Making sense of the tire talk

[Heathcote4]

Of course the tire discussion is emotional........

No body wants to put their family in danger by rolling on a problematic product. We pay a lot for our rigs and no one wants to deal with damage to the coach. The data provided here has been a wealth of information. As a newbie it really made me prepare for our trip this weekend differently. I installed my TST 507 system this morning, checked my trailer tires before departing want watched them roll for the next five hours. We arrived in Hot Springs safe and sound on our six Blow Max tires. Upgrading to G rated tires is definitely on the to do list but I was not as nervous driving today as I was earlier in the week.

In my humble opinion Heartland must not believe that Power King tires are the end all, be all, or they would not offer G614's as an upgrade. I hope for all the fellow owners that their tires are not mistreated in anyway from the factory to the dealer.

I personally am thankful for all the data points provided on this thread.

Happy Easter to all!

Josh and Farrah Heathcote

 

[alanfred]

Of course the tire discussion is emotional........

..... I installed my TST 507 system this morning,....

Josh, become familiar with the symbols on the display. The first alarm we had while rolling down the road was "low battery" from a sensor. My reaction to the alarm was to get our rig stopped as quickly as possiable, I was very glad it was just the sensor battery. Good idea to stock up on CR1632 batteries. I found the best price here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002U4O5SC/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

hope this helps.

 

[SeattleLion]

Josh, become familiar with the symbols on the display. The first alarm we had while rolling down the road was "low battery" from a sensor. My reaction to the alarm was to get our rig stopped as quickly as possiable, I was very glad it was just the sensor battery. Good idea to stock up on CR1632 batteries. I found the best price here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002U4O5SC/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

hope this helps.

Thank you! That's a great price. I ordered some.

 

[Sajo]

alanfred
I have a 2013 big country 3650 and blowout yesterday on I-65 south of Montgomery,Al. Have about 2000 miles on tires and came with Towmax Power King Radial ST235/80R 16. Am I reading this correctly and you put the Goodyears on your unit?

sajo

 

[alanfred]

alanfred
I have a 2013 big country 3650 and blowout yesterday on I-65 south of Montgomery,Al. Have about 2000 miles on tires and came with Towmax Power King Radial ST235/80R 16. Am I reading this correctly and you put the Goodyears on your unit?

sajo

Sajo,

Yes, this is what I bought. Goodyear Unisteel® G614 RST

Tire Size	Load Range	Side Wall	Thread Depth (32s)	Apprvd. Rim Widths	Meas. Rim Width	Overall Width	Outside Diameter	Max Load at Infla. (PSI) Single
*LT235/85R16	G	BW	12	6.50	6.50	9.5	30.7	3750@110

*This tire requires a special high load capacity wheel and high pressure tire valve. Consult wheel manufacturer for proper application.



I found the best price at a Goodyear corporate tire store. 4 tires $1285 installed and balanced on loose wheels (the 6-pt level system really comes in handy for removing wheels, I took two at a time to the tire shop, and used the spare to keep 1 tire on a side) I provided high pressure metal bolt-on valve stems, cost me $10 for 4 from another local tire shop (Goodyear store did not have the bolt-on type).

 

[Heathcote4]

How do I know if the Road Warrior wheels will handle the G614 tires?


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[cookie]

Take a look at the back side of your rims.
There should be some numbers stamped or molded into a spoke.
You will want to see 110psi or 3750 lb.

Peace
Dave

 

[scottyb]

How do I know if the Road Warrior wheels will handle the G614 tires?


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Heathcote, if you can't find the stamp w/o removing a wheel, call Treadit or get on their website and find your wheels. In my case, they only offered a 6-bolt and 8-bolt, and they said all the 8 bolts in that particular wheel were 110 psi/3750 lb. It was a mute point for me since I went with the 80 psi XPS Ribs, anyway.

 

[SeattleLion]

Heathcote, if you can't find the stamp w/o removing a wheel, call Treadit or get on their website and find your wheels. In my case, they only offered a 6-bolt and 8-bolt, and they said all the 8 bolts in that particular wheel were 110 psi/3750 lb. It was a mute point for me since I went with the 80 psi XPS Ribs, anyway.

I have been trying to figure that out too. I have the 8 bolt Aluminum wheels. I really hope i can upgrade to the G rated tires.

 

[Miltp920]

So I looked at my rims. They say 3750 at 110psi, stamped in rim. But they also say 16x6J. 6 inch wide rim. Most of the tires everyone is upgrading to say they require a 16x6.5 inch rim. Will the tire store mount a tire where the tire spec says 6.5 rim required on a 6 inch rim? I really like my rims, just not my tires, blowmax.

 

[TravelTiger]

I have been trying to figure that out too. I have the 8 bolt Aluminum wheels. I really hope i can upgrade to the G rated tires.

Looking for your wheels on the Tredit website is a good idea. If the 8 bolt pattern of your wheel = 3750 max weight rating, you should be ok for 110psi.


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[Miltp920]

Also I made my first haul with my tire monitoring system. My passenger side truck tire heated up 3-5 degrees more than the drivers side. Heated = 5 psi more too. I am thinking I need to get the bearings checked. I had one rim on my two axle 5er hot to the touch, way more than the other 3. This is a 2014, might I have a bearing or brake issue on my dexter axle? Right side-passenger side rear tire.

 

[scottyb]

Also I made my first haul with my tire monitoring system. My passenger side truck tire heated up 3-5 degrees more than the drivers side. Heated = 5 psi more too. I am thinking I need to get the bearings checked. I had one rim on my two axle 5er hot to the touch, way more than the other 3. This is a 2014, might I have a bearing or brake issue on my dexter axle? Right side-passenger side rear tire.

Funny you should mention this. I have been meaning to bring this up in a new topic. I have been observing the same thing. I 1st thought it was due to it being on the sunny side. However, i have learned that it is always on the right side of my trailer. All 3 tires on the right seem to run 6-10 degrees warmer than the left side. My theory is that it is due to the exhaust discharging on the right side. Has anyone else observed this with their TPMS?

 

[alex00]

Funny you should mention this. I have been meaning to bring this up in a new topic. I have been observing the same thing. I 1st thought it was due to it being on the sunny side. However, i have learned that it is always on the right side of my trailer. All 3 tires on the right seem to run 6-10 degrees warmer than the left side. My theory is that it is due to the exhaust discharging on the right side. Has anyone else observed this with their TPMS?

If all three tires on the right side are heating up equally my guess is it has to do with the crown of the road slightly tipping the trailer to that side. I would think the slight tip to the side rooms count for a little more weight on the tires thus more heat.

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[mattpopp]

Seattle, that is a very well written point and I suspect there is some validity in what you say. However, IMO, all tires are not created equally, and just because tire X claims the same rating as tire Y and Z, doesn't mean it has the same quality of build. There have always been ultra cheap junk tires on the market and there always will be. The old adage of "you get what you pay for" also applies to tires as well. There is a reason that Power King Towmax cost less than 1/2 as much as it's piers. I have only been on this site for the last 2 years, but the occurrence of Towmax problems has been going on for a while, and has been way too high for me to consider leaving my driveway with them. The stress in anticipating a failure in the middle of nowhere exceeds the stress of forking out an extra $2K, IMO. I'm still waiting on reports of failures from the many of us who have changed to a superior product.

I agree 100%. The OP is looking at this with the assumption that Tow Max or any other ST is built with the same manufacturing standard/quality as a LT tire or race tire. Which they aren't. Tow Max simply fail due to the lack of quality.

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[mattpopp]

Funny you should mention this. I have been meaning to bring this up in a new topic. I have been observing the same thing. I 1st thought it was due to it being on the sunny side. However, i have learned that it is always on the right side of my trailer. All 3 tires on the right seem to run 6-10 degrees warmer than the left side. My theory is that it is due to the exhaust discharging on the right side. Has anyone else observed this with their TPMS?

I would think the exhaust would be completely cooled off long before it reaches the trailer tires. Not only that but completely dissipated before reaching them. You may have more weight on those wheels.

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[SeattleLion]

I agree 100%. The OP is looking at this with the assumption that Tow Max or any other ST is built with the same manufacturing standard/quality as a LT tire or race tire. Which they aren't. Tow Max simply fail due to the lack of quality.

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This is the kind of statement that has absolutely no basis in fact. How do you know the manufacturing quality of the Tow Max is lower than the LT? We'll exclude race tires because the performance requirements make the production process very different. Unless you have real statistics on quality for the tires, you can't possibly know. In fact, I assert that the Tow Max tires do fail more than LT tires even though I really have no evidence beyond anecdotal evidence here and other forums. I can say that truck makers do not ship trucks with tires that are at their load capacity. There is a lot of room. Even if the truck is loaded to its maximum rated payload, there is still margin. Trailer tires, on the other hand, are put on our fifth wheels with their capacity maxed out if we load the trailer to capacity. Even dry, the trailer is usually only 10 or 15% under capacity.

Does that mean ST's fail more? Folks here think so, but again no evidence. I still assert that the closer to the load limit you go, the greater the chance of failure. The combination of high load and under-inflation is a sure formula to a problem.

 

[sbryan]

Just to add one more thought to Seattle's comments. We don't know the failure rate of any of these tires because we don't know how many are on the road vs. the number of failures. It seems likely there are far more Towmax than Goodyears so the raw number of failures is likely to be higher but what we really want and don't have is the rate of failure.

With that said I am upgrading from 15" to 16" wheels and 10 ply g rated tires.

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[Miltp920]

Turns out the rim that was hot on the 5er was the brake axle. I saw the drum behind the wheel when I was hecking the inside of the tires for bubbles. would this be normal, or should I have the brakes checked out. This trip was only 40 mmiles. Later in the spring, 400 miles. I do not recall a temp or pressure increase on the tire monitor, but the rim was very hot to touch.




QUOTE=Miltp920;358166]Also I made my first haul with my tire monitoring system. My passenger side truck tire heated up 3-5 degrees more than the drivers side. Heated = 5 psi more too. I am thinking I need to get the bearings checked. I had one rim on my two axle 5er hot to the touch, way more than the other 3. This is a 2014, might I have a bearing or brake issue on my dexter axle? Right side-passenger side rear tire.[/QUOTE]

 

[Gary521]

Seattle, you labeled this thread as "making sense of tire talk" and claiming that people are just making statements not based of fact. Well, I find that this does not make sense and you have stated your opinions also. We all have opinions on tires but the fact is that when we change from the ST tires to the LT tires our stories change also. You cannot dispute that. Wake up and smell the roses.