Rainier ST Tires??

[SkyBound]

My trailer came with TowMax tires manufactured in 2012. I bought the trailer in 2014 and ran those tires for 5 years without incident. I knew there were risks, but I kept a close eye on condition and pressure and never had an incident. I upgraded to Goodyear Endurance last year and have no more worries. They are a well built tire. Even after sitting all winter, I checked the pressures and all 4 were just fine.

I sold the used set of TowMax tires online for $100 too.

[mlcampbell0917]

Again, THANK YOU all for your responses/advice about tires and TPMS. Being very new to the RV family I greatly appreciate hearing from others. Especially if you unfortunately learned the hard way.

[smithmdsmith]

Just to pile on:

My rules for trailer tires:
1) always, always run at max tire pressure to reduce heat build-up in the tire
1a) check the pressure when the tires are cold--as the tires heat up the pressure reading will go up
1b) don't let air out of the hot tire because it reads higher than it did when you checked them in the morning
2) if the tires are more than 4 years old based on the tire's date stamp, replace them regardless of tread remaining, even if they still "look good".
3) go up a load rating if possible. If your trailer came with "C" rated tires, go to a "D" or "E". The extra load capacity will give you a bigger safety margin.

I quit having tire problems when I started following these rules and ran Carlisle Radial Trail HD and/or Goodyear Endurance tires. These 2 tires also have a higher speed rating than most other trailer tires.

[kayakterp]

So far my Raineer tires have been trouble free. I am guessing I have at least 3,500 miles on them. I check them often and only need to add air at the beginning of the season after sitting over the winter. My TT is stored outdoors and I generally drive 70 MPH unless traffic has me going a bit faster. Before I read all the stuff about the "China Bombs" on RV forums I often drove 75-80 MPH but have slowed down.
Maybe I'm just lucky but so far - so good!

[Route 66 Traveler]

....so when you exceed the 65mph limit on the Rainer tires, do you hear a ticking sound that gets louder as the speed goes up? I sure did until I switched to the GY Endurance tires. No way I'll ever exceed the 87mph limit on those.

[kayakterp]

Nope, no ticking noise at all - any idea what that was from?

[kayakterp]

haha - LOL, I got it right after I sent the message - like I said, "so far - so good"

[mlcampbell0917]

This is awesome information smithmdsmith and others. My next tires will be GY Endurance.

[Springhook]

My Rainiers lasted 18 months. However, they were put to the test. I ran them 10000 miles at 80 psi and never over 65mph. We went from Austin, Tx to NJ, Montana, Alberta through the Canadian Rockies to BC. Then southeast back to Texas. Two tires gave out in Oregon. Other two and spare were in bad shape. Replaced with Sailuns.

[F250dieseldad]

I too have the Rainier ST's on my 2017 Jayflight. I've been doing tire research and read good things about the MAXXIS tires. Wondering if anyone has experience with that brand?

[jbrnigan]

Originally Posted by F250dieseldad

I too have the Rainier ST's on my 2017 Jayflight. I've been doing tire research and read good things about the MAXXIS tires. Wondering if anyone has experience with that brand?

I replaced my 2 yr old Rainier ST's with Maxxis M8008's this spring. My Rainiers were trouble free for 15K miles. The Maxxis tire is a load range "E" and appears to be a more robust tire, with much less side wall flex. I just returned from a 4,000 tow and they were trouble free and towed better than the Rainier's.

[Rjhuser]

I had them on my 5th wheel from the factory.
After probably 3000 miles and 1.5 years I had a flat while on the interstate. I found a large bubble on the inside sidewall. Checking the other tires, i found another really big bubble on one other tire sidewall that had burst (but didn’t leak) and several bubbles by the bead on another.
These tires had always been inflated to the sidewall pressure (80 psig), never run over 62 mph, not overloaded, and I had a TPMS installed.
I replaced them with Sailun S637 tires, I did go up in load range.
So, if you keep them, keep a close eye on them, check the inside and outside sidewalls frequently, and get a TPMS to Monitor them continually.

Rick

[Wireman]

Originally Posted by mlcampbell0917

I just purchased a 2016 Jayco Jay Feather 25BH that has Rainier ST 205 75R14 tires. Anyone in this group have any experience with this brand of tire? The tires only have about 3,200 total pull miles. Thank you in advance for your input.

Depends on how well the previous owner maintained them. Did he keep them covered, proper air pressure, etc.

Do they show any weather cracking or other issues?

I changed out mine after 2 years because I was doing a 8600 mile cross country trip. Changed to Goodyear Endurance.

The Ranier's didn't show any issues, but I felt more comfortable with the Goodyear's on that long of a trip.

I always use the Aerospace 303 protectant, not Armorall or any of those other silicone based tire treatments. It isn't cheap but the best out there to minimize ozone damage and protect the rubber.

I always keep them covered in storage, and maintain proper tire pressure.

It's the old, how lucky do you feel syndrome.

[jadatis]

If you give me gvwr, and number of axles and tires, and better gawr's, and of tires, maxload and loadrange or psi behind AT , I can calculate a highest pressure , with no bumping and even wear.
Better would be real weighed loads.

On Airstream forum ,I discovered that some TT brands have comfortable reserve, and mayby the brand from this forum too. The " max " pressure on newer Airstreams gave even losing rivits , and so upgrading to E- load was not needed there.

Its not the tirebrand that is bad, but choise of TT-brand for maxload of tire yust enaugh to law. This give those tirebrands a bad name.

[Amosmoses33]

So far so good, but I check air pressures every trip and watch my speed. I'm coming up on 3 years on a Eagle 318RETS so thinking of changing them if we do a long trip this year.

[putz]

I am a Goodyear man but that said one of the most important things is
to get TPSM tire sensors. Everyone blames tires but on a recent trip my
friend in his toyhauler had 2 flats on different days. The reason was junk
on the road not the tires. His TPSM's saved his trailer from major damage.
Another thing never follow behind a contractor with a trailer filled with
construction waste. Old drywall is the main problem because the nails
fall out due to bumps in the road.

[Benno]

I think the Raniers are not bad tires. We had Ranier on our 2013 Jayco Flight Swift 198RD and had about 6000 miles on them when we sold the trailer. No problem here. Our 2016 White Hawk 24RKS had, as you know, the Ranier as factory tires fitted. Last winter, being Canadian Snowbirds (live in Ontario, Canada but very close to Detroit MI), we had a terrible blowout on the rear axle curb sites tire on the I-10, very close to Tucson, AZ. I installed the spare and later in Yuma, AZ, we purchased a new set of Goodyear Endurance tires. The Ranier had about 6500 miles on the rubber. As a point of interest, I always carry a tire inflator in our trailers inventory and monitor the tire pressure frequently. On the return trip to Canada I noticed in Amarillo, TX, that the rear axle curbside tire was edging on the inside. By closer inspection I noticed the 3000 lbs. axle was bend or sagging in the middle. We stopped in Goshen, IN, at the Lippert axle plant and Lippert changed free of charge, both axles to 4400 lbs. axles incl. new springs, electric brake assemblies, hanger bushings and bolts with grease nipples. Bravo here!! In Canada we replaced the edging tire with another Goodyear Endurance. The edging Endurance found a place on the spare tire bracket.

[Archie]

Originally Posted by F250dieseldad

I too have the Rainier ST's on my 2017 Jayflight. I've been doing tire research and read good things about the MAXXIS tires. Wondering if anyone has experience with that brand?

Our 2017 27.5rls came with the Maxxis tires. Just came back from a 6K trip and had a 10k trip last year. Ezz tire tpms no problems. Next set will be Maxxis

[Kim Gass]

We got rid of them after one failed on a two lane shoulderless highway in Canada.. Changing tires with traffic going 70 mph around you is not fun
It completely just shredded.. took the wheel too.

Now have Carlisles with a heavier load rating. The handling is also better!

[RVingisfun]

I have Rainier St 205 75 R14 load range D on my one-year-old Keystone Bullet 29bh. I noticed after 7k miles and always had proper 65psi cold using tpms no issues. Greatly thankful. . Rear tires wearing to the tread wear indicator on the outsides. I'm getting replacement tires from Rainier.