CJohnsonFlagpros
Member
Hello all! I am a new Northtrail owner and just purchased a left over 2016 left overs. It has westlake tires on it. Should I be worried? Replace them? I already bought covers for them.
Westlake tires
- Thread starter CJohnsonFlagpros
- Start date
jimtoo
Moderator
Hi CJohnsonFlagpros,
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.
I can't say anything about that brand. Don't remember anyone complaining about tires with that name. But I'm sure we will get more comments soon from our other owners.
Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.
Enjoy the forum and your new unit.
Jim M
Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.
I can't say anything about that brand. Don't remember anyone complaining about tires with that name. But I'm sure we will get more comments soon from our other owners.
Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.
Enjoy the forum and your new unit.
Jim M
Silverado23
Iowa Chapter Leaders
I did not have any issues with the Power King tires on my 2010 North Trail nor have I had any issues with the West Lake tires on my 2015 North Trail. Something to consider is that the West Lake tires seem to be rated for 75 MPH. Other ST tires may only be rated to 65 MPH.
JohnD
Moved on to the next thing...
I've seen a lot of Westlake tires on TT's when walking around RV dealerships, but haven't read anything bad about them.
We had BlowMax tires on our previous 2013 Heartland Trail Runner and didn't have any issues with them.
However, after reading all of the horror stories about them, whenever we were rolling with them, that fear of having the infamous 'BlowMax BlowOut' was always on my mind.
It seems that most of the BlowMax Power King issues were on the bigger, heavier 5th-wheel trailers more so than the smaller and lighter bumper pull trailers.
Since we had just replaced the BlowMax tires on the Trailer Runner with Hi Run tires one week before we traded it in on our 2015 Heartland Prowler 5th-wheeler, I had them put on the Prowler and put the BlowMax's that came from the factory on the Prowler back on to the Trail Runner.
Ironically, here is a shot I took down in Tucson at Lazy Dayz RV as we were walking around the lot after they had sponsored a lunch for those of us attending the Arizona HOC Rally there last February (this was a brand new Heartland Sundance 5th-wheeler):
Click to enlarge
tireman9
Well-known member
It is important to remember that any tire can fail. No matter who made it or how much you paid. Tires in trailer application should not be loaded to any more than 85% of the Max load rating for that tire. They should also always be set to the inflation on the tire sidewall to lower the Interply Shear forces. RE Weight. This is not your guess or estimate but an actual scale reading when the RV is loaded to its heaviest. If you can't get individual tire loads DO NOT assume the axle load is split 50/50 side to side. 47/53 is a more reasonable approximate and since you do not know which end is heavier that means that 53% of that axle scale reading needs to be lower than 85% of the tire sidewall max load capacity.
Your pressure gauge needs to be checked and should read +/- 2 psi or better when checked against a known good digital gauge.
If your ST type tires are not speed rated then 65 mph is the MAX. Not average or occasional speed but ever. Much like the redline on your tow vehicle engine. It would be better to hold to 60. Remember ST type tires have their load calculated as if it were 1970 with a National Speed limit of 55 mph.
If you want to learn more about RV tires I suggest you read my blog.
Your pressure gauge needs to be checked and should read +/- 2 psi or better when checked against a known good digital gauge.
If your ST type tires are not speed rated then 65 mph is the MAX. Not average or occasional speed but ever. Much like the redline on your tow vehicle engine. It would be better to hold to 60. Remember ST type tires have their load calculated as if it were 1970 with a National Speed limit of 55 mph.
If you want to learn more about RV tires I suggest you read my blog.
