Another Blown Towmax

[Northern Wis.]

Had one of the Towmax tires blow on the way west. Damage to the wheel well area and skirting will have to be taken care later. The tire was just over 2 years old with a guess of 10k on it. I could have been luckier than many.

New set of firestone's china load range E, ST tires and we're back on the road. Its too bad you buy a trailer to travel and see the country in, and have to question whether or not it's even road worthy. Maybe the rv industry should try and sell safe and reliable products first and then play with the upgrade crap they like to put in trailers to draw you in.

[Fairenatic]

Originally Posted by Northern Wis.

Had one of the Towmax tires blow on the way west. Damage to the wheel well area and skirting will have to be taken care later. The tire was just over 2 years old with a guess of 10k on it. I could have been luckier than many.

New set of firestone's china load range E, ST tires and we're back on the road. Its too bad you buy a trailer to travel and see the country in, and have to question whether or not it's even road worthy. Maybe the rv industry should try and sell safe and reliable products first and then play with the upgrade crap they like to put in trailers to draw you in.

Sorry to hear that. But, you input helps others like me who have decided to just bite the bullet and upgrade the tires and wheels now and be done with it.

[Crabman]

Many of us have been there, these are not isolated incidents. My take on this tire deal now is this :

http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f1...res-31018.html

[DocBrown]

A couple of us did a bit of unscientific research earlier this year. The Towmax blowouts appear to be limited to 15" and 16" ST tires. Those of us with 13" and 14" inch tires aren't having issues. Sadly the manufacturers are trying to keep the units at a price point that's competitive so they cheap out on things like tires. In the case of the larger trailers I think they put much more stress on the tires hence the high incidences of blowouts.

These should probably have been part of a recall but hardly anyone has complained where it really counts. Only complaints on the online forums. NTSB Home

[skijlw]

Towmax is not the only tire manufacture of ST tires that fail. I had a different 5th wheel 3 years ago and replaced the tires after a blowout with tires from Les Schwab a large tire dealer in the west and they sell their own brand of ST tires. I sold the trailer to a person I know and found out 3 of the tires had tread separating. The tires had about 7K miles on them. This is another brand of tire to be careful of.

[Edd505]

Originally Posted by Northern Wis.

Had one of the Towmax tires blow on the way west. Damage to the wheel well area and skirting will have to be taken care later. The tire was just over 2 years old with a guess of 10k on it.

Check this on repairing it at home - I saved about $900 over shop repair.
http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f4...age-31737.html

[PlayersZ28]

I took the Towmax's off my trailer and replaced them with S637's. The Towmax's would have had maybe 1000mi on them plus the trip from IN to ON when the trailer was new. I sold the used tires for 200$ to a guy that wanted them for a boat trailer.

I only put 2hrs towing on them from when I bought the trailer used. I had no desire to take them on a long trip and repair the side of the trailer, new tires are cheaper than that.

[eldermike]

Last two trailers I took off the OEM tires before the first trip and upgraded on load range. And as far as I know Maxxis is the way to go and my only choice in ST tires. To be fair I don't believe any tire manufacturer designs tires to run max load on every mile but on campers they are most often running max load all the time as specified by the camper manufacturer. If campers were sold to pull dry and without camping gear then the tires they spec might well work. But most of us us campers use our rigs for camping.

[dalebra]

I'm convinced after reading all the posts on tires that the best thing you can do is invest in a TPMS system. With a TPMS system you will be told immediately when you have a tire go down so you can get off the road before it comes apart and causes damage to your RV.
TPMS = Tire Pressure Monitor System

[Northern Wis.]

I heard the tire blow, said what was that. Looked in the mirror saw smoke.(mumbling a few mechanics terms) stopped as quick as I could, but at 60+ I still covered a good half mile with pieces of tire beating up the wheel well

[Sledgehammer]

Originally Posted by Northern Wis.

I heard the tire blow, said what was that. Looked in the mirror saw smoke.(mumbling a few mechanics terms) stopped as quick as I could, but at 60+ I still covered a good half mile with pieces of tire beating up the wheel well

LOL at "mechanics terms". Reminds me of myself mechanicing sometimes!

I agree though, its almost impossible to get stopped soon enough when a tire lets loose. Usually, the damage is already done....

[dalebra]

Originally Posted by Northern Wis.

I heard the tire blow, said what was that. Looked in the mirror saw smoke.(mumbling a few mechanics terms) stopped as quick as I could, but at 60+ I still covered a good half mile with pieces of tire beating up the wheel well

Originally Posted by Sledgehammer

LOL at "mechanics terms". Reminds me of myself mechanicing sometimes!

I agree though, its almost impossible to get stopped soon enough when a tire lets loose. Usually, the damage is already done....

With a TPMS it's possible that you may get a warning of too low of pressure or too high of pressure or a high temp.

I agree, you may not be able to catch every case but without a TPMS you won't know until it goes.

[RedHorse1]

My TPMS has caught 2 failures. The first was a dramatic failure when 2/3 of the tread came off in one piece. I was able to stop before any damage was done. The second failure was the tread starting to separate and the monitor alerted me of low pressure, again I was able to stop without any damage to the 5th.
I'm a believer!

[Jack 56]

I had a Blow max tire go on my rig. I upgraded to 17.5 inch weels and Sailun tires. I found the best prices at Trailertiresandwheels.com. When you call them they will give you a better package price then advertised on thier website. I called a local tire dealer and they said they could not get me tires only at the price I got tires and wheels mounted and balanced.

[edatlanta]

Originally Posted by RedHorse1

My TPMS has caught 2 failures. The first was a dramatic failure when 2/3 of the tread came off in one piece. I was able to stop before any damage was done. The second failure was the tread starting to separate and the monitor alerted me of low pressure, again I was able to stop without any damage to the 5th.
I'm a believer!

X2. My TPMS saved me twice also. Both due to low pressure. One was a bad valve stem that had to be replaced (yes it was metal), and a loose valve stem core. It just came loose. Tightened it up and no more issues.

[edatlanta]

Originally Posted by Jack 56

I had a Blow max tire go on my rig. I upgraded to 17.5 inch weels and Sailun tires. I found the best prices at Trailertiresandwheels.com. When you call them they will give you a better package price then advertised on thier website. I called a local tire dealer and they said they could not get me tires only at the price I got tires and wheels mounted and balanced.

I was lucky that my OEM wheels were rated for 110psi so I upgraded tires from "E" rated to "G" rated G614's. I tow much more relaxed now even with a TPMS.

[Magnolia Tom]

I had towmax on my previous rig. Had to replace them before they blew. In less than a year and less than probably 4K miles, 2 of the tires looked like donuts....the tread area was not flat but round like a donut. I replaced them with sailun S637s. I ordered mine from simpletire.com. Immediately I realized that the sailuns were stout, heavy duty tires. When I took off my old wheels, the rim and towmax tire combo was lighter than the sailun tire alone. After I had the sailuns mounted, I picked up one of the towmax tires....very light and flimsy. I tell anyone who will listen, get rid of the towmax, especially if you have them on a fifth wheel with 16" wheels. It's not a matter of if, but when.

[robkelly]

Guess I was one on the lucky few - 11k miles over two years with the Towmax on the White Hawk and never had any issues. IIRC, I only had to adjust air pressure about five times, and two of those were at the beginning of the season. Given all the issues that other had, I kept a very close eye on them, and had we kept the WH, would have upgraded the tires in the spring.

Went with the 16' Maxxis upgrade when we ordered the Eagle.

[troutslayer]

Originally Posted by robkelly

Guess I was one on the lucky few - 11k miles over two years with the Towmax on the White Hawk and never had any issues. IIRC, I only had to adjust air pressure about five times, and two of those were at the beginning of the season. Given all the issues that other had, I kept a very close eye on them, and had we kept the WH, would have upgraded the tires in the spring.

Went with the 16' Maxxis upgrade when we ordered the Eagle.

Thanks for your comments. I think you are the only poster who brought up tire pressure. I guess we'll assume that all those who had problems had the correct tire pressure and didn't go over the trailer CCC. Again, no one said so we'll assume all was correct .

[etex211]

Originally Posted by troutslayer

Thanks for your comments. I think you are the only poster who brought up tire pressure. I guess we'll assume that all those who had problems had the correct tire pressure and didn't go over the trailer CCC. Again, no one said so we'll assume all was correct .

I meticulously check my air pressure before every trip. My Tow Max tires didn't make it 18 months or 1800 miles.