What will Jayco do with my tire blowouts

[MzLiz]

"Murff - I am still a guinea pig for the stock Rainier tires that came on our 2015 White Hawk. They have 6000 miles on them from last year's trip to Ohio and also no problems."

I just got back to MT yesterday and I now have more than 8000 miles on my Rainers - they still look good to me. The forum has made me paranoid though ) and I'll probably replace them before another trip if I can afford it. Before I left Vegas I increased tire pressure on the Rainers to maximum and set my truck tires to the specs recommended on my truck's door sticker (almost - there is a 15 psi difference between front and rear tires! I was afraid to put that much of a difference so settled on 10 - the difference would be due to the extra weight on the back tires - right?). I do feel the truck and 5th handled better - especially noticeable the further north I got and the worse the weather turned.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by MzLiz

snip... Before I left Vegas I increased tire pressure on the Rainers to maximum and set my truck tires to the specs recommended on my truck's door sticker (almost - there is a 15 psi difference between front and rear tires! I was afraid to put that much of a difference so settled on 10 - the difference would be due to the extra weight on the back tires - right?). I do feel the truck and 5th handled better - especially noticeable the further north I got and the worse the weather turned.

Thanks for the info. IIRC, virtually everyone that increases tire pressures (TV and TT) up to or near the tire sidewall maximum reports better handling. The TV fronts carry less of the load so reducing their pressure 5 to 10psi (15?) usually feels better. I know on my truck, there is a noticeable improvement in handling with the fronts 5-10 psi lower. My truck is not really a 'daily driver' so keeping the tires at the higher inflation is fine. For some, when not towing, the harsher ride and tire wear may be issues.

[LAKnox]

Originally Posted by skijlw

Last week we were just crossing the bridge at the Hoover dam and one of the Towmax tires blew out. I had just checked the tires that morning and they looked good. We limped of the highway to an exit and changed the tire. Got back on the highway went a couple miles at reduced speed and another tire on the opposite side blew. Now we are a few miles from an exit without a spare. To make a long story short we made it to an exit and spent the night in a gas station lot in Henderson AZ.
The next day we tried to find an RV dealer to give us some help as we also lost the brake wiring. Not a dealer in the Las Vegas could help us for a week. We did find a Superior Tire dealer in Henderson that went out of his way to get us going. He found us some Goodyear tires and had them in the store by the time I got there with a rim. We got the RV to his shop and had the tires on and had a tech that knows electric brakes and rewired them in a few hours. The tire dealer advised me to keep the old tire carcass for any warranty claim. Good advice.
I called Jayco as the RV is still under warranty and asked what I should do with the tires. They said contact a Towmax dealer. Come to find out there was not one tire dealer that was listed for Towmax in the Las Vegas area that would claim they were a dealer. I called Jayco again and told them this and they said to drop the old tires off at a Jayco dealer and have them shipped back to Jayco. They needed the carcass for a claim.
Now I wonder what Jayco is going to do with the tires and what type of settlement will develop. The tires had about 2000 miles on them and were inflated to 80 PSI. I also have a tire monitoring system and all seemed well before the blowouts.

Towmax, aka Blowmax, are "China bombs" and it's not unusual to hear stories like this on much lighter trailers, let alone on that has a GVW of 15k. Towmax will laugh and tell you to buy another set. Good luck even getting road hazard replacement. Be glad you only had torn up brake wiring; it could have been =much= worse. These kinds of tires have been known to blow out with zero miles on them, sitting on the spare rack, and covered, only 2-3 years since the trailer was new. When you can, get some good LT tires, like Michelin XP Ribs or the less expensive but equally as good, Bridgestone Duravis R250. There are others out there, but these 2 are probably the most common LT replacements for the Chinese junk (and that's not a boat) mfrs like to put on RVs.

The more expensive alternative would be to jump up to G-rated tires, but you'd almost certainly need to replace the wheels with ones rated to 110 psi. The "gold standard" here would be the Goodyear G614. Goodyear =will= pay damages to your coach in many cases, but you're paying a premium for the tires. Sailun makes a very nice G rated tire that's a lot less expensive, but they will not pay damages from a tire failure, from what I've read.

If, for some reason, you =have= to stay with an ST tire, then the Maxxis or the Carlisle RH are probably the best of the ST class tires.

Jayco will do nothing; same as every other RV mfr.

Lyle

[LAKnox]

Originally Posted by Bassdogs

Still wondering, 10's of thousands or more RVs on the road with TMaster tires and so few people with actual issues. Just doesn't make sense to me and tend to believe that the forums [not this one only] tend to blacklist a product and that fuels a belief that something is bad. I will keep a close eye on my tires and watch for the slightest indication of a problem but spending $600 to $750 on replacement tires when the oems seem to be preforming fine is just something I'm not going to do without good cause.

If towmax tires failed with the predictability that some want us to believe, there would be 10's of thousands of complaints not a handful.

The vast majority of these tires are on =much= lighter trailers; it's only when you start getting > 10k GVW that you start seeing this Chinese crap fail. On my FW, I'm on my 3rd set of tires in 12 years, with the first tire going out the 2nd year at < 1,000 miles. The other 3 went out 2 years later; all failed, though not catastrophically. Second set did last 6 years, but I knew I was pushing my luck. All 4 were showing signs of failure prior to a trip, so ended up with 4 new Carlisle RH's. They're going into their 3rd year.

Lyle

[jackofall]

Originally Posted by jackofall

I put on 10k on my Towmax on the 27.5bhs ht with no problems as far as blowouts. Had weird wearing on them. Checked tire pressure before every drive and kept them at max pressure. Both tires on the passenger side wore like this with BOTH the inside shoulder wearing way down compared to the center....like they were ran at low pressures which is absolutely not the case. Don't know what else would cause that wear....

That should have said both shoulders of the same tire were worn...but only on the passenger side. Now replaced with the G rated Sailun s637.

[skijlw]

Originally Posted by LAKnox

Towmax, aka Blowmax, are "China bombs" and it's not unusual to hear stories like this on much lighter trailers, let alone on that has a GVW of 15k. Towmax will laugh and tell you to buy another set. Good luck even getting road hazard replacement. Be glad you only had torn up brake wiring; it could have been =much= worse. These kinds of tires have been known to blow out with zero miles on them, sitting on the spare rack, and covered, only 2-3 years since the trailer was new. When you can, get some good LT tires, like Michelin XP Ribs or the less expensive but equally as good, Bridgestone Duravis R250. There are others out there, but these 2 are probably the most common LT replacements for the Chinese junk (and that's not a boat) mfrs like to put on RVs.

The more expensive alternative would be to jump up to G-rated tires, but you'd almost certainly need to replace the wheels with ones rated to 110 psi. The "gold standard" here would be the Goodyear G614. Goodyear =will= pay damages to your coach in many cases, but you're paying a premium for the tires. Sailun makes a very nice G rated tire that's a lot less expensive, but they will not pay damages from a tire failure, from what I've read.

If, for some reason, you =have= to stay with an ST tire, then the Maxxis or the Carlisle RH are probably the best of the ST class tires.

Jayco will do nothing; same as every other RV mfr.

Lyle

I did have more damage to the RV than the tires and wiring to the brakes. Sheet metal damage on both sides. I replaced the tires with Goodyear Marathon ST tires. My RV is still under warranty and so far Jayco has stepped up to the plate on helping me get the RV repaired and has another Jayco dealer handling the warranty claim on the tires as the blowouts happened far from my home and I could not haul the tires to a Towmax dealer. At this point I can't ask for more than that. I will keep the forum informed of the final outcome.

[LAKnox]

Originally Posted by skijlw

I did have more damage to the RV than the tires and wiring to the brakes. Sheet metal damage on both sides. I replaced the tires with Goodyear Marathon ST tires. My RV is still under warranty and so far Jayco has stepped up to the plate on helping me get the RV repaired and has another Jayco dealer handling the warranty claim on the tires as the blowouts happened far from my home and I could not haul the tires to a Towmax dealer. At this point I can't ask for more than that. I will keep the forum informed of the final outcome.

Glad to hear that Jayco is stepping up on this. ALL mfrs should do so since they're the ones that put these junk tires on our RVs.

Lyle

[LAKnox]

Originally Posted by jackofall

I put on 10k on my Towmax on the 27.5bhs ht with no problems as far as blowouts. Had weird wearing on them. Checked tire pressure before every drive and kept them at max pressure. Both tires on the passenger side wore like this with BOTH the inside shoulder wearing way down compared to the center....like they were ran at low pressures which is absolutely not the case. Don't know what else would cause that wear....

Might need to check axle alignment to be sure there's no issues with the axles/hubs. Go to a heavy truck/trailer shop. Not real expensive, from what I've heard.

Lyle

[jackofall]

Originally Posted by LAKnox

Might need to check axle alignment to be sure there's no issues with the axles/hubs. Go to a heavy truck/trailer shop. Not real expensive, from what I've heard.

Lyle

ThE thing is I can't think of an issue with axle that would cause this wear pattern ( BOTH shoulders and both tires) on only one side of the trailer other than under pressure which they weren't ..too much or little camber wouldn't, axles misaligned shouldn't, the tires on the other side of the axle should be affected if so. Both tires on the other side of the trailer were wearing fine...I'll keep an eye on the new tires and see if they start wearing the same. If so, I'll dig in a bit more.

[skijlw]

Originally Posted by jackofall

ThE thing is I can't think of an issue with axle that would cause this wear pattern ( BOTH shoulders and both tires) on only one side of the trailer other than under pressure which they weren't ..too much or little camber wouldn't, axles misaligned shouldn't, the tires on the other side of the axle should be affected if so. Both tires on the other side of the trailer were wearing fine...I'll keep an eye on the new tires and see if they start wearing the same. If so, I'll dig in a bit more.

I like to know the cause also. The tires I have on one side of my boat trailer wear just like that. I only get about 8k miles out of the set on one side. I really suspect axle alignment.