Unsafe Tires on New RV's

tuckj1958 · 10-31-2018, 11:03 AM

RV manufactures should not be allowed to place unsafe tires on new RV's. We recently took our first out of state trip to Florida. We have a new 2018 FR Flagstaff Classic Ultra Lite 5th wheel. We made it to Florida from Tennessee with no issues. However 100 miles into the return home, the right front TT blew on a 2 lane southern Alabama hwy. Pulled into the first secondary road changed the tire. Of course a lot of damage to the undercarriage and side molding. I was persistent in checking and maintaining proper inflation prior to traveling. Got back on the road and within 30 miles the left rear TT blew causing more damage on the left side. No spares remaining called Good Sams and they did find me a set of Goodyear TT made in the USA. They did upsell a good sam tire warranty for 30 bucks a tire which i noticed before the vendor arrived. They issued credit when I called them back to remove.

Five hours and $900 later, we were back on the road and completed the journey. THis experience leaves me with a few questions:
1. Why are RV manufactures allowed to put inferior products which are known to fail on new RV's, especially if its a safety hazard? (Castle Rock).
2. Why wouldn't a reputable dealer tell you up front you may want to change those tires out?
3. Why isn't surge protection built into RV's as standard equipment. After you purchase everyone says gotta have it.....
4. Again why wouldn't a reputable dealer say, hey, we recommend you spend another $300 and get what should be already on this $40k RV
5. Why wouldn't the tire manufacture be liable for the damage? Good luck with Forest Rivers wheel and tire warranty.....
6. I am willing to pay upfront for safety and reliability, so does such an rv manufacture exist??

RV manufactures and dealers appear to be all about the sale and good luck to you afterwards.

DeltaMud · 10-31-2018, 11:16 AM

Curious. What were the brand of tires that blew out?

**Mr. Dan** · 10-31-2018, 11:16 AM

I'm sorry you had so much trouble. Your thread is like probably 100 others in this site (100 is conservative). Do a search for "China bombs" and you'll find many others like yours and a bunch where owners knew to change tires before they made their first trip. On the other hand, I put more than 18000 miles on my OEM tires before I replaced them. I installed a Tire Pressure Monitoring System on my trailer so I knew when I picked up a little piece of wire and gradually lost pressure between stops.

kfergiez · 10-31-2018, 11:17 AM

Welp.

Prepare yourself for the onslaught of replies. It's a known issue.

You're going to get a lot of anecdotal replies, and others that talk about 'China Bombs'. You're going to get a lot of people that blame you for under-inflation, or overloading your trailer.

The fact is this: I'm sorry this happened to you, but you're right. They throw on the cheapest set of tires they can find. Unless you're lucky and VERY meticulous about inflating them to the maximum pressure and check them, they have a high failure rate.

Now... You're going to get a lot of replies on what to replace them with.

**wmtire** · 10-31-2018, 11:28 AM

Duplicate posts/threads have been all merged into this one to avoid confusion caused by multiple postings

As per the site guidelines:

Do not post the same discussion topic more than once or in several areas of the forum.

**wmtire** · 10-31-2018, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuckj1958

They did upsell a good sam tire warranty for 30 bucks a tire which i noticed before the vendor arrived. They issued credit when I called them back to remove.

leaves me with a few questions:

3. Why isn't surge protection built into RV's as standard equipment. After you purchase everyone says gotta have it.....
4. Again why wouldn't a reputable dealer say, hey, we recommend you spend another $300 and get what should be already on this $40k RV

6. I am willing to pay upfront for safety and reliability, so does such an rv manufacture exist??

You may have possibly actually answered your own questions as far as #4 and #5.... and possibly #6 above are concerned.

You stated that you had Good Sam remove the upsell on the tires. Many people do the same on the RV's, and would not want to pay for something that although recommended (is not an absolute necessity).

It does become about pricing and money. Ask yourself why you didn't want the Good Sam tire warranty.

#6 becomes subjective, and I do experience that a lot in my tire business, where road hazards are concerned. Many refuse to pay extra for it at the time of sale... then fuss at me if/when they do need it later. It's basically the same when you refuse to buy extended warranties on all kind of items at different places.

It does boil down to money usually.

Cowracer · 10-31-2018, 11:44 AM

The tire that peeled in the upper left picture looks SERIOUSLY underinflated in my eyes.

But to answer your questions:

#1 "Known defective" is subject to opinion. I had castle rocks on my old roo, never had a problem over thousands of miles, other than a valve stem that liked to leak a little when it sat for a while (Not tires fault) . I am likewise a few thousand miles into my new trailer with Castle Rocks and have zero issues so far. Maybe some are bad, maybe not. But I don't think ALL are automatically defective. Not saying I'd buy another set, but I'm not about to take them off just because of the name on the sidewalls

#2 Dealers don't make a dime selling you tires. And the last think someone wants to hear after dropping 30 large on a camper is that they should replace the tires. Dealers want you to leave feeling good about the purchase, not wondering what you gotten yourself into. (also, see #1 above. Not all are automatically bad)

#3 I am a 25 year experienced electrical engineer, and I don't run a 'surge suppressor'. Read into that what you will.

#4 please reference answers 2 and 3

#5 Proof. All they gotta do is say you ran low on air pressure, or exceeded the rated load or speed. The burden of proof is on you, and nobody can really prove that they didn't.

#6 because you are the exception, not the rule. People want 3 things. They want a 25-30 foot camper with slides. They want it half-ton towable, and they want it under $30K. If you are so willing to spend for safety, why did you not take it to a Goodyear dealer on the way home and change out the "known defective" tires?

(Re: your last comment) Dealers, yes. I do believe that the manufactures are better, but again, they are limited to what people want. This is a cut-throat business. People will chose between a Jayco or a FR based pretty much largely on price. And doing what you want and charging $1000 for the camper will sway a LOT of people to the cheaper of the two.

Tim

NJKris · 10-31-2018, 11:45 AM

That is frightening. I hope you weighed your rig recently to have something on hand to show you did not overload the tires. If you did, I wonder if such incidents shouldn't be reported to NTSB. Ford paid out A LOT for outfitting their vehicles with defective/unsafe tires.

IsleDog · 10-31-2018, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuckj1958

1. Why are RV manufactures allowed to put inferior products which are known to fail on new RV's, especially if its a safety hazard? (Castle Rock).
2. Why wouldn't a reputable dealer tell you up front you may want to change those tires out?
:

This is not an attack on you or anyone. Im sorry you had issues and damage to your camper and that it gets fixed quickly.

1: because as consumers we have begged and pleaded with them to get the costs lower. we downright demanded lower costs and lighter weight. they delivered. we as consumers get what we ask and pay for.

2: because most uninformed consumers (most new buyers) will not upgrade.

We all know that when we get a new cell phone, the first thing we do is "upgrade" and put a case and or screen protector on it. they have been a part of our lives for so long, its just automatic to do this. ever been handed a phone without one...makes you feel kind of uneasy right?

It will take a cultural shift in marketing (ever see a trailer tire commercial?) and consumer thinking to change this. This forum is the start of that. we are the advocates to make that change happen. but we are ultimately a minority trying to make our voices heard. when trailers are as prevalent as cell phones, that is when you will see companies take notice and make the change. until then its on us to try to inform anyone we know to maybe look at upgrading their tires.

I believe that your tires were supplied by Lionshead. below is the warranty info for them.

http://lionsheadtireandwheel.com/med...-form-2015.pdf

https://luxefifthwheel.com/images/Se...Wheelflyer.pdf

5picker · 10-31-2018, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeltaMud

Curious. What were the brand of tires that blew out?

Sidewall says Castle Rock.

kfd82 · 10-31-2018, 01:02 PM

Just a side note, Every Jayco 5th wheel I looked at last week had GoodYear tires.

katkt · 10-31-2018, 01:04 PM

I just had the front tire on our 2015 Nissan Altima changed this morning. 5600 miles on the clock. The Tire was made by Dunlop. The car is pampered, driven a minimum number of miles a year and is garaged kept.
I'm only mentioning this because its not a TT tire, but it still went to crap.

tuckj1958 · 10-31-2018, 01:08 PM

The tire warranties through Good Sams has enough fine print to not want to go through the hassle if needing to apply for warranty. Goodyear has a pretty good warranty that comes with the tires. You are obviously in the business to replace junk factory tires that shouldn't be allowed due to obvious safety concerns. I am an informed consumer and saw the reviews of the castle rock may pops. Several mentioned they are ok if you keep your pressure in check, did that, and use nitrogen, did that, and not overload, did that... Less than a 1000 miles and two catastrophic failures. My point is they shouldn't be on the trailers to begin with and if you can't afford the trailer because it has a proper set of tires and surge protector already as standard, you probably shouldn't buy the trailer....

tuckj1958 · 10-31-2018, 01:12 PM

Thank you for your inaccurate observation. They tires were correctly inflated not overloaded. Driving about 100 miles at less than 55 mph. The tires still had pressure but came apart like a recap.

5picker · 10-31-2018, 01:14 PM

Unfortunate fact of life...
R/V manufacturers install components that teeter on the side of barely making standard.
Tires, roof materials, latches, hinges, wood materials, floor materials, you name it and it is all the absolute most inexpensive (cheap) product your money can buy.

I simply don't see the industry changing when the demand keeps growing.

tuckj1958 · 10-31-2018, 01:14 PM

#5 Proof. All they gotta do is say you ran low on air pressure, or exceeded the rated load or speed. The burden of proof is on you, and nobody can really prove that they didn't.
Exactly why road hazard insurance from Good Sams would be useless... Opinions decide whether or not you get a warranty response.

tuckj1958 · 10-31-2018, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kfd82

Just a side note, Every Jayco 5th wheel I looked at last week had GoodYear tires.

This is actually good information for new buyers. Demand good brand tires before you finalize your purchase. Kudos to Jayco.

5picker · 10-31-2018, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuckj1958

The tire warranties through Good Sams has enough fine print to not want to go through the hassle if needing to apply for warranty. Goodyear has a pretty good warranty that comes with the tires. You are obviously in the business to replace junk factory tires that shouldn't be allowed due to obvious safety concerns. I am an informed consumer and saw the reviews of the castle rock may pops. Several mentioned they are ok if you keep your pressure in check, did that, and use nitrogen, did that, and not overload, did that... Less than a 1000 miles and two catastrophic failures. My point is they shouldn't be on the trailers to begin with and if you can't afford the trailer because it has a proper set of tires and surge protector already as standard, you probably shouldn't buy the trailer....

You are correct... several have mentioned they didn't have issues.
HUNDREDS have mentioned they DID have issues.
I came to a different conclusion about running them than you did.

I reported my Castle Rock failures to FR and the NHTSA.
I contacted FR and was refunded to my satisfaction from them when I switched to Goodyear Endurance tires.

**Herk7769** · 10-31-2018, 01:24 PM

So another point of view; not previously mentioned.

1) Loose bearings - My 2019 Flagstaff came from the Dexter plant with excessive play in 3 of the 4 wheel bearings. While the bearing failed before the tire, it certainly could have easily gone the other way.

2) Too heavy on the brake controller. - Just because the setting worked fine on your old trailer, does NOT mean it works fine on your new one (even though your new one is heavier). Too heavy a number on your brake controller will allow your drums to run hot. This heat migrates to the wheels and tires over time and can lead to tread separation. One good panic stop can make the brakes heat up to the point where 30 minutes down the road your tire blows.

**Mr. Dan** · 10-31-2018, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuckj1958

The tire warranties through Good Sams has enough fine print to not want to go through the hassle if needing to apply for warranty. Goodyear has a pretty good warranty that comes with the tires. You are obviously in the business to replace junk factory tires that shouldn't be allowed due to obvious safety concerns. I am an informed consumer and saw the reviews of the castle rock may pops. Several mentioned they are ok if you keep your pressure in check, did that, and use nitrogen, did that, and not overload, did that... Less than a 1000 miles and two catastrophic failures. My point is they shouldn't be on the trailers to begin with and if you can't afford the trailer because it has a proper set of tires and surge protector already as standard, you probably shouldn't buy the trailer....

Quote:

Originally Posted by tuckj1958

Thank you for your inaccurate observation. They tires were correctly inflated not overloaded. Driving about 100 miles at less than 55 mph. The tires still had pressure but came apart like a recap.

Could you please use the site's Quote function so members can determine to whom you are speaking with your comments?

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