What you don’t see in the forums is the much higher percentage of people that do not have a problem with their trailer tires, no matter where they’ve been manufactured.
When failed tires are turned in for inspection it is almost always determined that the failure was caused by predictable causes such as road damage, under/over inflation or excessive speed, and overloading the tires, just to name the most obvious. The people that do these type of inspections are experts. They know what causes the fibers to melt in the tread or sidewall construction. When the steel used in a steel cased tire fails they know where to look to determine the cause. When and if manufacturing is determined to be faulty, recalls are made and whole lots and maybe even a whole series of tires are effected.
Every new series of tires requires DOT testing before they are branded with the DOT certification. Every DOT certified tire is completely identifiable. It can be tracked right back to the factory that manufactured it. In the last recall of tires made in China (passenger tires) the American distributor went into chapter 11 before all effected tires were returned.
On your next visit to an automotive type dealership take a look at the tires being provided on their new vehicles. A good guess will be 50% have come from Asian manufacturers. It’s an eye opener if you think about it. How come these Asian tires are not suffering a high failure rate? Could it be the 20%, or greater, reserve load capacity the automotive industry provides to their customers in the tires they provide. And that’s 20% above GVWR folks.
When browsing the RV forums and specifically the subject of RV trailer tires you will find that the most popular way to eliminate trailer tire problems is to increase the load carrying capacity of the tires to 15-20% above the trailer GAW. Hmmm, knock, knock, are the bells ringing. How come the RV trailer manufacturers don’t hear that ringing? “Well, er..er..er.., it’s a tire problem”. “ those Asians, their tires are just not up to snuff.”
I’ve visited RV specific forums like this one where the manufacturer is actually involved and supports wheel and tire upgrades as long as the end user accepts some of the costs. But the bottom line is not being effected as the 2011 line-up shows no upgrades by the manufacturer. Demanding an upgrade before signing the sales agreement is the most powerful tool the prospective buyer has to deal with a RV trailer that is suspected to have tires with insufficient load carrying capacity. When doing so the target to shoot for is tires able to support maximum GAW plus 20%. Example; 15K GVWR trailer minus 3K pin weight equals 12K GAW. 12K divided by four equals 3K tires times 20% equals minimum 3600# capacity tires.
Nothing personal intended in this post. Just rambling along.
TireHobby
