Sundance XLT 5er and with towmax tires ?

[MP_CS]

My 2014 Sundance XLT came with the towmax tire in 225/75r15.. Ive since read all the "blowmax" storys out there, my question is was there only problems with the bigger sizes and heavier trailers or our mine a timebomb also... I havent read much about the smaller lightweight trailers with problems... And if i replace mine what are good replacements in this smaller size? Thanks for any info

 

[Bob&Patty]

IMHO, any Blow Max is a time bomb big or small. Look at Maxxis tires.

 

[JWalker]

We had a 2011 NorthTrail XLT fifth wheel. It weighed in just shy of 10,000 pounds and had the same size tires that your Sundance does. They were also TowMax. They were on for 4 years and almost 6000 miles. No issues. That being said, our new Elkridge left the lot with Goodyear G614s on it.

 

[MP_CS]

We had a 2011 NorthTrail XLT fifth wheel. It weighed in just shy of 10,000 pounds and had the same size tires that your Sundance does. They were also TowMax. They were on for 4 years and almost 6000 miles. No issues. That being said, our new Elkridge left the lot with Goodyear G614s on it.

Thanks for the reply, although i havent weighed mine yet im guessing it's just under that 10k pound mark also. I planned on replacing the wheels and tires next year anyways not because there are problems only because i want black wheels. I am just gathering by the blowmax posts I've read that the blowouts seem to be more prevalent on the bigger fullsize 5ers. I have read very few posts about the smaller lightwieght trailers having problems. Im just looking for more peoples actual experiances and not just the typical "towmax are junk just get rid of them" thats easy to say but when your the one potentially spending over a grand its a hard pill to swallow. I'd love to hear more stories from people with smaller units if there is any.

 

[Speedy]

There are currently three 5ers of other brands all with damage to sides because of Blowmax tires. All are 15" wheels and under 12K GVWR. I have seen four travel trailers with the same issues and lighter in weight. Biggest issue for the owner of a Wildcat is that his insurance (Gieco) is fighting the damage because of the known issues with these tires and pushing the responsibility back on the owner.

 

[Noofear]

I got right at about twelve thousand miles four years with a fifth wheel that weighed in at 12500 with tow max tires. Never heard a bad word about them before I joined the Heartland forum

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[wrgrs50s]

After only pulling my rig (in the sig line) 4 times I read the horror stories and sure enough after giving my blowmax tires a good look, one of them was swollen up and fixing to blow. I took it to my tire guy and immediately ordered 4 new Maxxis, and while at it I changed from the D rated tire to the E rating 15 inch. He happened to deal with the distributor for the towmax tires and got it warrantied for tread separation, and applied the $90 credit toward my purchase of the Maxxis. He said he used to sell the towmax but he had so many returns from blowouts that he no longer stocked or sold them.

There are more large rigs that are active on this forum than there are smaller rigs, but everyone I've known with the Towmax tires have eventually had a blowout. Its not if but when. Several of my friends ended up with extensive damage to their trailers and were out of camping for over a month waiting for repairs. It's just not worth the risk.

 

[JohnD]

We had BlowMax tires on our previous Heartland bumper-pull trailer and never has any problems with the tires in around 4000 miles in two years.

But after all of the talk around here about the BlowMaxes I was scared to death every time we hit the road that we were going to have a blow out.

Our Prowler had BlowMax tires on it at the dealership . . . but we left those with our Trail Runner when we traded it in for the Prowler.

We have Hi Run ST D-range tires on it . . . 3000 miles so far in less than a year with no problems and they still look like new!

 

[MP_CS]

Thanks for the replys everyone

 

[Bogie]

I had Towmax on my Sundance until earlier this month. Same size as yours. I just replace them with Maxxis.

Since I purchased the rig second hand, I don't know how many miles were on the tires. But, because of all the bad press, the first thing I did was weigh my rig. It came in at 6600 lbs. (axle weight only.) Since the tries are rated at 2450 lbs @ 65 psi, I felt I had enough margin to take the risk. But, I purchased a Tire Pressure Monitoring System and was religious about checking the tire pressure. I put about 10,000 miles on them myself. But form what I have read, when tires reach 5 years old, they are more susceptible failure due to internal rot, no matter how good they look on the outside. So, it was time.

If you do nothing else, I would recommend you invest in a TPMS.

Also, if you want to delve into more than you ever wanted to know about tires, you should visit Roger Marble's blog on RV tire safety here

 

[ICamel]

Our Elkridge E22 5'r is at the lower end of the GVWR(9,900#). With that said I felt that the Towmax tires that came with it new would be OK. Well, so much for my opinion as I joined the Blowmax club this week. I took the blown tire to our local tire shop and asked the owner for his input on what caused the failure. He thought the most likely cause was a separation of the tread that might have been ongoing over time. I had planned to replace the Towmax next month because they were made in 2011(5 year convention) so there is a set of Maxxis M8008 10-Ply rated Load Range E tires that will be here next week. The good news was that there was no damage to the fender skirt or wheel well and that we made it home with no further issues.