so I put the Towmax on as the spare and we traveled 450 miles that way with no issues. At our next stop, we replaced the one with the nail in it and went ahead and had a fifth one put on as a spare.
Your miles may vary.
TravelTiger
Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
During our first year of ownership, we had some irregular wear on a TowMax. We put the spare on. Tredit compensated us with a new tire, and we were happy. We swapped the tires so that the new one from Tredit was on the white rim, and the other 4 continued in use.... Until 3 months later, I noticed the tire that was previously the spare was bulging on the tread. All 5 were then replaced with Maxxis.
How come my TowMax spare, only on the ground 3 months, never overloaded or run in excessive speed, was imminent of exploding?! These tires cannot be trusted. So if you have a problem with the GYs, do you really want to trust a time bomb as your spare?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How come my TowMax spare, only on the ground 3 months, never overloaded or run in excessive speed, was imminent of exploding?! These tires cannot be trusted. So if you have a problem with the GYs, do you really want to trust a time bomb as your spare?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
SeattleLion
Well-known member
It's not a choice. We can only afford four.
Kosanko
Well-known member
No you are fine with the TowMax spare, that is the industry standard so you must be safe
I think the takeaway is that you should be fine with four G614s and a Towmax spare for now. I would go ahead and start budgeting to replace it with a G614 when possible.
Not sure if you can get Sailun tires where you are, but five of those would probably cost less than the four Goodyears. From the lack of "My Sailuns blew up and tore out the side of my trailer" posts here and elsewhere, they appear to be pretty good alternatives.
Not sure if you can get Sailun tires where you are, but five of those would probably cost less than the four Goodyears. From the lack of "My Sailuns blew up and tore out the side of my trailer" posts here and elsewhere, they appear to be pretty good alternatives.
JohnD
Moved on to the next thing...
I just had some major work done on the suspension of our Trail Runner on Saturday, and at the same time upgraded and upsized the tires and wheels.
I decided to do all five . . . spare and all!
The BlowMax's had under 5500 miles total on them (including delivery from the Elkhart, IN factory), and we've never had any trouble with them (however, I sweated knuckles every mile down the road with them), but due to the suspension issues we had they got worn out unevenly and torn up on our last trip (AZ HOC Rally in Quartzsite back in January).
I picked the trailer up Saturday evening after work in a snow storm, and will get to try the new tires this weekend at the Colorado HOC Spring Campout!
Took this shot yesterday . . . the new spare with the five BlowMax tires stacked up on the rear bumper bike rack:
The snow is all melted this morning, so am going out to get the old BlowMaxs off of the trailer!
My neighbor had expressed interest in the old tires and wheels.
I decided to do all five . . . spare and all!
The BlowMax's had under 5500 miles total on them (including delivery from the Elkhart, IN factory), and we've never had any trouble with them (however, I sweated knuckles every mile down the road with them), but due to the suspension issues we had they got worn out unevenly and torn up on our last trip (AZ HOC Rally in Quartzsite back in January).
I picked the trailer up Saturday evening after work in a snow storm, and will get to try the new tires this weekend at the Colorado HOC Spring Campout!
Took this shot yesterday . . . the new spare with the five BlowMax tires stacked up on the rear bumper bike rack:
The snow is all melted this morning, so am going out to get the old BlowMaxs off of the trailer!
My neighbor had expressed interest in the old tires and wheels.
justafordguy
Well-known member
Hey John, What tires did you end up getting?
justafordguy
Well-known member
Randor
Active Member
I agree, I now have 5 spare Towmax tires with only 300 miles on them.
Did you have to change the rims with the 614's?
MagnoliaTom
Well-known member
I have sailuns and I am completely satisfied with them. And yes, you can get 5 sailuns for the price of 4 GY 614s (probably less)
Our current rig came with them from the factory. Only have a couple thousand miles on them so far, but they look to be pretty sturdy tires.
