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Old 05-20-2013, 05:48 AM   #1
Bob Landry
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Dumb Tire Question

Considering so many tire failures that we read about on all of the forums, what is the rationale for using ST tires. They all seem to be rated for 65MPH, made in Chine, etc. Why not use LT tires instead?
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Old 05-20-2013, 06:10 AM   #2
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Hello Bob,
In our case, we couldn't find LRE 15" LT tires. I know some will argue, but I want the added strength of the E vs. D tires. Went with LRE Maxxis. If we had 16" rims we would have tried for Michelin Ribs. FWIW
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Old 05-20-2013, 07:44 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Bob Landry View Post
Considering so many tire failures that we read about on all of the forums, what is the rationale for using ST tires. They all seem to be rated for 65MPH, made in Chine, etc. Why not use LT tires instead?
Bob; you would need to asked this question to the Tire and Rim Association and why they allowed the specialty tire class to get the real reason.

In my humble opinion there are two main reasons one is cost and the other is the manufacturing practices where a LT tire needs to meet the Federal Motor Vehicle act and are subject to different testing and performance requirements than and ST tire would. Therefore the cost of a good LT or an all position tire such as the XPS Ribs would drive up the base price of a trailer and some people may not want to pay this extra cost. So the manufactures use the lowest cost tire that is available that would support the load of the trailers being manufactured. To the manufacture the bottom line is profit per unit just like any other business that most provide a return on investment to the share holders.

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Old 05-20-2013, 09:01 AM   #4
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This is the standard answer from most tire companies...

Why Use An "ST" Tire
  • "ST" tires feature materials and construction to meet the higher load requirements and demands of trailering.
  • The polyester cords are bigger than they would be for a comparable "P" or "LT" tire.
  • The steel cords have a larger diameter and greater tensile strength to meet the additional load requirements.
  • "ST" tire rubber compounds contain more chemicals to resist weather and ozone cracking.

My reason... there are no LT tires in 14"
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Old 05-20-2013, 12:10 PM   #5
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Bob, You should know better .... there are no dumb questions here.

I paid the price and upgraded tires and rims to run XPS Ribs and never look back .... Literally. I ran US made Marathons on my old trailer for ten years (shame on me) Replaced them with Chinese Marathons and in two years had two blow outs. The Cougar came with Chinese Marathons and I ran them for 5000 miles when the walls started to deform. If possible, the only thing Chinese that I buy is General Tou's Chicken with fried rice. JM2¢, Hank
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Old 05-20-2013, 12:45 PM   #6
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If possible, the only thing Chinese that I buy is General Tou's Chicken with fried rice. JM2¢, Hank
Hank, just steer clear of anything called a poo poo platter.




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Old 05-20-2013, 02:38 PM   #7
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It would be interesting to see longevity numbers for LT tires used in this application by someone who conscientiously maintained them and protected them from UV. I would think that getting more than 2000-5000 miles out of a set of tailer tires would quickly offset the additional cost of a set of LT tires.
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Old 05-20-2013, 02:52 PM   #8
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My ST tires, on a 2013 model, already have 5300 miles on them. I have maintained them with the utmost care and so far, I have no signs of any significant wear and the wear across the tread has been even. The sidewalls show no indications of cracking or otherwise aging.


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Old 05-20-2013, 03:16 PM   #9
Bob Landry
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My ST tires, on a 2013 model, already have 5300 miles on them. I have maintained them with the utmost care and so far, I have no signs of any significant wear and the wear across the tread has been even. The sidewalls show no indications of cracking or otherwise aging.


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I'm pretty meticulous with my tires also. I check pressure on the trailer and TV before every trip, and usually before the drive home. My trailer lives in covered storage, so UV isn't really an issue. I gave up on trying to log mileage on my rig, I'm just too absent minded to remember to do it every time, but I'm guess that I probably have between 2000-3000 miles on the factory tires and tread wear looks good. I'll probably run them for another year if there are no issues.
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Old 05-20-2013, 03:27 PM   #10
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The mileage limitation on ST tires has more to do with ozone and UV deterioration than actual mileage.... Someone like David who puts 5K miles in less than a year while properly maintaining the tire is more likely to exceed the average limitation by a substantial amount.

However, one must also consider the wear facto;r even LT tires are not all created equal...

In my former life I ran the highways of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana in a variety of trucks but mostly in a Dodge diesel 1 ton DRW while hauling everything from complete 8V-71 GMC diesel motors including flywheel, clutch and bell housing to a bed full of 50-100 hp electric motors.. And a good bit of time with a 10K bumper pull trailer on the back also loaded...

I averaged 125K miles a year while doing this so I went through a good many sets of tires over the 8 years I oversaw the operations of those plants...

Some tires I got 60K from and others only made it 30K...

My point is... in most cases you cannot put a $70 tire on and expect it to last like a $125 tire or the $125 tire to last like the $250 dollar tire..

My Passport came with the same junk as most everyone else gets when they buy a trailer that doesn't sell for $100K or more... I don't expect them to last more than a couple of years even though I won't put much more than a couple of thousand miles a year on them.... (1500 miles in the past 12 months)

Now if I had spent a couple of hundred per tire, you bet I'd expect them to last more than a couple of years.... but I also know that ozone and U/V will get them before I would wear them out..
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Old 05-20-2013, 04:06 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by Bob Landry View Post
Considering so many tire failures that we read about on all of the forums, what is the rationale for using ST tires. They all seem to be rated for 65MPH, made in Chine, etc. Why not use LT tires instead?
The simple answer is, LT tires are designed for Light Trucks, not trailers. Light Trucks have both drive and steer axles; trailers have neither.

As far as all the tire failures we read about in forums, I think it all comes down to cost. When a high-volume manufacturer like Keystone can equip a trailer with four tires for less than $100, there's just bound to be a higher rate of failure.

Design issues aside, can any "good" LT tire be had for $25 each?

As far as longevity goes, OE tires need only survive the trip to the dealer, the time sitting on the lot, and the first trip to the customer's home. Not being a high mileage RVer, I have generally replaced both my ST and LT tires every 5-6 years. LT tires aren't somehow immune to UV.

I don't think it's an ST/LT issue so much as a quality one. I think higher quality ST tires really do exist. They just cost more.
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Old 05-20-2013, 04:25 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by Bob Landry View Post
I'm pretty meticulous with my tires also. I check pressure on the trailer and TV before every trip, and usually before the drive home. My trailer lives in covered storage, so UV isn't really an issue. I gave up on trying to log mileage on my rig, I'm just too absent minded to remember to do it every time, but I'm guess that I probably have between 2000-3000 miles on the factory tires and tread wear looks good. I'll probably run them for another year if there are no issues.
Bob,

I am a retired engineer from Cat so I tend to be pretty anal when it comes to mechanical items.

Case in point: the year we decided to travel west to Yellowstone Park and beyond I decided to rotate my tires since the spare had never been used. So this tire had less than 800 miles on it, when it decided to go boom and take out the driver side of the trailer. 10 min’s after leavening the camp ground and not even up to a steady speed of 65 MPH the tire fails.

Now ever since we have owed a 5er; I have always check the air pressure every trip and every day of travel, the wheel bolt torque is checked also (static torque). The tires are never left on the ground always stored on boards even when camping. The tire temperatures are checked at every stop with a IR heat gun to insure they are within 5+/- 2 degrees of each other, sided to side they could be a 10 to 15 degree temperature difference. The tires are covered when in storage and I use a sun block product on them also.

So why did the spare tire fail? One word: Chinese!!!!

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Old 05-20-2013, 04:42 PM   #13
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So why did the spare tire fail? One word: Chinese!!!!
Weren't your other four OE tires Chinese as well? Why didn't they all fail too?

I had the EXACT same issue last month. I had just rotated in my spare, and it was toast two hours later. It sat totally unused for 3.3 years. Maybe the plies or sidewall got brittle. Very likely, they cheaped out on the tire formulation.

But is that really a Chinese thing? Or was it because an American RV manufacturer demanded bottom dollar to maximize its profit? Sounds like good ole American economics to me...
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Old 05-20-2013, 06:00 PM   #14
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Bob,

So why did the spare tire fail? One word: Chinese!!!!

Jim W.
JAVI may have unknowingly put the answer for spare tire failure in post #4.

The tire manufacturer put all those extra chemicals in the ST tire to help prevent weather and ozone damage. Maybe they also expected the owners to rotate their spare tires more often. Without any use at all, just maybe, all those chemicals migrated - by gravity - to the lower section of the tire leaving the upper section unprotected.

CW
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