Negative: 2016 Forest River Salem Hemisphere Lite 368rlbhk

[HemisphereLite2016]

For those of you in market for buying and those of you who have recently bought!! Warning!!!

I have read the rules on this forum and think it's my responsibility to be courteous enough to address an issue with these Units or all Forest River Units. Apparently, I didn't realize the controversy and discussion over the type of tires placed on these vehicles, until I had a blowout (4) months after my purchase and on my third trip with the unit.

After the blowout, I did some research through forums and different contacts I have in the camping adventure. Everyone told me to get rid those "ST" tires and referred to them as "Chinabombs". Being a little mechanical savvy and a Certified Commercial Vehicle Inspector for the State of Georgia, at one time in my career, I began inspecting my tires. I found the load range barely met the standard for the gross vehicle weight rating or (GVWR), the speed rating was for 65mph at 80psi, and the date of manufacture of the tires was in the months of November and December of 2014.

When buying the unit we told by our dealer, the tires would probably need changing every (2) years due to sitting and environmental conditions, completely understood. Didn't expect to have to replace (5) tires within a matter of a few months. Just as precaution, check the date of manufacture and load range of the tires on your unit when purchasing. If the tires are close to being out of date range or need of replacement, have the dealer replace them. This blowout did some significant damage to my unit, due to the fact it blew through the tread and not the side wall.

[Blackhat6mike]

I hope you reported these "tire failures" to the NHTSA or Safe Car. If they don't get enough complaints, they don't know there is a problem and believe me, there are plenty of problems with these junk tires. Record all the info on the sidewalls to give them so they can track down the problems. PLEASE!

[HemisphereLite2016]

I completed the complaint with NHTSA this evening, hopefully we get some resolution for the cut corners to save a dollar!!!

[Dano1955]

I'm sorry, but you posted a thread with a negative on a Forest River unit and then went on about a problem with the tires.

Is there a problem with the unit, or you just think you should have gotten better tires with the unit? Or you think there's a problem with your dealer because they didn't put different/newer tires on automatically? Not real clear on the reason for a negative post on the FR unit.

Realistically if you want different/newer tires with the purchase, you can negotiate that. If you accept the unit as is then there is a problem with tires, you should post a negative for the tires, not the unit.

IMO