KATOOM

When I was in the market for six 15" trailer tires I researched all I could. I found that all of them have bad reputations too. Some far more than others. China makes ALL of them except MAXXIS which are made in Thailand. At the time I found that even though there's complaints about MAXXIS too, those complaints were nothing compared to the China "bombs" and that the MAXXIS was intended to be a much better built ST tire than whats available. They're more expensive too. I figured it would be worth giving them a try since there was a lot of positive reviews. I also purchased a tire pressure monitoring system too just to make sure if they do get ready to blow then at least I'll be able to stop any damage to the trailer.

In saying all that, as much as its discussed that ST tires are a problem..... Well so is the fact that they sit undisturbed for the majority of their service lives. Tires wont stand up to lack of usage and will dry up. The majority of people who use their trailers on a regular basis tend to not have ST tire problems.

RobG

Yeah I considered the Maxxis tires as well. At $140 each (plus mounting and balancing), the cost difference between a new set of those versus going to 16's just wasn't different enough, so I spent the extra money and upgraded where I'll have complete piece of mind.

KATOOM

Understood. But for me, because I have six tires and six aluminum rims it would have cost me around $3000 for six comparable aluminum rims and six LT with enough capacity. Six "E" rated 15" MAXXIS cost just under $1100.

RobG

Yep, understood in return.

I have five aluminum 15's (one was destroyed on one of the blowouts), and decided to go cheap and get silver steelies instead of spend 2x as much on aluminum ones.

I figure I can get $500-600 for my existing wheels and tires, so it'll help offset the cost of upgrading.

Definitely let us all know if the Maxxis tires work out. It'd be nice if they end up being worth considering.

Rob

RobG

Time for an update. I bought seven new silver steel 16" wheels and mounted Bridgestone Duravis R500HD tires in 225/75-16 size, since I can't fit 235/85-16's on there without spending a bunch of money having the axles spaced farther apart (thanks, Keystone!). The tires are seriously beefy, and I got 'em for $166 ea. from America's Tire (Tire Rack wanted $174 ea).

Today I finally sold off the old 15" ones... four aluminum wheels with tires on them, one aluminum without a tire, two chrome steelies with tires, and one white steelie with a tire (the spare). One of my blowouts a few years ago had destroyed the 6th aluminum, and I ended up getting a deal on the chromed ones.

I knew one of the tires had some cracking in the tread and was up front about that. I was hoping to get $500-600 for the whole set of seven, but when the guy was looking them over, he found another tire with cracks, and a third tire with a bulge in the tread itself... I bet it would have lasted at most 50-100 miles before exploding. Edit tires. In the end, I took $360 for everything. GRRR. Annoyed but glad to be rid of those pieces of garbage.

So, even these "Transmaster" and "Tow Master" tires are garbage, along with all the others.

Edit: Attached photo of the new setup on my trailer. Not as pretty as the aluminum ones, but not bad either. Better than white, that's for sure.

Rob

KATOOM

Looking good. Hope they work out for you.

But just noting..... ANY tire that sits for 6 months to a year without being moved will be trouble.

pind

So, after running them for years with no issues, what's wrong with good old Goodyear marathon trailer tires. We run those, or Michelin lt on all our equipment trailers, with no issues.

Just a question, from the less informed.

KATOOM

If you're asking with serious curiosity..... Google ST tires or trailer tire problems or and you'll find a lot of discussion about peoples issues with Chinese made 15" trailer tires. Its a heated discussion to say the least.

pind

That's what I was alluding to. We have had no problems with Goodyear marathons, which are an st tire. And we beat the living snot out of trailer tires. Only thing we generally don't do is speed, and never when loaded to max, for reasons obvious to anyone with common sense.

For really abusive situations, we do run lt tires, even on the triples and dual tandems.

Dodgetracker

Just turned our Cyclone in for repairs after all 3 tires blew on the right side in 2 days of travel. Did just a hair over $3000 in damage. First day we left Destin Florida and made it to almost Shreveport Louisiana when the middle tire blew somewhere along the trip and we saw it at a rest stop. Rim was destroyed from road contact. Put the spare on and called it a night. Next day we made it to Perry, Oklahoma when someone pulled up next to us and waved to the back. Pulled over and the front and back tire had just blown causing the damage to the camper. Called roadside assistance and 2 new tires later, we were back on the road with only 4 more hours and we were home. Bought another new rim and replaced all of the rest of the tires. Tires were stamped 2005 and the camper is a 2007. They have been coast to coast a few times and all over in-between, so we got our money out of those. Tires that blew were an ST 15" tire and brand was DURO. New ones that went on are an Akuret brand. Just sucks that the campers aren't better protected from blow out damage.

pind

I might also have been suggesting that you run a brand name tire instead of cheap Chinese junk. A few hundred bucks in rubber, is a lot cheap than a few thousand in tow bills and trailer repairs.

KATOOM

There's so many reasons a trailer tire can fail besides it being a cheap Chinese made piece of garbage.

1. Out of round or bent rims.
2. Under-inflated tires (ST tires are designed to run at max psi all the time)
3. Trailer axles out of alignment.
4. Bad or loose wheel bearings.
5. Over loaded tires (very common)
6. And most common of all.....tires sitting for months and months on end without any exercise. Tires must be used otherwise they simply rot as the rubber dries up from lack of flexing movement.

ST tires are designed to "time out" before they wear out. 5 years and they're considered time to replace. But that said, I've seen ST trailer tires last for year and years and almost run bald. But that was on trailers which sat for very limited time frames and spent more time on the road moving.

cLAYH

I had an old homemade trailer with bias ply tires that were 15+years old, never had flat or a sidewall crack. Wish I could still get bias ply trailer tires, they were tough tires.

KATOOM

I dont think it has anything to do with bias verses radial but rather construction material and quality of design and construction. I've seen older radial tires last for many many years too. ST tires are just made like garbage because they dont have the liability of carrying passengers and therefor aren't going to cause bodily harm if they fail. I believe this is why LT tires work so well on trailers.

HighTen

This is my opinion exactly and the key to this whole issue, I think.

I recently did some figuring and after about 40,000 miles on my travel trailer, I'd had 26 different tires on it. I had one of every brand discussed in this thread and a few others and they all came apart. After one caused a couple hundred dollars damage, I got better at noticing bulging tires and switching them before they actually blew.

I have 4 Goodyear Cargo G25 tires now with more then 10,000 miles on them. Yes, they were twice the cost of ST tires, but after lasting this long with no problems, they've more than paid for themselves.

My advice is, don't bother with any ST tire no matter the brand. Just get truck tires. After figuring in the cost of replacing tires, fixing blowout damage, and downtime on the road, truck tires are the only way to go.