Tow Max Blowout and Cyclone Damage

[BarneyFife]

Here is another thread about these sorry tires Heartland uses on the Cyclone brand. Many of you all know my story and my growing resentment toward this camper. But I have been honestly giving it an honest attempt to make it work; especially since our warranty expired three months ago.

On the other forum where all RV issues are discussed, the common theme regarding these Chinese tires is WHY? We have a camper with an MSRP of $82,000 and without a doubt the manufacturers just want to penny pinch a few dollars per unit and go with a very unreliable tire. Not only that, but they do absolutely nothing to protect the camper from a blowout. My $3000 lawn maintenance trailers have by far better tires and are extremely protected with thick steel fenders in the case of a tire blowout.

Anyway, I have been constantly telling everyone on the other RV forum site how our Tow Max tires look great. We are obsessed with checking pressures before every trip and we never roll out unless they are at 80 psi. I even keep an air compressor in the storage compartment up front. I also bought an infrared temperature scanner and whenever we stop at a rest stop or any other place along the way, we always make sure the tires and hubs aren't too hot.

We just went on a quick weekend trip. The Cyclone was very light compared to when we go to races. No water and only a golf cart in the back. We got less than ten miles from the house and "BOOM!". Right front tire blows apart. Discount Tire stated it was an obvious case of tread separation. 15 month old camper and about 7500 miles. The new fender I just replaced was trashed and the side panel above that tire is all mangled up.

Heartland! If you insist on using poor quality tires, could you at least offer good tires as an option? I'm quite sure many will pay the difference. Now I'm stuck with a damaged 2011 camper that in my opinion, the manufacturer is primarily to blame. No, you didn't make the tires but you insist on using them even when so many people tell of "blowout" stories as bad or worse than mine.

 

[cookie]

Sorry to hear about your blowout. I sure would not want to go through that.
Tires are kinda funny. I know people that swear by the Tow Max, and I personally know three people that have had Goodyear G-614's come apart causing damage They're about as good as it's gonna get.

Peace
Dave

 

[jimtoo]

Hi BarneyFife, sorry you had a tire problem, but you have now joined the crowd. I hope you kept the carcass of the old tire and call the tire distributor, I think Teadit. They were great to work with when one fell apart on my unit.
And just for more info. it's not just Tow Maxx. I had a Michelin XPS, 3 years old, over 60% tread left, disintegrate on my truck, tread came off, was still inflated, outside dually. Was on Strawberry Pass in Northern Utah. Only about $3000. damage to truck plus the tire.
Good Sam was great on sending a service truck out, less than 1hr20min and I was back on the road... 27 miles from nearest town. Discount Tire was great on adjusting all of them and helping me.

Jim M

 

[westxsrt10]

I don't think we can blame China on this one, blame the 'Heartland' bean counters. China does make a trailer tire that has a outstanding record compaired to other Chinese brands. (Maxxis)

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

I don't think we can blame China on this one, blame the 'Heartland' bean counters. China does make a trailer tire that has a outstanding record compaired to other Chinese brands. (Maxxis)

If that were the logic, we may as well blame most of the RV towable industry. The heavier trailers are mostly getting Chinese made tires. Lighter trailer don't seem to be as affected by the Chinese made tires.

Not all Maxxis tires are made in China, they are made in many other countries. Corporate is in Taiwan. I also believe the tires made in China are made to the manufacturers specs. Not to get political but all the tires used on every RV are DOT approved.

And then there's our wonderful highway system of wonderful smooth paved roads with not a pothole in sight. Imagine your 16 thousand pound rig traveling down the road at 65 or so and the tire hitting a 6" deep hole with a hard edge. Ya think that may cause the tire a little stress? Tread separation?

Don't get me wrong, I agree better tires should be on our rigs. I'm also a realist and think we're getting a pretty good rig for our money. I ran the China tires for 2 years and finally forked over my hard earned $$ for Goodyears. I learned from this forum that one day the inevitable might happen so I got proactive.

OK, sorry, I'll hop down off of my soapbox.

 

[TravelTiger]

I was driving in to Dallas from my semi-small town today (40 miles one way), and noticed quite a bit of tire debris on the shoulder of Hwy 80 for many miles. I think it is a tire industry issue, not specifically RV. I said to myself, "funny, there seems to be a lot of debris, but I've never actually seen a blowout occur." 10 minutes later, the semi truck/trailer in front of me had a blowout on his passenger side back wheel. It was a loud boom, with lots of pieces, and took out the whole mud-flap. He was not traveling at more than 60, the temperature was in the mid 80s, and there were not any road hazards that I could see.

Luckily, I was in my sub-compact SUV, and was far enough back to be able to see the debris flying and maneuver around it, without incident. If we had been pulling a trailer, we probably would not have had time to avoid hitting something.

Coincidentally, on my way home from Big D, I had to dodge some more tire debris, including some very large gators.


With these TowMax, it doesn't seem to matter how well you take care of them, they have internal structural issues that will eventually cause them to fail on our US roads.... And it seems they are happening more frequently than other brands.

 

[alkyspeed]

Prior to Towmax from Tredit the "China Bombs" we had to deal with were Mission tires. Same scenario.

 

[BarneyFife]

My complaint is two-fold here. Its bad enough I have to buy new tires. But if that was it, I'd only be half as mad.

But as common as these blow-outs are becoming, why in the world is there such a sorry, flimsy design around the wheel well? Basically, there is no real wheel well. Its just the frame of the camper or the slideout above the tires with a plastic fender skirt. As I stated in my opening post, why wouldn't they at least install a 1/4" thick steel fender underneath the wheel well out of sight and THEN use the flimsy plastic fender skirt? At least then when the tires blow apart, the damage to the camper would be minimal or none at all.

 

[jmgratz]

My complaint is two-fold here. Its bad enough I have to buy new tires. But if that was it, I'd only be half as mad.

But as common as these blow-outs are becoming, why in the world is there such a sorry, flimsy design around the wheel well? Basically, there is no real wheel well. Its just the frame of the camper or the slideout above the tires with a plastic fender skirt. As I stated in my opening post, why wouldn't they at least install a 1/4" thick steel fender underneath the wheel well out of sight and THEN use the flimsy plastic fender skirt? At least then when the tires blow apart, the damage to the camper would be minimal or none at all.

I agree there should be an 'inner' fender well. This could protect damage to the rv. Wait a minute...that would mean less parts sold, hence less profit. Forget what I said.

 

[Urban350]

I just replaced mine, the Tow Max 1 had a large blister the size of my fist and the other the tread has almost come off. Glad I did before anything bad happened other then an empty pocket book.

 

[BarneyFife]

Wow. I just spoke with Tire Shield (my tire warranty company), Heartland, and Power King (Tow Max).

1. Tire Shield won't pay for the damaged tire. No surprise. Its a road hazard warranty so they're right.

2. Heartland. Once again, just another reason why I despise this company. I was transferred to service and spoke with a guy who didn't give his name. But I kindly explained what happened. I also told him I fully understood I was out of warranty by three months but was hoping for help since there appears to be a big issue with these tires and the numerous complaints. He then got somewhat defensive and insisted the Tow Max were some of THE BEST trailers tires out there on the market today. He said Heartland has had NO complaints from these tires and he swears by them so much, he just recently bought a set for his "trailer". He said all the forum talk is common because that's where everyone goes to complain but compared to the large number of satisfied customers out there, it just backs up their opinion of the Tow Max tires. Of course, in the end, it was made clear I would receive no help at all from Heartland and that was it. He said I should just call my insurance company and file a claim.

3. I called Power King. When the lady answered, I couldn't understand her. When I asked was this Power King, she said she'd put me through to their number. I was put on hold and a recording came on and said my wait time was less than five minutes. After about 20 minutes and the recording constantly coming on telling me I could leave a message or hold on, I finally decided to leave a message. Who wants to place a wager on when that return call will come?

Tire Shield? No surprise there.
Power King? We'll see.

But once again, my faith in Heartland is at an absolute zero. I don't care what anyone here says, I think Heartland's customer service is some of the worst I have ever seen. That guy today in the "service department" was absolutely positively determined to try to convince me that the Tow Max tires are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I explained what I'd read on RV.net and this forum site (Heartlandowners.org!) and once again, his mission was to disprove everything here. To paraphrase, we are all just a vocal minority and don't truly represent the huge numbers of completely happy Tow Max tire owners out there.

I admit, you are all just reading my side of this story so take it with a grain of salt. But I have no reason to falsify anything here. If you read my other Heartland failure posts, you'll also understand my distaste for Heartland RVs.

Maybe one of these days a lightning bolt will hit the thing and burn it to the ground. THEN I might have a happy post to put on here.

 

[jmgratz]

Here is my thoughts (not trying to be ugly) but if you hate Heartland so much then sell it and get a Jayco or Forest River. Maybe (yea right) you will get better service.

 

[BarneyFife]

Here is my thoughts (not trying to be ugly) but if you hate Heartland so much then sell it and get a Jayco or Forest River. Maybe (yea right) you will get better service.

That makes perfect sense. But we did have to finance ours and although we put down a substantial amount of money, I'm quite confident we'd lose a ton if we sold out right now. Its only 15 months old and toy haulers here on the east coast aren't nearly as popular as typical 5ers. I'm gonna try to give it another season and then see how things look financially.

 

[Urban350]

You are not alone I know how you feel.

 

[jmgratz]

Just remember it does not matter what the manufacturer of the RV is or whether it is a motor home, fifth wheel or travel trailer many of the components have the same manufacturer such as Dometic, Lippert LCI, Weather Pro, etc. From the Prevost to the Jayco Popup the refrigerator is going to be a Dometic or Norcold (unless they use a home fridge). So what this means is the aggravation we all feel when things go wrong is there regardless of the dollars we spend. What makes the big difference is the Customer Service and I for one can tell you Heartland has 'stepped up to the plate' everytime I have need them. Other manufacturers for previous RVs I have had did not. But remember like my mother used to tell me, 'you can catch more files with sugar than you can with vinegar'. Good luck....

 

[cookie]

He said I should just call my insurance company and file a claim.

So, have you contacted your insurance company?

Peace
Dave

 

[TravelTiger]

I contacted TBC Brands via email, mailto:awalton@tbcbrands.com
And was very happy with the customer service I received. We ultimately decided to change to Maxxis, but TBC did offer some money to cover two of our tires (via pics) that the tire shop deemed defective (bubbles inside, broken belts, odd wear). We were out of the HL warranty by 5mo. when we did this.

Erika


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[scottyb]

Im very sorry that many of you have had costly experiences with these tires, but I thank you all for reporting them. Someone posted on another thread a link to a NTSB site that shows very few reports about them. However, one only needs to read a few topics like this one to realize there is an epidemic problem. Sure, some people might get buy without incident, but there seems to be a disproportionate number of catastrophic blowouts, and we are only hearing about it from the perspective of one manufaturer's product. After reading all of these, and after my service technician that did our walkthrough suggested replacing them ASAP, we decided to replace them before we take it on the road. Does this guarantee we will not have a costly blow-out? No, but statistically speaking, I will gladly take my chances with my new Michelin XPS's.

 

[BarneyFife]

Im very sorry that many of you have had costly experiences with these tires, but I thank you all for reporting them. Someone posted on another thread a link to a NTSB site that shows very few reports about them. However, one only needs to read a few topics like this one to realize there is an epidemic problem. Sure, some people might get buy without incident, but there seems to be a disproportionate number of catastrophic blowouts, and we are only hearing about it from the perspective of one manufaturer's product. After reading all of these, and after my service technician that did our walkthrough suggested replacing them ASAP, we decided to replace them before we take it on the road. Does this guarantee we will not have a costly blow-out? No, but statistically speaking, I will gladly take my chances with my new Michelin XPS's.

1. A very wise choice. I will do the same when I buy another toy hauler. Best of luck with those Michelins.

2. "after my service technician that did our walkthrough suggested replacing them ASAP" That speaks volumes. Its a very, very common topic on the web. But when a service technician advises it on a brand new camper, all I can say is "Wow".

 

[camr]

I think you made a great choice with the Michelins. Before taking delivery of our current coach, I had the dealer switch the tires to Michelin XPS. I understand that any brand of tire may have problems, but I think the chances are far less with a non-offshhore brand. From my 24 years of long haul driving, I am more cautious about tires and suspension than anything else. AC or water problems are an inconvenience. Tire issues at the side of a highway with no shoulder are a disaster.