Under Rated OE Tires on Wildwood 262BHXL

[littleryno32]

Was looking at the tires on my new tt and noticed that they are only rated for 1760 per tire when the gross weight of my tt is over 7600. I'm going back to the dealer tomorrow to see what they will do. The problem is they are only 14" wheels not many tire made in a load range D.

[donniedu]

Dual axles? Then I dont see a problem. 1760 times 4 equals about 7120 right? At 7600 pounds your going to put 15% on the hitch, so your good. You need to recalculate things before you make a fool of yourself

[littleryno32]

Have to go there to redo some paperwork was just going to ask while I was there.

[GreenImp]

I had the same thought about the tires on my 5th wheel shortly after I bought it...until I realized exactly as donniedu pointed out. It sure is crazy scary how close them manufacturers cut it as far as tire capacities. And quality, or lack thereof, is a whole different issue!

[Dave_Monica]

The OEM tires will always exceed the camper's axle rating, though just barely. Your axle rating is probably 3500#, so 3520# tire rating per axle.

Dave

[PhoneDude 8289]

Our unit came with 6 ply tires on 4000# axels. Our unit maxed out at 9300#, when subtracting the pin weight the tires were right on the edge of there limit. I wasn't comfortable with that after reading all the horror stories about blowouts and tire failures so I had 10 ply Maxxis 8008's installed with steel stems and balanced.

[Wandering Jarhead]

Mine lasted about 4 trips before a tire blew and trashed the rim. I just went to Les Schwab and bought a quality set of rims and tires (1 size larger). I am amazed the NTSB has not jumped on the RV manufacturers like they have GM and Toyota. This IS a hazard to everyone on the road. You should not have to spend another $350 for tires on a new trailer, but it's better than killing yourself or someone else due to poor quality. The tires are only one problem with my rig, but there are other posts for brakes, reefers, plumbing, and build quality.

[Airdale]

Tire load capacity is not just a problem for Forest River trailers. It’s an across the board problem.

The regulations RV trailer manufacturers MUST follow for tire and rim fitments does not require them to provide any percentage of load capacity reserves. In other words, the trailer builder can adjust axle capacities to something like 5080# for each GAWR and then fit tires with a maximum load capacity of 2540# to each end of those axles. When such a trailer is loaded for the road it can be very close to overloading the tires. Those tires wont last vary long no matter how well they are maintained.

There is a major ST tire manufacturer that provides a PDF file available on the internet that says their ST tires can lose as much as 33% of their load carrying capacity in three years. It’s very hard to offset that percentage with the tires currently available for RV trailer axles. Especially trailers under 8000#.


Airdale