Poor quality tires. Is this standard?

[jeeps]

[font size="3"]Our trailer has only about 5000 miles on it and the tires are worn out.  (Not fun to discover when we're 1000 miles from home.)  Husband has been careful about tire pressure, so it's not that.  Is this normal?  Do Camplites normally come with cheap tires?[/font]

[spot1]

Several folks here have had problems with factory installed tires.

The trailer radials we installed replacing the original tires have 5000 or 6000 miles on them and planning the next trip out west
using same tires. They are still in good condition.

[fasteddieb]

Brenda,

That sounds odd.

Last I looked at about 4,500 miles the stock tires on our 21BHS looked fine.

I'll confirm the brand and shoot a photo shortly.

Temperature, road surface and speeds all can make a difference, along with tire pressure.

[fasteddieb]

[djsamuel]

[quote source="/post/11035/thread" timestamp="1431977483" author="@fasteddieb"]

[spot1]

Here's threads about tire issues:

http://livinlite.proboards.com/thread/562/unusual-tire-wear-on-13qbb

http://livinlite.proboards.com/thread/976/cracks-brand-new-tires

[djsamuel]

Rather than start a new thread, I figured I would revive an existing one.  I repacked the bearings in my 21BHS today.  As part of that process, I wanted to check one tire that I noticed was very slowly losing air over the last couple of months.  The pressure would be down about 10 psi over the course of a month.  When I removed the tire I found a very small 1/2" nail had penetrated the tire and was leaking air.  The very fact that such a small nail could cause a leak in these tires really disturbs me.  After I showed her the nail, my wife is in favor of replacing all of the tires prior top our trip to Tennessee.  I'm amazed that such a small nail was able to penetrate the tire, especially through the thick part of the tread.  It appeared to be about a 22 gauge nail.  I did successfully put a plug in the tire and it is holding air now (checked with soapy water).

Am I off base here, or do you agree that this really puts the durability of these tires in question?  I can't imagine a nail this small being able to penetrate a tire on my car/truck. 

Here is a picture of the nail taken from the tire:

[daplumbr]

It is VERY difficult to penetrate a car/truck tire with a nail, let alone one that's about 3/8 inch. Makes me wonder how much there is to a ST tire? 

[geo92128]

Doug, switch your tires to Maxxis radials or equivalent; you will have much greater piece of mind while rolling down the highway.  That is what I did after all the cracks etc. appeared in my tires on a new trailer. I think I saw somewhere in this forum that LL was switching to radials on new trailers but not sure.

[freeskiken]

The dealer I bought mine from didn't inflate the tires properly to 50 psi. I should have checked them. My fault.  So now I have premature wear. I have never had much luck with trailer tires. My old trailer was single axle it was harder on tires. That's one of the reasons I bought a Camplite. I replaced the worst one last year and I made sure they are properly inflated. Three of them have a funny wear pattern but I was going to use them for awhile. I don't put that many miles on them and I always cover them for winter. Most tires show cracking in the base of the treads after about five years. The rubber breaks down and they should be replaced. I would really like to try the Maxxis tire I hear they are the best. I don't know if I can get them where I am located. I wonder sometimes if I get the better tire though and I have to replace them in five years anyway or should I just buy the less expensive ones and run them for five years.

[gbpack]

We have researched and looked around quite a bit on the topic of replacement tires for Travel trailers because of the problems we've read about in this forum with the tires that come with the CampLite trailers. While LivinLite has been putting better tires on their campers now for a few months (have upgraded to radials from bias ply), the Vail Sport tires are still a Chinese tire and we wanted to know what other options were out there. We found that there are no trailer tires made in the U.S. anymore and that there are quite a few cheap ones made in China that most of us would not want to consider. However, I agree with comment above about Maxxis tires, which seem to be be the best choice out there. I spoke with a representative from Maxxis and found that they are a U.S. company (based in GA) that does all of their own manufacturing, so even though their tires are made overseas they are made in Maxxis factories by Maxxis employees. They do not subcontract the manufacturing of their tires to someone else and they follow their own strict quality and manufacturing guidelines. We have read many good things online about their tires and they seem to have a good reputation. We plan on having Maxxis tires put on our new camper when it arrives at the dealer. We were advised by the person at Maxxis to contact one of their distributors to get the tires, instead of ordering them from them directly online (he said they really aren't set up to sell this way and you can get a much better price through a distributor). You can find the nearest distributor on the Maxxis website www.maxxis.com

[daplumbr]

And of course if you don't have a local dealer you can order them (Maxxis tires) online and have a local tire shop mount them. That's what I'll do next year before our big trip west. 

[pinstriper]

[quote source="/post/15567/thread" timestamp="1443410411" author="@sandroad"]And of course if you don't have a local dealer you can order them (Maxxis tires) online and have a local tire shop mount them. That's what I'll do next year before our big trip west. [/quote][p]I think Les Schwab carried Maxxis, so just build in half a day while coming out to the NW Regional CL meetup.[/p][p]
[/p][p]PS. Oregon has no sales tax. Yet.[/p][p]
[/p]

[fasteddieb]

Old topic, but an update...

Our original tires on our 21BHS are now pretty much due:






2 1/2 years and about 12,000 miles - not too shabby.

Vail Sport ST's
ST205/75D14

[fasteddieb]

Called the nearest Maxxis dealer in Alcoa, TN They don't have the Maxxis in stock, but recommended a radial tire: the Carlisle Radial Trail HD. $532 for four, installed balanced and tax inclusive.

My local guy has nothing good to say about Carlisle, is lukewarm on Maxxis and recommends a Hertage Max STR.

Thoughts?