Westlake Super ST tires

[Old Bill]

My new (2014) Flagstaff 21FBRS Micro Lite came with Westlake Super ST205/75-R14 tires on it. They are a Chinese tire, and they are radials.

Having read several older posts about the Chinese tires being no good, and other posts stating you should not run radials on the trailer axles, I'm now speculating that the new Chinese tires are much better since Flagstaff is putting them on their newer units, and that this particular radial is designed for trailers since they also have the ST designation.

Anyone running these tires who would be willing to share their experience?

[Happy Vibe]

Radial tires on trailers are almost standard these days. I would not say they are any better or worse than the other OE trailer tires.
Different name but still not from one of the major tire manufactures.

[BombDoc]

Originally Posted by Old Bill

My new (2014) Flagstaff 21FBRS Micro Lite came with Westlake Super ST205/75-R14 tires on it. They are a Chinese tire, and they are radials.

Having read several older posts about the Chinese tires being no good, and other posts stating you should not run radials on the trailer axles, I'm now speculating that the new Chinese tires are much better since Flagstaff is putting them on their newer units, and that this particular radial is designed for trailers since they also have the ST designation.

Anyone running these tires who would be willing to share their experience?

My new 2013 had these tires 235/80R 16's. I put around 10K miles on them between trips to IN, AL, FL, and over 200miles almost every weekend (during football season) to games. I never had an issue with them. Kept them inflated and inspected. I changed them out for LT tires in December just for added piece of mind and increased speed rating. Not that I'm driving 80+mph, I just wanted something I could do 70mph comfortably and not worry about it. I kept the Westlakes and sold them on Craigslist.

[elind]

Originally Posted by BombDoc

My new 2013 had these tires 235/80R 16's. I put around 10K miles on them between trips to IN, AL, FL, and over 200miles almost every weekend (during football season) to games. I never had an issue with them. Kept them inflated and inspected. I changed them out for LT tires in December just for added piece of mind and increased speed rating. Not that I'm driving 80+mph, I just wanted something I could do 70mph comfortably and not worry about it. I kept the Westlakes and sold them on Craigslist.

I have the same Westlakes on my Wildcat and plan on using them for a while.

[fonzie]

Here are more threads on WestLake tires......

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Westl...G4GMyATrz4LoBg

[raspivey]

I've had no problems with mine. Then again, I sometimes wonder about the speed, upkeep, and pressure when I hear about blow outs. Sure, it happens, but I'm willing to bet the majority are from using a tire outside its design limits. Of course...I'm a pressure nazi and don't haul butt going down the road and I inspect mine every trip.

[DaveSchwartz]

If you search around here you will find a fairly wide disdain for Chinese generic/no-name trailer tires. Most of them are built to minimum spec to capture big American contracts and then pack as many as possible into shipping containers. The names change frequently as the manufacturers come and go (liability limitation?)

I grew up in a big tire manufacturing town and am very familiar with what proper rubber compounds smell like. With almost all tires from China, the rubber does not have that proper smell - too bitter and 'chemical' like too many strange volatile compounds evaporating. My wife and I joke that plastics and rubber from China smell like they are made from rendered-down political prisoners. The Goodyear Marathons I bought were from China but have the proper rubber compound smell. I have confidence that Goodyear exercises good control over the compounding process and trust that they do the same over the build process which I can't see.

[beechjet16mf]

We have a 2014 27RLWS Flagstaff trailer with the same tires, and we have almost 20,000 miles on them. We make sure that the pressures are right and don't drive over 60, and haven't had any problems.

[WolfWhistle]

Originally Posted by DaveSchwartz

If you search around here you will find a fairly wide disdain for Chinese generic/no-name trailer tires. Most of them are built to minimum spec to capture big American contracts and then pack as many as possible into shipping containers. The names change frequently as the manufacturers come and go (liability limitation?)

I grew up in a big tire manufacturing town and am very familiar with what proper rubber compounds smell like. With almost all tires from China, the rubber does not have that proper smell - too bitter and 'chemical' like too many strange volatile compounds evaporating. My wife and I joke that plastics and rubber from China smell like they are made from rendered-down political prisoners. The Goodyear Marathons I bought were from China but have the proper rubber compound smell. I have confidence that Goodyear exercises good control over the compounding process and trust that they do the same over the build process which I can't see.

Ever smelled a Maxxis?

[jlgail4309]

kumho 857 great tire for the size.

[scootingranny]

Our Chaparral 360 IBL came with the West Lake tires. When we were looking at the 5er on the lot, it had mud on the front end, the salesman said because it came out of their overflow lot which was muddy (we had recently had a lot of rain so we didn't really question that). I know it was probably towed from the factory to the DFW area. Had to be towed from a muddy overflow lot to the dealer (probably not far?) And it had to be towed 75 miles to our storage facility by the dealer, of which about 50 was highway travel. Our son had warned us about the china bomb tires and told us to get them changed before we were 10 miles down the road and we thought he was exaggerating...we promised to get them changed before our first trip. But the 5er came to the storage with a flat tire. Driver said that other drivers were signaling him about the flat tire just down the road from our storage place. Not sure HOW far away but at least it didn't happen on the highway. Service that came to change it said the sidewall was cracked. Now was the tire EVER properly inflated? Was it checked before it hit the road and during PDI? Did the driver hit a curb? Was it just a bad tire? Who knows. But we will be changing out all the tires and still trying to talk DH into getting a tire monitor system. Pic of the 5er being pulled into storage with a flat tire. This could have been so much worse!!