Trailer King shredded

[tlr6334]

Add me to the list of unsatified trailer king tire customers. 3 years 1 month old, had a tire shred just after getting off I20 in NM. Check them for air pressure every trip, feel tires and hubs for heat every stop. 8 ply replaced them with 10 ply Carlise tires, thankful didn't have to change tire on interstate. Yes drivers side tire. Again flats happen but tire dealer in Bisbee, Az pointed out 2 more tires were ready to fail.

[Tinner12002]

Its good you got 3 yrs out of them...glad you didn't have damage to your RV as a result of the blowout!

[flybouy]

Hope your event didn’t course any damage. I have the Carlise tires on our trailer and have been very satisfied with the performance.

[XTeacher]

We have the same brand of tires and plan on changing them soon on our 2017 Bullet 248rks to Carlisle HDs. I don't want to take any chances. It's a shame that such shoddy tires are standard on our campers.

[tlr6334]

Had new tires balanced something the folks at Keystone saw no need to do. Had very minor rv damage. I happened to check rear view mirrors and saw rubber sliding on road. Lucky I was.

[notanlines]

Same sentiments as the other posters. There are worse places to be broken down than Bisbee, Arizona. It is a very fun town to visit and the entire town other than the Copper Queen is dog friendly.

[ken56]

Yep. Not surprised. I replaced my OEM Trailer Kings after 3k miles. Returning home from Myrtle Beach area and stopped for fuel and noticed one tire had bulges in it. Took it easy the rest of the way home and replaced them with the Goodyear Endurance. Noticeable difference in stability.

[ftrupe]

My Trailer King tires are being replaced Thursday with Carlisle. Three years with the Trailer King, low miles, and they look great. But, after reading all the stories on this forum, I'm not taking any chances.

[tbonediver]

Same sentiments as the other posters. There are worse places to be broken down than Bisbee, Arizona. It is a very fun town to visit and the entire town other than the Copper Queen is dog friendly.
Had same issue with my 2015 Keystone Premier. Shredded a tire in Moab, Utah. Had to ditch the camper in the desert and drive to town to get a new one....couldn't get lugs off. Need to upgrade all those TK tires after 3 years....< 15K miles. Yuk.

[Ken / Claudia]

Neighbor just got back from a across the state camp trip with his TT. I told him 2 years ago his tires were on borrowed time. Now about 10 ten years old. I think they were "Kings or Trail America both from China. He said the forward axle tire, drivers side blew out, The rubber hit the rear tire and tore off the rubber valve stem. Another reason for metal stems, I bet the stem split from the overload. Trailer damage is fender cover gone, refer vent gone, electric connection gone. He is the 3rd guy I know I warned of outdated trailer tires that blew out.

[flybouy]

"ya buy them books, send them to school...":banghead:

[Badbart56]

My Fuzion had GY Marathons when I bought it last year. I went about 350 miles with them and parked it in the yard. About two weeks later I'm doing something outside and, BAM! I thought it was a gunshot! I caught some "mist" out of the corner of my eye, coming from under the RV. Now, you have to understand, I'm a retired cop so that's the way I think.....after further inspection, the tread on the trailer tire had separated and blew out. The tires were only 5 years old. When I replaced them the guy at the tire store showed me where another one was separating! I went from 10 ply trailer tires to 14 ply Super Cargo truck tires. We'll see how they hold up.

[UsTwo]

I just switched out to the Goodyear endurance form the trailer kings I had on my Cougar..I can really tell the difference on how it pulls and rides on the Goodyears..I got lucky, I had trailer kings on for 4 yrs. but we only go out 3 to 4 hours away..

[ADQ K9]

Quoted just over $700 for a set of Goodyear Endurance for mine(ST225/75-15). I get that things are a little more expensive up here,but still wondering if that is a good price. Just 1300 miles on my stock TK tires still look good.

[JimQ]

I just had the China bombs removed yesterday and went with the Good Year Endurance tires. Went up from load range C to D. I couldn't wait any longer after reading all the horror stories. Safety is a priority as well as towing with confidence . I'm glad I did it!

[flybouy]

Quoted just over $700 for a set of Goodyear Endurance for mine(ST225/75-15). I get that things are a little more expensive up here,but still wondering if that is a good price. Just 1300 miles on my stock TK tires still look good.

It's age not mileage that dictates the tire replacement. Years ago I had a trailer with the China bombs and barely tapped a curb. The sidewall blew out like it had a hand grenade inside. Looking through the sidewall I could see blistering inside, no hint of an issue outside. So replaced all 4 !with Goodyears. Well, that's when Goodyear switch operations to China. Two years later and maybe 800 miles I bought a new trailer. Sold the old trailer to my Godson and told him whatever it took to pass inspection I would take care of. I was confident that my meticulous maintenance and perfect tires would pose no problems. Upon inspection two of the tires had blisters in the sidewall facing the frame so 4 new tires later he was on his way. On my current trailer, purchased new, I conducted a preemptive strike and replaced the Trailer Kings at 3 1/2 years with Carlisle. When the TK's were removed they had blisters on the interior sidewalls. No exterior indication of a problem whatsoever. I was lucky again but never again will I own another China bomb. Do your due diligence, research it and do not trust the exterior visual condition. Those tires are like a cancer that eats it's victim from the inside. I know this is a lengthy post but just can't stress my experiences enough and for the life of me can't understand those that think the China bombs are just fine. It's like being a 3 pack a day smoker saying it doesn't affect them. I'll step down from my soapbox now and return to normal programming.

[Badbart56]

The China/USA tire argument is pretty much a moot point these days. Not much to select from when it comes to ST rated, or even LT for that matter. I can't find much good to say about any ST tires as they are all marginal in quality. The Super Cargo tires I mentioned above are a commercial truck radial tire with a load rating of 4080 lbs. They are rated for sustained 70 mph speeds and it's a heavy tire, weighing about 75 lbs each. It is made in China but it's a true heavy duty truck tire. So even though my Toy Hauler has a GVW of 16500 the tires under it are capable of handling 24,480 lbs. and they cost less than ST's too.

[tlr6334]

One thing about trailer tires. Highway miles are in a straight line. Parking an RV [pull through excluded] puts a great amount of stress on the tires sidewalls, not to mention hubs and axles. St tires are made for this issue.

[Ken / Claudia]

Badbart56, I learned the hard way and in boat school about ST tires.

Mileage has no bearing on their life span unless you full time pull the trailer. Most RVs they age/rott out. Depends on your trailer weight/tire care if they last 3 or 5 years. After that your all on borrowed time before they blow. Even the spare mounted on the bumper.
With ever tire you get, I would keep them at max psi always, get full metal valve stems and buy a TPMS. Check your weights at a scale if not done yet. Make damn sure the tires are made to carry the weight. If 1 tire blows, replace the others on that side, the other will go next due to gross overload. Very common in my highway patrol days, A stopped RV with a blow tire, the guy says yeah the other went a while back, the tread was still in good shape.
Check out CW the Man posts on tires, he has posted a lot of tire data over the years on here.

[CWtheMan]

So far in this thread there has been no mention of trailer/axle weights.

No mention of tire history while not in use.

No mention of the installed tires maximum load capacity compared to the certified GAWRs.

When you require your tires to carry nearly 100% of their maximum load capacity, at or near their speed restriction, they degrade rapidly. That degrading has always been represented by the ST tire builders as a life expectancy limiter. Most all will not recommend RV trailer tires for more than 3-5 years of service before recommending replacement. The tire’s exterior, including tread wear, may never give any clues to the internal damage they have sustained, until they start into some form of tread separation.

Various RV organizations and NHTSA have compiled results of RV trailer tire studies that all should find and read. You’ll be surprised how many trailers have at least one tire overloaded, all the time.

When a tire on a trailer suffers a catastrophic failure while underway, the likelihood of the tire beside it being damage is very high. At the very minimum it should go to the spare tire position and inspected for internal damage before put back into full service. The same holds true for the remaining tire on a single axle trailer.

Do you use your trailer for storage of extras while out of service? That action may severely overload your tires. Overloading at any speed including zero is damaging and cumulative.

If you have never checked, you may be really surprised when you switch from one China brand to another, to find they were made at the same plant. Only the plant code molded into the tire sidewall knows.

When using replacements with a higher load capacity fixes your tire failure problem, does it fix your overloaded problem? Only some accurate scales will know if your trailer is overloaded, or not. Read chapter #4 in the attached file. It will explain, step by step, how to get the weights for your whole rig, the towed vehicle, the tow vehicle, each axle’s load, each tire’s load etc..

Don’t let the file name stop you. Chapter four is all about RV tires, any size and design.

https://www.ustires.org/sites/default/files/CareAndService_PassengerAndLightTruckTires.pdf

[ChuckS]

All the data is nice and an excellent read. However... with the daily post and pics seen with blowouts why run a questionable brand tire like Trailer King at all. It’s just like many years ago with Firestone 500 blowouts. Poor tire design for intended purpose.

I’m fine with Chinese tires. It’s what I run... but mine are 14 ply G rated RST tires and I’m confident they will stand up to the load and heat.

Under inflated, overloaded, over sped , old age , exposure to UV are all killers on RV tires. A combination of a few of these issues is just a mixture for tire failure.

And I would not ever buy or recommend TK RV tires for any use.

Another recent pic of a trailer King tire failure. Oh sure they got lots of tread and looked great... until

[notanlines]

Chuck, I believe you said it all!

[drtrott56]

Same experience. Two weeks ago we had one TK shred and three others showed signs of separating including the spare I had to put on on the highway. Minor damage done but I feel we were lucky. I, of course, replaced all of them. Of the five I bought new two years ago, only one was still intact (not separated).

[gearhead]

Man Chuck why do you have to remind me about Firestones. LOL
We had them on a new 1974 Cutlass Salon. Took off to New Orleans one weekend. Had a blowout on the I-10 Atachafalaya River bridge over the swamp in Louisiana. Finally got to a pull out and changed to the spare. Had nothing but trouble with them for months. Had a family friend that had a Firestone store and he upgraded us to something else. I'm convinced that tire is what broke Firestone. They almost deserved it.

[CWtheMan]

Most people that suffer RV trailer tire failures also harbor ill feelings about the brand that failed.

I'm not offering any recommendations here. However, Trailer King does get on a lot of top ten lists.

Tire failures on RV trailers are often a product of misuse. All trailer tires degrade rapidly when constantly being used at or near their load limit. Were yours providing 10% or more of load capacity reserves when they failed? The only way to know for sure is to have a weight slip from some scales that verifies what the tires are actually carrying.

This is a sort of model specific forum (Keystone). Keystone has always been very skimpish with their trailer tire fitments. Sometimes providing tires that have a maximum load capacity equal to the maximum load the GAWR axles are rated for.

Here is a picture of a vehicle certification label/tire placard I took at a RV show a few years ago. It shows just how skimpish the tires were for that trailer's fitment. Max load 3520# tires on a 7000# certified GAWR. ( http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=27420 ).

Here is a Tire King reference listing all their Radial ST tires. All have the "M" speed letter. All 15" LRE and above have Nylon overlays. And, they have added a LRF to the ST235/80R16 size designation that has a load capacity of 3860# @ 100 PSI. They also have a very generous 5 year warranty period.

http://trailerkingtires.com/tires/Landing.aspx?application=trailerking-product-line

The China tire manufacturers are very fast in meeting new tire industry demands. Take a virtual tour of one of the larger, well established ones. You might be quite impressed with their equipment and technology.

Again, I'm not supportin/recommending anything here. I'm just sort of saying, be open minded about your tire failures. All of them have a cause and those causes are seldom described when members here report failures.

[Wxman]

Curious, the trailerking link above is to a page with specs on TK RST Value Radials. The tires that came on my 2018 trailer are TK II Value Radials. It looks to me like the TK II radials are a new generation of the RST tires. Has anyone noted any difference on failures? Have no idea when the apparent change from the RST to II tires took place (if that is indeed what has happened).
I am in my first year of towing with the TK II tires that were only a couple of months old when the trailer was manufactured in 10/17. One thing I liked about the 19RB was it seemed to have 'heavy' axles and tires for a smaller trailer. I am running with a little better than 40% cushion on the tire weight rating (4 D rated tires on a 6500lb GVWR trailer that I tow at just under 6000lbs). I have a TPMS installed on the trailer for some extra security and with all that haven't felt too uncomfortable staying with the TK tires for the first year or two.
Still curious if there has been any noted difference in the updated TK II tires with regards to failures.
Thanks

[CWtheMan]

Curious, the trailerking link above is to a page with specs on TK RST Value Radials. The tires that came on my 2018 trailer are TK II Value Radials. It looks to me like the TK II radials are a new generation of the RST tires. Has anyone noted any difference on failures? Have no idea when the apparent change from the RST to II tires took place (if that is indeed what has happened).
I am in my first year of towing with the TK II tires that were only a couple of months old when the trailer was manufactured in 10/17. One thing I liked about the 19RB was it seemed to have 'heavy' axles and tires for a smaller trailer. I am running with a little better than 40% cushion on the tire weight rating (4 D rated tires on a 6500lb GVWR trailer that I tow at just under 6000lbs). I have a TPMS installed on the trailer for some extra security and with all that haven't felt too uncomfortable staying with the TK tires for the first year or two.
Still curious if there has been any noted difference in the updated TK II tires with regards to failures.
Thanks

The China ST tire manufacturers are always tweeking their designs as the industry evolves. So do those that are engineered in the USA such as Carlisle/Goodyear.

[NJdudette]

I feel your pain. I had a blow out with the same tires and caused $1,500 worth of damage. I too always check the tire pressure before heading out. Afterwards I took a close look at the tires and they had strange wear marks and dimples. I swapped them all out for Carlisle's. Good luck to you!

[chunker]

To the OP, did you have any indications from you TPMS prior to the blowout? Did you get a low pressure alarm. What about a high temperature alarm? Did the TPMS give you any warning? Or did you neglect to use a TPMS?

[flybouy]

The OP hasn't logged on since 8/20/2018.

[chunker]

The OP hasn't logged on since 8/20/2018.

Sorry didn't check that but the comment could apply to anyone complaining about a blowout. Yes I know tires can and do go suddenly cause I had one on my 11 Raptor. And yes I had checked everything before the trip and NO I didn't have a TPMS. I do now though.

[flybouy]

No need to apologize. Just didn't want you waiting for a reply.:)