DocBrown said:
Most ST tires have a max speed of 65. Some 15" & 16" have a higher max speed. The max speed is stamped on the sidewall. Exceeding that speed causes them to heat up and break apart. Ron, I'm with you, short durations in excess of 65 does not hurt anything. When towing a travel trailer, what's the hurry anyway? It's vacation. The trip is often half the fun.
The single biggest thing to cause trailer tire failure is underinflation. Most travel trailer manuals will simply say to run the tires at maximum cold psi that's stamped on the tire. For most ST tires that's 50psi, but again, some of the larger tires (15", 16") have higher PSI limits. I have followed all the recommendations for the past 23+ years of towing trailers, have towed all over the western US on two occasions, and have never had a blowout
My hybrid trailer has TowMax tires also. I'm in my 3rd season with them now. I've been digging deeper into online threads about this on the RV boards I belong to. What's begining to emerge is that the problems seem to be with the 15" TowMax tires on large (30'+) trailers, especially 5vers. I've only ran across one 13" complaint, which is what my trailer has. And really, people can say they don't exceed 65, they can say they are not overloaded, they can say that they are properly inflated, but it's the Internet. People can say anything they like. If no is filing complaints with NHTSB, then is there really a problem? So I don't fully buy into a widespread problem with these. With the many thousands of these tires installed on trailers in the past 5 years, why aren't we seeing blowouts on the sides of the roads every trip?
I'm just passing along what I have read. To be honest, I'm not running out to replace my china bombs or whatever they want to call them. If I have a blowout, and I'm not doing anything stupid to cause it, then sure, I'd probably replace them all. But, if I'm going to buy new, I'm likely going to go with the best I can afford, with the best reviews I can find. In that case I hope for a better tire, if I end up with the same one, then eh, so be it.
I agree with you what you have said. To add to it, people scream the loudest when a problem occurs, so a lot of times that is the largest sample we get.What about the guy running towmax that gets 100k miles and 10 years of life...he will likely never post it, so we won't know.
Its for the same reasons you mention that I tow with non-LT tires on my truck. Oh the horror! LOL But to each their own.i understand the differences and what makes an LT tire better. But I also feel that car manufacturers didn't determine the weight and tow ratings based on LT tires being on the vehicle, but rather on the standard OEM equipment. Are LT tires better? Everything I have read leads me to believe this. But the extra cost involved in upgrading rims, tires, sensors an who knows what else isn't in the cards for me. But I see people towing all kinds of stuff with their standard oem equipped vehicles. Where is the massive destruction of all these trucks towing with non-lt tires?
I think if you do it right, stay within the ratings, you should be fine. If I notice a negative trend, equipment wise, I will shy away from that equipment. In the end it is up to the individual to do their due diligence and make proper decisions. Even so, bad things can and will happen through no fault of their own. Nothing is 100% perfect, right?