Four new tires

[Blackrock]

Mounted four new Hercules ST205/75R14 on the wagon today. Hope they are good for our Alaska trip. This brand is getting popular here in my part of Arizona. Paid $58.00 each of course added mounting balancing and other fees brought the total up to $274.00 out the door.

Old tires are 5 years old but less the 3K miles and sold them to another guy for $20.00 each.

[jgourlie]

That seems like a good price to me

[Blackrock]

These tires list for $71 but this store gives a break whenever you buy four at a time.
What I researched is Hercules is some sort of offshoot of Cooper Tires. I had looked at getting some Goodyear Maxxis in Canada at a Canadian Tire dealer on my way to Alaska in June what with the exchange rate being what it is.

[dannyabear]

Name is not important, country of manufacture is.

[pgandw]

Originally Posted by dannyabear

Name is not important, country of manufacture is.

I disagree. Manufacturers/importers who care can have tires made in China that are every bit as good as tires made in the US or Canada. There is nothing inherently different about making a tire in China vs making it in North America. In fact, the machinery in the Chinese factory will likely be more modern.

What makes the difference is the quality requirements in the contract, the ethics of the plant/floor manager, and the willingness of the importer to watch the production, change suppliers, accept delays, and extra costs to keep a quality product coming from the production line. It is no different getting a quality product off the production line in North America.

There are plenty of plants in North America that produce crappy quality (are you listening Forest River?), too.

It takes a real commitment from everybody involved to get a quality product to the consumer. There has to be a culture of quality within the company to get quality built-in instead of inspected out. That's why company name has more correlation with quality than place of manufacture. Apple is one well-known example of quality manufacturing in China.

Fred W

[Blackrock]

Originally Posted by pgandw

I disagree. Manufacturers/importers who care can have tires made in China that are every bit as good as tires made in the US or Canada. There is nothing inherently different about making a tire in China vs making it in North America. In fact, the machinery in the Chinese factory will likely be more modern.

What makes the difference is the quality requirements in the contract, the ethics of the plant/floor manager, and the willingness of the importer to watch the production, change suppliers, accept delays, and extra costs to keep a quality product coming from the production line. It is no different getting a quality product off the production line in North America.

There are plenty of plants in North America that produce crappy quality (are you listening Forest River?), too.

It takes a real commitment from everybody involved to get a quality product to the consumer. There has to be a culture of quality within the company to get quality built-in instead of inspected out. That's why company name has more correlation with quality than place of manufacture. Apple is one well-known example of quality manufacturing in China.

Fred W

What part of "Made in the USA" didn't you get?

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by Blackrock

What I researched is Hercules is some sort of offshoot of Cooper Tires

Technically, this is not accurate and I have heard other dealers in my business kind of perpetuate this misnomer themselves to help make the sale, so it's easy to understand how this misinformation keeps going around. Although Cooper has manufactured tires 'for' the Hercules Tire Company for many years, Hercules is it's own private tire distribution company.

These links may help clear that up somewhat.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company - News Releases

American Tire Distributors buys Hercules - Retail - Modern Tire Dealer

Hercules also has many other companies build tires for them, and according to my 2012 "Who Makes it and Where" tire directory, these other companies can include Anhui/GT, Deestone, Ling Long, Nexen, Sailun, South China Tire & Rubber, Yongsheng, and Yongtai.

The only way to see exactly where a tire is manufactured, is to look at the DOT code on it. The first two letter/digits are the plant code. You can look up the plant codes online or I have a book that lists them all if you really want to know where your tires are being produced.

Tire DOT Plant Codes – Sorted by Plant Code - Tire Safety Group

Even Cooper has China manufacturers build some of their tires for them. It's a global economy we now operate in. You cannot assume that because a certain tire company is headquartered in a certain country, that all of it's products are also manufactured in same said country....or even by the company whose name is on the tire.

[spock123]

Originally Posted by pgandw

I disagree. Manufacturers/importers who care can have tires made in China that are every bit as good as tires made in the US or Canada. There is nothing inherently different about making a tire in China vs making it in North America. In fact, the machinery in the Chinese factory will likely be more modern.

What makes the difference is the quality requirements in the contract, the ethics of the plant/floor manager, and the willingness of the importer to watch the production, change suppliers, accept delays, and extra costs to keep a quality product coming from the production line. It is no different getting a quality product off the production line in North America.

There are plenty of plants in North America that produce crappy quality (are you listening Forest River?), too.

It takes a real commitment from everybody involved to get a quality product to the consumer. There has to be a culture of quality within the company to get quality built-in instead of inspected out. That's why company name has more correlation with quality than place of manufacture. Apple is one well-known example of quality manufacturing in China.

Fred W

Apple has control over the phones and the supplier has to live up to the contract, not so on crappy tires from China. If they have to many problems with one brand they just change the name and keep making tires. Chinese companies can't do that with Apple, if that was to happen with Apple how many iPhones do you think Apple would sell. On my Cedar Creek is Goodyears and when they wear out I'll put more Goodyears on camper. But it's your money and you buy whatever you like, me I'll keep buying Apple IPhones and Goodyear tires made in America!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

[jeffdawgfan]

Originally Posted by Blackrock

Mounted four new Hercules ST205/75R14 on the wagon today. Hope they are good for our Alaska trip. This brand is getting popular here in my part of Arizona. Paid $58.00 each of course added mounting balancing and other fees brought the total up to $274.00 out the door.

Old tires are 5 years old but less the 3K miles and sold them to another guy for $20.00 each.

The problem with the ST205/75R14 is that you cannot hardly find them in a 8 cord design. The only ones I could find are these and I will be installing them before summer. You do have to step up to a ST215/75R14 which is not problem on most trailers. The other option is going with a 15 rim and that will add about $50 more per wheel. The stock 205/75R14 on my Catalina 25RKS are already overloaded from factory BEFORE adding any cargo....thanks to FR penny pinching. These are the tires I found. They get good reviews on etrailer.com.

Taskmaster ST215/75R14 Radial Trailer Tire - Load Range D Taskmaster Tires and Wheels TTWTRTM2157514D

[jeff64]

I'd go to 15" tires and rims when the time comes, since the offerings in D rated ST205-7514 is pretty slim. This looks like a careful calculation of circumference differences between old and new since the clearance between wheels on mine is probably not more than 2".

[jeffdawgfan]

Going from 205 to 215 mm tires should not be an issue for most folks. Even with a dual axle that is only decreasing the clearance between the two axles by 10mm. Since each tire has "two" sides (even though they are round) that is spread out around both opposite sides of tire. I have like six inches between tires so is no issue at all. The 15 inch rims are beckoning but I have already spent around $2000 in mods to this trailer since we bought a week ago so that may have to wait another summer or set of tires.

[northstar1960]

Originally Posted by Blackrock

Mounted four new Hercules ST205/75R14 on the wagon today. Hope they are good for our Alaska trip. This brand is getting popular here in my part of Arizona. Paid $58.00 each of course added mounting balancing and other fees brought the total up to $274.00 out the door.

Old tires are 5 years old but less the 3K miles and sold them to another guy for $20.00 each.

You did good ,the hercules are great tires .I've been using them for yrs on my Truck and now also on my TH . never had issues with them and will buy again and again . I get close to 60,000 miles on the truck with them and so far over 4000 miles on the TH with them .