Goodyears not always Good.

[jimtoo]

Just thought I would throw this out. Went to Corpus Christi today to do a little shopping and eating. On the way out of town saw a SOB 5er (expensive custom unit) with a flat and helped get them into safe parking, a WalMart lot.

They had Goodyears, only 3 years old. Had one throw tread just 80 miles back up the road... waited 2 hours for service, put on spare, now another tread/blowout problem... this one ruined rim I think. Lots of damage to 5er also. So,,, how do you trust any tire now? 2 in one day,,and it was not overly hot today. They said they were tired and gonna call it a day and wait on road service.

July, 2012, I had a Michelin on my truck throw tread, did not go flat, caused almost $3000 damage. Tire was just 3 years old and had aprox 60% tread left.

Do we limit tire life to less than 3 years now?

Jim M

 

[rick_debbie_gallant]

Dont know about the three year limit, I often wonder how much we hurt things by running under inflated tires on our rigs. Inquiring minds.

 

[Wharton]

15 years ago we had problems with throwing treads. The reason was too much flex in the tire(for the load) and probably low pressure. Switched to G614(and predecessor), made sure we always ran with about 100 lb. of pressure and have never had a problem again.

I believe most of the tread throwing is due to low pressure. We now have a TPMS and check our tires everyday prior to leaving the cg.

 

[jnbhobe]

I threw a tread on a GY 614 last year 3yr old air at 114 lbs. and temp at 114*. Had to replace with GY, maybe next time I'll go with 17.5s.

 

[kakampers]

I threw a tread on a GY 614 last year 3yr old air at 114 lbs. and temp at 114*. Had to replace with GY, maybe next time I'll go with 17.5s.

Exactly what happened to us, except the ambient temp was in the ninties....we replaced with 17.5's in march....now we have more than 1,100 pound cushion on each tire...don't think we will have anymore issues. Really feel that being to close to load capacity of tire is the major factor in tires failing...

 

[TeJay]

There is probably no way to eliminate problems with tires. Most of you already know some or most of this stuff. Without a doubt, besides a blowout caused by hitting an object, HEAT is the worst enemy of tires. We all at one time or another probably overload our trailer tires because of the nature of camping and putting to much stuff in the wrong location in our units. Overloading will increase heat. Hitting a curb can damage internal plies on the tread or sidewall allowing air to seep between those plies increasing the heat which maybe miles and miles down the road causes the snowball effect and the tire to finally separate and or blow.

What can we do???? Don't overload. When we do hit a curb watch that tire closely. The use of a TPMS is a great, great advantage but not the final answer. Of course always watch tire pressures. I believe nitrogen is also a good thing. It's about $6-$10 a tire and that should drop as it gets used more. Some have reported on this forum that nitrogen tires do run cooler on their rigs.

We just got our new trailer and by Spring new tires with nitrogen, new Toyo bearings with synthetic grease and a TPMS will be installed.

Happy & Safe traveling,
TeJay

 

[Wharton]

The problem is you don't know when the damage was done. One might have run with under-pressured tires months before and that starts the damage, after that, each time you run on the tires more damage occurs until finally the tread comes off. It may have been brought to the dealer from Elkhart with under-pressured tires, who knows.

I agree about the load amount, that is also a contributing factor but I don't find many people who have had their rigs weighed correctly. It is good to know how much weight is on each tire, not just the overall weight of the trailer. We know we are 1000 lbs heavy on the kitchen side but there is nothing we can do about it. This is a design flaw by Heartland and many other mfgs. At least we are aware of it.

 

[SJH]

They had Goodyears, only 3 years old. Had one throw tread just 80 miles back up the road... waited 2 hours for service, put on spare, now another tread/blowout problem... this one ruined rim Jim M

I am trying not to "assume" which model Goodyear tire you are discussing...can you share that information?

Thanks!

 

[kakampers]

I am trying not to "assume" which model Goodyear tire you are discussing...can you share that information?

Thanks!

For us it was G614's....

 

[SJH]

For us it was G614's....

I caught that but I am wondering about the ones Jim was referring to.

 

[jimtoo]

I caught that but I am wondering about the ones Jim was referring to.

They were the Goodyear 614's. The gentleman said pressure was checked after the first one went and all pressures were OK. And I can assure you the pressures were right in mine. Temp was aprox 85* or less.

I just wanted to post that TowMax and Mission and others are not the only ones that have problems. Not that I am promoting them because a Mission went on my Bighorn 3 years ago.

 

[TXTiger]

Was looking at the Goodyear G614 but went with the Mitchlen XBS Ribs.

 

[TeJay]

Tom,
Can't agree with you more. We don't know when damage might have been done. All we can do is assume things are good when we get them. I know never assume, but we have to start somewhere. If after a few thousand miles the tires seem to be good then our assumption was probably correct. From that point on we do have a little more control. If we hit a curb or bad hole then we take a closer look and monitor more closely for several hundred miles. We also monitor the pressures/temperatures more closely and inspect after/during each travel day. No we will not catch them all. You mentioned traveling with under inflated tires for weeks or months and maybe the damage is done. That situation should not happen IF it is in our control. If all is good in the morning and we pick up a nail the TPMS should alert you.
Getting the weight on each tire is not an easy thing to do. I believe they do that at the rally's. I wish that were more available around the country. The factory loading issue we have no control over except to not overload the whee or side that may already be close to its limit from the factory. Maybe that's something the factories could do for the eventual buyer. They already weigh each unit as it comes off the line to get that units dry weight especially if it is custom built. Why couldn't they also weigh each wheel at the same time and place that information on the same sticker that has the off-the-line dry weight? That would not be an expensive process. If we knew a wheel/axle were close to maximum then we could better control the loading.

Interesting discussion,

TeJay

 

[pegmikef]

.

Do we limit tire life to less than 3 years now?

Jim M

For ST trailer tires, Discount Tire's web site has a write up saying the expected life of trailer tires is 3 to 5 years regardless of the condition of the tread. I don't know if its a ploy to sell more tires, but I know ST tires are standard on many new Heartland rigs.

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTrailerTireFacts.dos

 

[Gaffer]

Marathons?

 

[Wharton]

Tejay,

You mis-read the note. I didn't say for weeks or months just that you don't know how long you may have been running(or someone else) with underinflated tires. I am a strong proponent of TPMS and checking the tires each morning.

One can only do so much but what we do has worked for 20 years without a blow out or tread separation.

 

[lwmcguir]

Was looking at the Goodyear G614 but went with the Mitchlen XBS Ribs.

Since you went with a lower rated tire, I would be curious in 2-3 years how this works out.

 

[caissiel]

I have been reading in other forums that the GY 614 are also troubles on trailer tires, as much as the cheaper Marathons.

My past experience with trailer ST tires has been getting flats on the rear axle tires and most ST tires did not make through 2 trips of 4000 miles return to Florida. And to think I travelled like that for 7 years changing 2 tires every year. Mostly one on the way to Florida and one one the way back. I carried sheets of metal to repair the damages, along with a spare tire.
I also observe the pressures and running temperatures.

On the previous trailer I went from Load range D ST225-75-15 to load Range C LT235-75-15 that I bought no brand name for best price. At the time I was told that I was crazy installing those LT tires on the trailer. They were rated 600 lbs under the ST Tires for each tires. Instead of 50 PSI cold pressure I ran then at 60 PSI cold pressure. And after traveling 6 times to Florida and six years on the trailer I traded the unit on the BC and all 4 tires were looking as good as new with no sign of craking or failure. Also I never drove in the dark with the ST tires but with the LT's I felt so confident that it was no problem driving when the sun was down, it was complet change in traveling confidence. Its very tiring traveling long distance while worring about trailer tires.

My Freestar LT tires on the present unit have performed very well and still look like new after 4 years of travels. But I had to balance them as soon as the trailer got home when new.

My Freestars are LT Tires and I am sure I will put LT tires on my unit next time I replace these, never will I have any ST tires that are rated at 80PSI and over 3500 Lbs capacity. I can only think of the running temperature for tires loaded with 3500 lbs at 80psi . My truck has LT 265-70-17 tires and only rated at 3100lbs at 80psi.

 

[aatauses]

I also have Freestar, never heard of them before purchasing the BH. We have had good luck with them, run at 107--110#, check them everday. Currently they have been on the rv for 3.5 years.
al

 

[rick_debbie_gallant]

Just wondering if some trailers are not towing level, but traveling nose high. With towing nose high more weight will be put on the rear tires thereby overloading them. I also wonder which tires are failing on the axel. The front or rear.