Poor quality tires. Is this standard?

[diversteve]

Thanks Jim,
I will look into ordering this system.
The tip on the valve stems is a good one.

[pygrydr]

This forum is full of great information and it is costing me a little extra coin every time I turn around. LOL

Such as this tire issue.Which by the way is not so funny. It forced me to go buy a tire monitor system.
Got this one of Amazon. Tire Minder TM55c-B Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) for Trailers, Travel Trailers.  Was easy to set up and I feel much more comfortable with it on and working. All this talk of blow outs and damage to campers put the chills in me enough to make me buy this system. After owning 3 other campers in years past and never once having a tire issue it would have never dawned on me to buy such a system. I'm finding I was lucky in a lot of ways.

I also find myself coming back to read more and I'm learning a ton from this forum. So thank you to everyone for making this such a nice place to learn from and to be safer on the roads.

I am considering buying the Tire Minder TM55c-B Tire Pressure Monitoring System.  Did you purchase the booster also?

TIA

Galen

[jimt]

[quote timestamp="1476708379" source="/post/25390/thread" author="@pygrydr"]  Did you purchase the booster also?

TIA

Galen[/quote]Galen

I did not buy the booster . It has a rather long range here at my house with out one. I walked over a hundred feet away and it was still working. Not sure how that will stand up in real world driving yet, but I'll be holding off on the booster for now.  Also not sure if battery life will affect how far away the system will work with out a booster too. Could drop in working distance due to dying batteries. Only time will tell.

 I was hoping someone here in the forums already had one and could add to what little I have already said.

[charliem]

[quote timestamp="1476570793" source="/post/25370/thread" author="@jimt"]This forum is full of great information and it is costing me a little extra coin every time I turn around. LOL
[/quote][font size="3"]Camplite owners and their cash are separable items, but sometime need a little nudge. We're here to help by enabling the natural forces of nature. Camp on  8-) [/font]

[pygrydr]

Did you purchase the booster also?

TIA

Galen

Galen

I did not buy the booster . It has a rather long range here at my house with out one. I walked over a hundred feet away and it was still working. Not sure how that will stand up in real world driving yet, but I'll be holding off on the booster for now.  Also not sure if battery life will affect how far away the system will work with out a booster too. Could drop in working distance due to dying batteries. Only time will tell.

 I was hoping someone here in the forums already had one and could add to what little I have already said.

Jim,

Thank you!  I am ordering the kit as you did.  I found Amazon to have the best price.

Regards,

Galen

[jimt]

[quote timestamp="1476742139" source="/post/25398/thread" author="@charliem"][quote timestamp="1476570793" author="@jimt" source="/post/25370/thread"]This forum is full of great information and it is costing me a little extra coin every time I turn around. LOL
[/quote][font size="3"]Camplite owners and their cash are separable items, but sometime need a little nudge. We're here to help by enabling the natural forces of nature. Camp on  8-)  [/font]
[/quote]You guys are doing a fine job IMHO.  LOL

[jerrybeaird]

I just came back from a trip to Galveston...I did splurge and buy the tireminder A1A.  It includes a booster.  It was a pricey one but it was in stock at PPL in Houston.  My tires are shot so I at least wanted one more trip with them (140 miles rt) and wanted to monitor them.  Installation was a breeze and  it workd great.

I just ordered five maxxis m8008 tires from Direct tire ebay, as they have a $100 off $400 or more special until the end of October.  Based on my quick calculations, I only went 4,000 or so on those crappy vail tires!  I have bald flat spots on a couple of tires.  They are junk!

[fasteddieb]

'Tis a mystery...

Why do some Vail tires only last 4,000 or 5,000 miles, while others (mine) went 12,000+?

I assume none of us are hotrodding, so I don't think technique comes into play.

[djsamuel]

[quote source="/post/25613/thread" author="@fasteddieb" timestamp="1477524758"]'Tis a mystery...

Why do some Vail tires only last 4,000 or 5,000 miles, while others (mine) went 12,000+?

I assume none of us are hotrodding, so I don't think technique comes into play.

[/quote]There must be a total lack of quality control and therefore a lack of consistency.  I had one Vail tire replaced under warranty due to a molding defect in the sidewall.  That replacement tire wore MUCH faster than the other tires.

[jerrybeaird]

Free tire from Discount Tire!

Today, I picked up the five tires that I had dropped off yesterday to have the new Maxxis tires balanced and mounted.  What was nice was they put on the high pressure brass metal valve stems on them without me even asking!  The original ones were just the rubber ones.

Well, since the crappy Vail tire on the spare was brand new, I asked them to keep it for me as a spare to the spare.  Well, they threw it out and apologized to me and ordered another Maxxis for me, which I will pick up on Monday.   What customer service!  I have always bought my tires there and this is just another reason why.

When I was driving home it dawned on me that I couldn't really use the Vail anyway as it was a bias tire and all the new ones are radials.  Discount Tire...highly recommended!

[popup2012]

On the Tireminder system, where did you hook up the booster?

[jerrybeaird]

I placed the booster next to the emergency brake battery.  I have a small solar panel on my house battery box to charge the small brake battery.

http://livinlite-owners.com/post/15478

I wired it with a quick disconnect so that when not in use, it won't drain the battery.

[scbillandjane]

We purchased our 21bhs from Sunny Island in Nov. 2015. It had Vail tires that lasted 3,500 miles before cracking in the tread and splitting in the sidewalls. We replaced them with Maxist. Since replacement we have traveled about 11,000 miles from South Carolina to the Oregon rally and  5,000 miles in a trip dodging hurricane Mathew from one side of Florida to the other. The tires show little to no wear and we have had no problems. As a side benefit we were having severe sway problems due to incorrect hitch installation of a new Anderson hitch at Sunny Island which was corrected by another dealership. We still were having constant lesser sway issues that I continued to blame on the Anderson hitch until we replaced the Vail tires. There was a huge decrease in sway. My advice to any trailer owner is to carefully watch the tires on any new trailer. If I purchased a new trailer with Chinese tires especially with a single axle, I would make my first trip to a tire dealer for replacements. 

[montedtrotter1]

SCBillandJane

We purchased our 21BHS from SIRV in April 15, they also installed our Andersen Hitch, what did they do wrong? We are not having a problem but just looking out for a potential issue on our trailer. They had ours synched up really tight and we have since backed off on the number of threads showing from 9 to 7.5. Ride is a lot better now.

Thanks for your response!

MonteD

[scbillandjane]

If you look on the installation video for Anderson hitches, there is a minimum number of chain links that the hitch must have. When a hitch is installed the attachment point can be moved forward and back to not interfere with placement of battery and propane. Sometimes the battery and /or propane have to be moved to get the correct hitch placement. Sunny Island shortened the chains more than specified by Anderson rather than moving the battery and propane. A different dealer later shifted every thing around to get the chain length within the Anderson specs. Sway improved but was not eliminated by any means. We experimented with different screw threads and 6 or 7 seemed to work best, but we were still having strange sway issues until we replaced the tires. The trailer had a what I would call a quiver sometimes with no wind or truck passing.