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I have noticed 2 of the tires are in need of replacement in the near future on my TT, but it seems that searching for reviews on tire brands of tire is like another what type of oil to use thread. It seems from online reviews that they all suck and are all made in China.
For those of you that have been towing for awhile, what brand (goodyear marathon,trailer king,carlisle, ect...) have had the least issues?
I've seen complaints about all the tires listed. I'd blame all complaints on operator error. Keep proper inflation. I had tire failure that was linked to bad valve stems. When I replaced the tire, I replaced the other stems, too.
I have noticed 2 of the tires are in need of replacement in the near future on my TT, but it seems that searching for reviews on tire brands of tire is like another what type of oil to use thread. It seems from online reviews that they all suck and are all made in China.
For those of you that have been towing for awhile, what brand (goodyear marathon,trailer king,carlisle, ect...) have had the least issues?
The 5th wheel trailer we have came with Sailun 637 tires made in China. Did some research and these are supposed to be pretty good. Size is 235x65x16 load range G and 110 psi. Don't know about the smaller sizes but worth checking into.
Yes, most ST trailer tires are made in China. A few are made in Korea.
Tires fail for a lot of different reasons. Undoubtedly, some are due to manufacturing issues. However, IMO, most failures are due to other reasons e.g. overloading, unbalanced loading, under inflation, road hazards, hitting curbs, over speed (ST tires are rated for 65 mph), tires over 5 years old, etc.
Get a good tire monitoring system like Truck System Technologies 507. They read out tire pressure and temp. You set high and low parameters. The tires are constantly monitored and an alarm sounds if parameters are exceeded.
I constantly see people rant about "China Bombs". I'd bet that most of those failures are due to one of the reasons mentioned above. Get a slow leak from a road hazard, tire deflates, gets hot, bam the tire disintegrates. All evidence of puncture is destroyed; so now it's a China Bomb.
Try Goodyear Marathon, Maxxis, Carlisle, etc. I think you will have good luck if you take care of them. I ran a set of Marathons for 25,000 miles in some severe conditions without any problems.
One thing to ask about is the manufacture date of the tires you are buying. Make sure you aren't buying tires that are already a couple of years old. Ask the dealer to show you. There is a DOT week/year molded into the tire by the bead. 3816 would be the 38th week of 2016.
Good luck. Don't let all of the China negativity overly worry you.
I have 3 trailers I run China made tires on all of them. buy them on fle bay always go one load range higher than OEM except on car hauler [ use LR "E" instead of "C" always run max pressure and check them before each trip. never had a problem. Oh and keep speed at or below 65 mph.
Don't forget sun damage and sitting in one location too long. On C load tires I replace them every 5 years - period. Cheaper than 1 blowout on the highway. When I towed a 5th wheel I always went up a grade and the firmer tire also helped towing stability. Over loading is a big issue on trailers as well.
At the above link, scroll down to Maxxis and you'll see where their factory is located.
The tire plant code is required by DOT be on the sidewall of the tire as the first two digits after the "DOT". Mine says "DOT 20ZD...", so the tire plant code is "20" (two zero).
I've been running Maxxis trailer tires for several years with not one trailer tire problem. However, I run at least one size oversize on wheels that match the specs of the tires. For example, on my cargo trailer that came with ST205/75R15C, I run Maxxis ST225/75R15E. The bigger tires require bigger wheels (6" wide instead of 5.5" wide) so I ordered these cheap trailer wheels from https://www.southwestwheel.com/p-406-128696.aspx
And note in the link below that the different size tires have different diameter. Half the difference in diameter is the amount of difference in clearance from the top of the tire to the bottom of the wheel well. The Maxxis ST225/75R15E trailer tires just barely fit into my wheel wells with enough room between the top of the tire and the underside of the wheel well to allow some suspension travel.
I went ahead and purchased a set of China Bombs in the picture below from Discount Tire, and will be getting them put on hopefully tomorrow. They are speed rated M (I don't plan on going 81 mph)radial ST tires. If these fail I will be looking toward purchasing the Maxis tires as they also have good reviews.
I think they will also, got them put on today and they seem to work just fine. The salesman at discount tire said they are on about 40% of travel trailers and they get very little complaints about them (but he is a salesman).
Wish I could got to a 15in rim/tire setup since there are more options. But there is absolutely no extra room for tires in my wheel wells or clearance between tires.
11-24-2016, 07:49 PM
Trailer tires
