Gladiator Tire Failure

[jakoenig1]

Good information. Good question about being leave. That sure could cause some problems. Anyone had any experience with Hankook trailer tires? I have Dynapro ATMs on my 08 F350 DRW and wouldn't dream of anything else. The Dynapro HT has a 5 star rating with over 24,000 reviews at tirerack.com and won't put a guy in the poor house. I'm afraid to say that I have Freestar G rated tires on my 09 BH 3670 that are not showing any signs of ware and they are OME. No idea how many miles are on them. Do I really need to R & R these tires because of age? Going to Alaska this year, so planning on 8k to 10k miles if not more.

I kept a tire and wheel from an eight year old trailer as a second spare for my new trailer. Left it in my garage on the floor. Walked into the garage one morning and there was rubber all over the place. The 12 year old Goodyear Marathon ( made in USA) had exploded sitting on the garage floor. At 12 years old, the tire couldn't support its own weight. I have been to Alaska. It is 1,000 miles from nowhere. The roads have frost heaves which leave two foot high bumps spaced about 100 feet apart. A lot of the road is gravel due to constant repairs. I carried two spares for the truck and trailer along with 10 gallons of diesel fuel because stations are 200+ miles apart. One thing in your favor if you decide not to, speeds are relatively low. Once you get into Canada, it is mostly two lane roads and 45 mph. Don't know anything about Hankook trailer tires. Your DRW is easy on tires compared to my SRW Dodge. Mine has 6,400 lbs on the rear axle with the trailer fully loaded. I run Michelin LT 265 tires which are rated at 3417 lbs and only issue is that the rears wear out in 30,000 miles. I used two sets of rears for every one set of fronts. Never rotated them, I liked having newer tires on the rear due to the high load. Never had a tire failure with three sets of tires.

My advice is to buy good made in the US tires ( LT245 or ST235) before you leave. Goodyear now makes an Endurance model which is made in the US. Buy a new rim and keep one of the Freestar tires as a second spare.

 

[RandyDeb]

John

Obviously I was way out in leftfield about the Hankook's. Da!! They don't make a tire that comes close to filling this requirement! But the good news is I now have 5 new G614's (based on yawl's recommendations) and freshly packed wheel bearings. Now if we have to take any "roadside selfies" we can say we did all we could to prepare. My Nephew (did the tires and wheel bearings for me) was very impressed with the lube system on the axel and how the grease channel is cut. Said the grease passes through the inside bearing before getting to the outside bearing, so when it starts pushing through the outside bearing, it's really full. The inside bearing was my concern. Next step is to install the TPMS.

V/r

Randy

 

[jakoenig1]

John

Obviously I was way out in leftfield about the Hankook's. Da!! They don't make a tire that comes close to filling this requirement! But the good news is I now have 5 new G614's (based on yawl's recommendations) and freshly packed wheel bearings. Now if we have to take any "roadside selfies" we can say we did all we could to prepare. My Nephew (did the tires and wheel bearings for me) was very impressed with the lube system on the axel and how the grease channel is cut. Said the grease passes through the inside bearing before getting to the outside bearing, so when it starts pushing through the outside bearing, it's really full. The inside bearing was my concern. Next step is to install the TPMS.

V/r

Randy

I hope you didn't use the easy lube feature. I did two years ago and three of the seals leaked grease into the drum. I didn't find out until I was 400 miles from home when I noticed the brakes working poorly. I felt the drums after a hard stop and one was cold, two were warm, and one was working properly. I did it per Dexters method of spinning the tire while pumping in the grease very slowly. Got home ( scary drive with no trailer brakes) and took off the drums and one wheel was loaded with grease, two had some grease, and one was ok. To top it off, Dexter said that you are supposed to remove the wheel bearing and clean, inspect, and repack them once a year. Why put the easy lube on if you have to take them apart every year? I have used easy lube on my boat trailer for 18 years without getting grease on the brakes. I remove and inspect them every 5 years. Dexter sent me new brakes but it was a pain in the *** to get the grease off the drums.

 

[RandyDeb]

No. Did it the old fashioned took them off.

 

[mlpeloquin]

The Gladiator ST235/85R16 QR25-TS tires are rated on some websites as 14 ply equivalent, but the Gladiator spec sheet shows it as 12 ply equivalent. And interestingly, the load capacity of 3,960 exceeds the load capacity of their all-steel QR35 14 ply equivalent, which shows 3,750. A typical load capacity for LR G tires is 3,750 and the typical ply equivalent is 14.

So let me speculate that the QR35 is their load range G tire and the QR25 is really a load range F, despite the way it's listed on retailer websites. Also, I'd guess that although the QR35 is labeled ST, it's probably certified as an LT tire which means the stated load capacity has to have a significant margin. And I'd also guess the QR25 is not certified as an LT tire.

Why certify a tire as LT and label it ST? Apparently there are tariffs that can be avoided to keep the price lower. Sailun has been doing that. And the Goodyear G614 is an LT tire, even though it's marketed for trailer applications.

I also noticed that you can buy 4 Gladiator ST235/85R16 QR25-TS tires for less than $400. Most people are paying 2 times that much for Sailun S637s and 3-4 times that much for Goodyear G614s.

Soooo, if looking at Gladiator tires, I'd stick to the QR35.


View attachment 51818

The GoodYear tires are drive wheel and trailer tires and cannot be used for the steering wheels.

 

[SNOKING]

The GoodYear tires are drive wheel and trailer tires and cannot be used for the steering wheels.

I believe the G614's now have "Trailer Service Only" molded into the sidewall.

 

[jakoenig1]

I believe the G614's now have "Trailer Service Only" molded into the sidewall.

I looked at my new G614's. They do not say Trailer Service Only. Mine are dated the 9th week of 2017 so they are pretty fresh. They are LT235\85R16. I would have been surprised if they said trailer service only because they are labeled LT tires. I have seen them advertised as ST235 and LT. Do they make both? Maybe the ST tire does say trailer service only. I suspect they are the same design if they both exist. Maybe they make both just to eliminate the confusion caused by putting LT tires on a trailer. Many people say don't do it but I have used them without a failure for six years on two different trailers. One was a 7,000 lb bumper pull and the other is a 40 ft, 2014 Big Country 3650RL that weighs 15,000 lb. ( Michelin LT245/75R16 tires).

 

[danemayer]

If you look at the Goodyear sales documents, they show the G614 as intended for trailer use. The LT vs ST designation has to do with certification and margin in the load capacity.

 

[sdwelling]

I recommend the Maxxis 8008 series. I have 6 on a Cyclone toy hauler and I'm religious about checking pressures before we roll. It's a rate occurrence for them to drop 1psi from trip to trip. I've got about 6k miles on them in 2 years with nothing but good news.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[JohnD]

The Maxxis 8008's are the tires I will probably get soon.