Kumho 857 Radials

I didn't find any mention of the Kumho 857's in these forums. Wondering if anyone has experience with these tires or can at least answer a few questions I have. Our 3220BH is going into it's 4th season of service on the original tires. They are Road Rider ST (China) manufactured Oct 2010. I'm planing an 1100 mile round trip haul in early summer and I'm not trusting these tires with some of the things I've read about ST tires and age.

So I'm looking into replacements. I like the specs on the Kumho 857's:

205/75R14C - Load rating D (8-ply; 2271lbs @ 65psi)

Size is same as my stock tires, but load rating is much higher and would yield for some margin of error where current tires do not. Our trailer has the stock 14" aluminum rims, not the steelies and the stock tires are rated to 50psi.

Does anyone know if the alum rims will handle 65psi ok?

Also, according to the website (http://www.kumhousa.com/tire/categor...E-E59335DE416C) this tire is primarily made for trailer use, but is also fine on other commercial vehicles. That's different than any other trailer tire I've come across. Could this really be an LT tire? And would that increase the likelihood of this tire having a life-span beyond the 3-5 yrs indicated for ST tires? This tire is also speed rated to 99 mph rather than the normal 60/65 mph for most ST tires.

Thanks all,

Wes

[Wally15]

That's a good looking tire. And the published specs are good as well. Too bad (for me) it's doesn't come in a Load Range E. And you're correct, it's a Q-rated tire (99 mph). This is sort of a hybrid tire with some LT characteristics as well as a P-metric construction. Might be two heavy duty body plies under the two steel belts?????
Since trailer tires don't require a UTQG rating, it's often hard to direct compare different brands of trailer tires, you sometimes are left with the reputation of the company as your best indicator of quality. And as someone who spent 25 years in tire manufacturing, Kumho has a good (and improving) reputation. It's a South Korean company that has ambitious growth plans, and their factories are mostly modern with some of the latest technology. And no, I didn't work for Kumho.
65 PSI on an aluminum rim shouldn't be a problem. Somewhere on the rim should be stamped a max PSI rating. Might be on a spoke? And on the inside. You get to do another "Easter egg hunt".

[CWtheMan]

The Tire Rack has all three sizes of the Kuhmo Radial 857 tires. They list the larger one (205R14C) as being manufactured in Vietnam or China. The other two in South Korea. The radial 857 tires are European designed and their aspect ratio is 82 making them a little wider than the USA 75. The C at the end of the tire size denotes it as a commercial design. Other manufacturers of these sizes such as Michelin and Continental market them as commercial LT tires.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....4857&tab=Specs

CW

Thanks guys - appreciate the feedback.

Seems like these are the tires to go with. I asked the Keystone support people if the stock aluminum rims would accommodate the higher PSI. I unfortunately got a response that looks like the lawyers had a go at it. We'll see what the dealer has to say. Generally though, after everything I've been able to find I'm feeling more comfortable that these are the tires to go with.

Any opinions on what the tire life might be? These are clearly a different animal than what the rest of the ST market has to offer, so I'm hoping the investment will get me further than just 3 more years.


"Dear Mr. Craft,
Thank you for contacting Keystone RV. I am writing in response to your inquiry regarding your 2011 Passport. I apologize, we don’t recommend upgrading to anything other than what your unit was originally equipped with. However, you may contact your local Keystone authorized dealership or tire store for more information on changing the tire size. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you,

Jessica Veach
Owner Relations
Ph 866-425-4369
Fax 866-273-1451
[email protected]
"

[SVichera]

I just checked the inside spoke of my aluminum rims as I have the same trailer and just had a blowout. The are stamped max psi 65 cold on the inside. Hope this helps. Let me know if you end up getting the kuhmos and if you are happy with them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey SVichera, that does help. I took my trailer back to the storage yard after I got it cleaned up so I can't check it for a couple of weeks. Just curious - what year is your trailer and do you know the brand and DOT date codes on the tires?

Mine are Road Rider ST with code is "DOT 83B2 GPA 3810". Pretty sure that all means it's was manufactured in one of the lesser quality Chinese plants in the 38th week of 2010. Makes sense as we bought our trailer new in January 2011.

If yours are similar age, might be a good indicator for me that these tires are on their last legs.

Thanks much,

Wes

[SVichera]

Mine is a 2012 and I have towmax tires, Chinese made as well. Just had one blowout last week taking the fender with it and I'm currently having it shipped to manufacturer to see if the tire had a defect. Those kuhmos definitely look like the tires to go with. Too bad keystone put 14s on these trailers. Load range c seems cutting it too close for comfort


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Geez. Ok. Definitely changing them out this season. When I google searched my DOT code initially I came across someone with TowMax tires with same DOT code. Apparently the TowMax and Road Rider tires come out of the same factory. I honestly don't see a better tire advertised anywhere than the Kumho's.

Thanks for the input everyone, very helpful.

For anyone following, I sent Kumho a question regarding expected life of these. Got a pretty quick response back (less than 24 hours). Here's the text:

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from Chris Han <[email protected]>
Hi Wesley,

It is hard to gauge how many miles you will get on trailer tires due to
the fact that weight, difference in load ranges on each tire, etc. You
are correct in the recommendation that these tires be changed every 5
years. The best that I can advise as far as tread life goes, is that if
these tires were put on an old VW Van, they should get around 30,000
miles since the weight distribution is almost identical every time the
vehicle is driven.

Regards,

Kumho Tech Support:
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