Tires

[mets721]

My 2016 327RES came with Trailer King ST's 235/80/R16 tires. Anyone else using these and if so, have you had any issues? I've seen mixed reviews. I run them at max (80psi) and never come close to the max GVWR of 12200. I never carry water, so I probably come in around 11,200 which is about 700lbs of gear (estimated) that we pack.

[buzzcop63]

ST235/80/R16, I find that tire to be rated as an E10 with each tire max weight rating of 3,520Lb. If your trailer has a GVW of 11,200, which would put 2,800Lb on each tire if the weight load were balanced perfect. Not considering how much weight is being transferred onto the tow vehicle, this would give you a safety margin of 20%. Now lets say that 20% of your GVW is pin weight and transferred onto the tow vehicle, or 2,240 Lb. Now the trailer has some 8,960 being carried by four tires or 2,240 per tire. Margin of safety would now be 36%. 64% of the capacity of the tire rated load would be used if the trailer were loaded to your estimate GVW. Odds are you will not load the trailer to capacity but looking at the numbers I would invest in a "Tire Minder" to watch the temperature and PSI of your tires and also drive at 55Mph to keep the heat down. Also put the trailer on a weight scale so that you know just how much of the capacity of the tires you are using. My opinion is that OEM tires do not give enough safety margins to the trailers they are mounted on.

[Rex1vt]

[QUOTE=mets721;202774]My 2016 327RES came with Trailer King ST's 235/80/R16 tires.
I agree there are mixed reviews,question is which do you want to cling to.The first Trailer King tire on my 327RES failed at 5000 miles.Replaced all with Maxxis.

[ChuckS]

Our Alpine came with exact same tires.. Ran one season, drove maybe 2000 miles and replaced them with 14 ply G rated tires...


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[Desert185]

We talk a lot about mitigating risk on this forum by having an adequate tow vehicle. Having adequate tires is important, too. Trailer King tires fall into the inadequate category as far as I'm concerned. I may be less risk averse than most on this forum, but I don't skimp on tires...ever. Maxxis for me, and maybe the Carlisle Radial Trail RH for my SRX after a few more years of accumulated data.

[Cyncwby]

I will tell you the same thing I tell everyone that asks ..... just about every Chinese tire that gets put on a 5th wheel or travel trailer is GOING to FAIL. Maybe some will last a little longer but they are JUNK!! and will fail.

If you don't want your rig torn up by a blown tire or God forbid have a blowout at freeway speed and lose it then you really need to spend the money and install good tires, the brand is up to you. I stopped to help a guy on the highway 2 weeks ago with a blown tire on his Cardinal 5th wheel ....... fairly new Towmax and tore up the wheel well and took out a lot of wiring.

The first thing I did when we got our Montana Mountaineer home was switch out the crappy GY Marathons for a set of Sailun S637 Tires that I had waiting in the garage. I paid $700 for them shipped to the house, best money spent so far for the 5th wheel. Don't bet your's and your family's saftey on these chitty tires the mfg's install...... there, I'm done now.

[mets721]

Aren't Saliun tries made in China?

[Cyncwby]

Yes they are and I should have addressed that......Sailun is one of the best commercial type tire makers in China. They make most of their tires for 18 wheelers. The S637 235-85-16 is the only small tire they make as far as I know.

If you've never seen one in person then you just don't how beefy these tires are, I swear the sidewall is at least an inch thick. The 235-80-16 GY Marathons I took off weigh 36 lbs. each, I weighed the S637 and IIRC it weighed about 62 lbs.

What I was trying to get across to new owners is don't trust the crap the mfg's put on their new 5th wheel no matter what the saleman tells you. It's your safety at stake so spend a little more money and put good reilable tires on it. Do yourself a favor and google Sailun S637 tire reviews, I've never seen a bad one.

[bdaniel]

Here is my experience with Trailer King tires:

http://bobbystuff.com/rv/192/another-exploding-st-tire

[hdrolling]

I bought my 2015 Toyhauler used this time last year, when the previous owner was delivering it from Fl to NC one of his trailer king tires blew out and ruined the custom wheel. He said he had about 3000 on them.

First chance I got I replaced them all with the Maxxis, too many bad reviews to trust the trailer kings with my family or anyone else traveling near the camper.

[tgoodwin321]

Add me to the list of Trailer King victims. Less than 1k miles but I got lucky. Tire slowly deflated while we were camping this weekend and only noticed it was flat when we lowered onto the hitch. Bought 5 Maxxis yesterday. Expensive trip considering I lost my iPhone 6 with no insurance too. Oh well, still had fun and got home safe.

[Ken / Claudia]

Can you share the reason why the tire went flat.

[jw99]

I've got a 327RES also that came with Trailer King tires. Driving was no fun because I was always worried about blowing a tire. Fortunately I never had a blowout. After a long trip to Florida I replaced the tires with Sailuns. The 5th wheel pulls and tracks much better with a heavier tire. The trailer would bounce with the original soft tires. Piece of mind is well worth the cost of good tires.

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[tgoodwin321]

Not sure yet. I went over the whole tire and haven't found any noticeable damage. It's what jw99 says and all the negative TK stories that had me run out for a new set regardless. I'll have the shop that installs the new tires have a look at what failed and report back. Might be a couple weeks.

[tgoodwin321]

Well had the 5 new Maxxis installed today and had the trailer king checked but they said they couldn't find a thing wrong with it or the valve. Only thing we can figure is that maybe some object got into the cap and pressed on the valve just enough to create a slow leak. Not knowing is even more scary so I had them toss that tire. A buddy will take the remaining 4 for his light weight utility trailer. At least I can tow with more confidence on the Maxxis + metal valves. Even down $800 on the deal it was worth it imo.

[bsmith0404]

My Alpine came with them, I never had a problem, but was never confident with the tire. I added a TPMS and after the first year I added Carlisle Radial Trail RH. The OE TKs were LRE, the new Carlisles are LRF.

The first thing I noticed was how much less sidewall flex they have. In fact, they sit so much taller that we immediately noticed the bottom step is much higher than it used to be, good thing we have a 4 step entry, or my vertically challenged DW might have some issues.

The next thing I noticed was the temps and air pressure while towing is much more consistent across all 4 tires. The TKs used to jump up quite a bit in pressure and heat with a pretty wife variance between tires. My guess, the ones that ran hotter would have been the first to fail. I originally thought it was due to uneven loading on different positions, but now I doubt that is so much the case.

[Koladog]

Our Mountaineer came with GY Marathons. Used them for the first 2 seasons. Put about 12,000 kms on them before switching the Sailun G637. The Marathons still 'looked' ok, had plenty of tread, but better safe than sorry. No regrets with the Sailuns.

[notanlines]

Take a little lesson from a butcher in St Croix, Wisconsin. He has a sign above the register that says "If you don't like bacon then you're just wrong!" Apply that to tires: "If you like Trailer Kings you're just wrong." And if you think you've read mixed reviews then you're just wrong!

[bsmith0404]

Take a little lesson from a butcher in St Croix, Wisconsin. He has a sign above the register that says "If you don't like bacon then you're just wrong!" Apply that to tires: "If you like Trailer Kings you're just wrong." And if you think you've read mixed reviews then you're just wrong!

I'll have to agree with this statement. I'm not sure what would classify as a mixed review for these tires. My guess is that for every 25 people who say they're junk, there is 1 who says he's never had a problem. Not sure that qualifies as "mixed".

[JRTJH]

Add this to the mix: "For every 25 people who say they are junk, there's one who hasn't had a problem."

I'm that "one" who posted I'd never had a problem. That is, until this year. I removed my Trailer King tires because they were 3 years old. Previously I'd never had trouble with them, posted that on this forum, but on inspecting them after removal, I found that I'd been towing on at least two of the Trailer Kings that were literally "ticking time bombs". The tread had separated from the tire carcass and it wasn't visible with the tire mounted and inflated on the wheel. They looked "perfect" while on the trailer, but after dismounting from the wheel, it is readily apparent that they were "near to self destruction". The bad part, nobody could inspect them and see the potential problem.

So, even with that "one who hasn't had problems" (and posts it), if I could go back and change that to "one who hadn't yet had problems"...... So, when you read a post that says, "I've never had a problem", at least in my situation, it's history that has changed significantly since being posted. I now am the 26th who won't use Trailer King tires. Don't believe everything you see posted as "current". As things change, so does the comment about Trailer King tires being "good enough"......

I'm convinced that Trailer King tires are not even close to Carlisle or Maxxis tires in quality, and I'll never have them on another trailer... ever !!!

[sourdough]

^^^ Nor will I!!

[bsmith0404]

Wow, that is really something to get a chance to see the "just before" pictures. It's always the just after shredded tire and damaged trailer. What an eye opener.

[notanlines]

^^^^What they said. It is hard to find another set of photos that are the "before" set. Geico or State Farm should be glad to see this.