Quote:
Originally Posted by outwest
Not to defend towmax, for they are cheap tires (and I don't mean just in price) but I think a large part of the failures while towing is things like too tight of turns and rolling the tire, rubbing curbs, sun rot, excessive speed, etc and due to not fully inspecting before and during trip and thinking old ones are okay just because they have tread still. On year two and still haven't changed out our towmax and no problems. Yeah, I'm playing with fire, but I examine them constantly (at every stop, etc). They will be changed out pretty soon, though. I only keep rv tires for two-three years (and I don't trust towmax enough to try a 3rd year)
@op - sorry to hear you had a blowout. Hope the damage wasn't too excessive and glad nobody was injured.
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I totally agree with your assessment of Towmax tires. And I'd also suggest that it really doesn't matter which brand tire you have on your RV, "misuse" does occur with all of our tires when we turn too sharply, pull over the edge of a concrete pad, hit a pothole, etc. Then, to become lax in not checking pressure, inspecting for damage/wear, relying on an "electronic monitor device" and expecting tires to last for the "suggested lifetime" is "playing with fire.....
I think (just my opinion) that many times we buy the "latest gadget" and then turn all "responsibility" for whatever it's supposed monitor over to the gadget and "put it out of our mind and stop worrying about it. That can be a costly mistake. I wonder how many of us have stopped using a tire gage to check pressure and simply turn on the TPMS and look at what it says before we start our driving day? We think, "The tires are OK, the "box" says so....."
Many times I've seen monitors in the hospital alarm that a patient has stopped breathing, or that their heart has stopped beating. The life support team rushes in and when they arrive, the patient are sitting up in bed, watching TV and wishing the "damned bell" would stop ringing.... If we relied on those monitors, those patients should be on a one way trip to the morgue. Other times, I've seen those same monitors not alarm when the patient is in "grave danger".... Those are some of the most sophisticated monitoring systems ever built.
So, to rely on a $200 TPMS and to "trust it" as "always going to work" is taking a big risk.
To "philosophize" briefly, it seems that we've become too "busy" to be bothered, so we buy another gadget or add another app and get back to "playing" or "resting" and let the smart phone do the work for us.... I'm sure that "gadgets" and "smart phones" have a way of "HELPING" us, but I'm not so sure that any of them have the ability to "do the thinking for us" or "take over our responsibility".... I still think that when we pull into a rest stop after driving 2 or 3 hours, that the smartest thing we could do (before wetting our pants) is to walk around the trailer and truck, "thump" the tires, use a laser thermometer (or at least a hand) to check temp, shake the spare tire, the awning uprights, look at the windows, check the hitch, look for anything loose or "flopping", then go get some of that "other relief"..... Just sayin'.....
ADDED: I'm not trying to point fingers at the OP. He has enough issues trying to get his RV repaired and his tires replaced. The point I'm trying to illustrate is that we all can learn from his misfortune that relying on a machine to take over a task isn't always a prudent thing to do.