Dumped the Castle Rock Tires and got Goodyear Endurance

[whjco]

Our 2019 Cherokee 274vfk came with Castle Rock ST225/75 R15 10-ply tires installed. They looked great and have carried the trailer for 18 months without any problem. However, after reading about issues with Chinese tires, I decided to replace the OEM Castle Rock Tires with Goodyear Endurance tires.

Wow, what a difference! We immediately noticed a pretty substantial increase in the stability and handling of the trailer. We have two sway bars installed but we'd still notice a slight wag in the trailer. Once the tires were replaced, the only thing that affects the trailer handling is the occasional wind gust but the stability is still much improved.

Our neighbor just bought a new 26' Jayco travel trailer and their new trailer came with Goodyear Endurance tires installed from the factory. For the cost of these new Forest River travel trailers, why don't they charge about $250 more to put top quality tires on them like Jayco? jI would have gladly paid more just for the peace of mind and for the improved handling of the travel trailer. Otherwise, we love the trailer and have been very happy with it.

[rsdata]

Goodyear Endurance tires installed from the factory. For the cost of these new Forest River travel trailers, why don't they charge about $250 more to put top quality tires on them like Jayco? I would have gladly paid more just for the peace of mind and for the improved handling of the travel trailer.

X2 What he said!

[moose074]

Originally Posted by rsdata

X2 What he said!

Seems to me that an industry that has been averaging around 300,000 units sold per year for the last 17 years average 4 tires per unit ( 5 tires for dual axle and 3 for single axle) that comes to around 20 million tires even if only half cane with the “ China bombs”, and they were only half has bad as claimed on this forum. It would be hard to go anywhere without seeing an rv on the side of the road with blown tires.

[BigH]

Originally Posted by moose074

Seems to me that an industry that has been averaging around 300,000 units sold per year for the last 17 years average 4 tires per unit ( 5 tires for dual axle and 3 for single axle) that comes to around 20 million tires even if only half cane with the “ China bombs”, and they were only half has bad as claimed on this forum. It would be hard to go anywhere without seeing an rv on the side of the road with blown tires.

Jayco made a decision to switch to the Endurance because they were tired of dealing with unhappy customers and the warranty claims. They make their own chassis and have to warranty them...Forest river uses Lippert to make their chassis and Lippert is responsible for the warranty so Forest river can pass the buck. Other manufacturers that make their own chassis have switched also.

A Jayco employee told me that is why they switched.

whjco, I noticed an immediate improvement when I switched from Castle pops to Endurance...enjoy the ride.

[badger5301]

Good call whjco,

Many have said here that they have good luck with the Castle Rocks. We however, were in the group sitting along the side of the road changing flats and looking at damaged trailers. Our past Denali we lost two of the five but at the time I had no idea of the tire issue. Our current FR Rockwood we kept the original tires, Castle Rocks for the first year then lost two the second year we owned it (2019). Had joined this site then so was aware of some issues and replaced with the GY Endurance. Noticed the same towing improvement as you once we switched.
Always checked psi when travelling but have no idea if we happened to pick something up on the road prior to each flat. Two damaged fifth wheels was enough for us to spend the money on the GY tires and TPMS.
Safe travels

[moose074]

Originally Posted by BigH

Jayco made a decision to switch to the Endurance because they were tired of dealing with unhappy customers and the warranty claims. They make their own chassis and have to warranty them...Forest river uses Lippert to make their chassis and Lippert is responsible for the warranty so Forest river can pass the buck. Other manufacturers that make their own chassis have switched also.

A Jayco employee told me that is why they switched.

whjco, I noticed an immediate improvement when I switched from Castle pops to Endurance...enjoy the ride.

This could be very true, but I know when I buy a car and on my current rv I got a “brochure “ for a lack of better term. That discusses the tire warranty thru the tire manufacturer.

I am not saying you do but I read frequently that when people upgrade to Goodyear tire they also upgrade to the next load capacity.

Not even disputing your claims, perhaps in my ten years of rving I have been extremely lucky, I have only had one tire go out while driving. I don’t know the cause so perhaps it was a poor quality tire. I do know I didn’t do psi checks because I was in a rush and it was November so I wasn’t as worried about the temperature. I made the trip there but lost the tire on the way back. My original tires from my 2012 Northtrail are still being run though on a flat bed trailer. I picked up a welding rod in the sidewall. Even though it was on a trl there is something about different tire treads that drives me crazy. So I replaced all the tires and donated the 4 tires to my brothers trailer.

In my part of the country especially since I don’t have covered storage the sun gets tires before miles.

[BigH]

Originally Posted by moose074

This could be very true, but I know when I buy a car and on my current rv I got a “brochure “ for a lack of better term. That discusses the tire warranty thru the tire manufacturer.

...

Good luck getting the tire warranty to cover damage to your trailer.

[Hatchdog]

Originally Posted by whjco

Our 2019 Cherokee 274vfk came with Castle Rock ST225/75 R15 10-ply tires installed. They looked great and have carried the trailer for 18 months without any problem. However, after reading about issues with Chinese tires, I decided to replace the OEM Castle Rock Tires with Goodyear Endurance tires.

Wow, what a difference! We immediately noticed a pretty substantial increase in the stability and handling of the trailer. We have two sway bars installed but we'd still notice a slight wag in the trailer. Once the tires were replaced, the only thing that affects the trailer handling is the occasional wind gust but the stability is still much improved.

Our neighbor just bought a new 26' Jayco travel trailer and their new trailer came with Goodyear Endurance tires installed from the factory. For the cost of these new Forest River travel trailers, why don't they charge about $250 more to put top quality tires on them like Jayco? jI would have gladly paid more just for the peace of mind and for the improved handling of the travel trailer. Otherwise, we love the trailer and have been very happy with it.

A question for the OP.

What pressure are you using for your Goodyears?

I made the exact change this year and put 80 PSI in my tires which is the max PSI listed on the sidewall. First trip out this year with a full water tank (located in the rear of the trailer) I noticed some sway that I have not had prior. Unfortunately I made a few other changes that might affect the problem some, added a 200 lb topper and new TV tires that are a bit more aggressive tread than the previous tires. I will admit that I forgot to increase the TV pressure from 65 to 80 psi as I have done in the past.

Just made a second trip exactly as the trip mentioned above, same road same destination. This time I aired the TV tires properly and moved some weight in the trailer forward. No sway on this trip but it did seem like the trailer was a little bit unsteady. (Might be just me being paranoid)

So I just reduced the trailer tires from 80 to 65 psi as shown by Rockwood which is the pressure I ran in the old Castle Rocks. Haven’t towed it yet but I’m hoping this will steady up things a bit.

So, again to the OP, what psi are you running in your Goodyears. Thanks!!

[whjco]

Originally Posted by Hatchdog

A question for the OP.

What pressure are you using for your Goodyears?

Our trailer is just shy of 10,000# and I've always run 80 psi in both the Castle Rock and the Goodyear Endurance tires. We're active in the antique car touring hobby and I have a commercial air compressor and check the tires every time I take the trailer out even though it has the factory supplied tire pressure monitors on the stems.

[Bobaloo]

We frequently travel 95 and 81 in Virginia and almost every time we’re on the road there is at least one but sometimes there are multiple RVs on the side of the road with blowouts. China bombs? Who knows, but I’m not taking any more chances.

[whjco]

Originally Posted by moose074

I am not saying you do but I read frequently that when people upgrade to Goodyear tire they also upgrade to the next load capacity.

Not even disputing your claims, perhaps in my ten years of rving I have been extremely lucky, I have only had one tire go out while driving. I don’t know the cause so perhaps it was a poor quality tire. I do know I didn’t do psi checks because I was in a rush and it was November so I wasn’t as worried about the temperature. I made the trip there but lost the tire on the way back. My original tires from my 2012 Northtrail are still being run though on a flat bed trailer. I picked up a welding rod in the sidewall. Even though it was on a trl there is something about different tire treads that drives me crazy. So I replaced all the tires and donated the 4 tires to my brothers trailer.

In my part of the country especially since I don’t have covered storage the sun gets tires before miles.

Thanks for your comments. The trailer has 15" wheels and the Castle Rock tires were E load rated tires as are the Goodyear Endurance tires with which I replaced them. The tires each have a 2830# rating for a total maximum load capacity of 11320# and the trailer has a Gross Vehicle Weight of 9985# so I should be in good shape for capacity.

I have a 24" enclosed car trailer which uses the same size tire and I had a set of "Goodride" Load Range E Chinese built tires installed on it for about 5 years. I started noticing some vibration that made me think that I might be having a belt separation so I just had a new set of Goodyear Endurance tires installed that are identical to the ones I had installed on the Cherokee travel trailer. We saved the old tires for a friend's utility trailer and as we were unloading them I noticed a split in the valley of the tread and by pressing in on the side wall I could actually see the steel belt in the tire. We also noticed a small place in the sidewall next to the split where it appears that I had curbed the tire sometime in the past so I'm thinking that the tire was beginning to come apart due to mechanical damage.

Back before E rated 15" trailer tires were commonplace, we were on our way to an antique car tour with the car trailer in tow and I was running D Rated tires at the time.. We stopped for gas and I did my usual walkaround. I noticed that the left rear trailer tire was completely missing its tread and outer steel belt but was still rolling and holding full inflation! It was right after that I found out about E rated 15" tires so I replace all four tires with E-rated Trailer King Chinese tires. This was in 2008. In 2015 two of the Chinese built tires literally came apart while sitting in the driveway and that's when they were replaced with the Goodride tires.

[whjco]

Originally Posted by Bobaloo

We frequently travel 95 and 81 in Virginia and almost every time we’re on the road there is at least one but sometimes there are multiple RVs on the side of the road with blowouts. China bombs? Who knows, but I’m not taking any more chances.

About six years ago we were one of them. We were northbound on I-81 about 2 miles north of the Raphine exit when we had a blowout on our Starcraft 2500rks travel trailer. As you know, I-81 has a lot of heavy truck traffic and they were flying by us in the right lane and the wash from their rigs was really rocking the trailer while I was trying to put on the spare. It was absolutely nerve wracking and I never want to go through that again. I called a tire dealer in Staunton, VA and we took the trailer straight to the dealer and had all four tires replaced with new ones.

[Hatchdog]

Originally Posted by whjco

Our trailer is just shy of 10,000# and I've always run 80 psi in both the Castle Rock and the Goodyear Endurance tires. We're active in the antique car touring hobby and I have a commercial air compressor and check the tires every time I take the trailer out even though it has the factory supplied tire pressure monitors on the stems.

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately my trailer is 7500 with water and around 7000 without. My Castle Rocks were D rated but I replaced them with the E rated Endurance. I am planning on putting the Castle Rock take offs on my 18’ open car hauler as it has four year old Pro Rider 205 C rated tires on it. The wheels on the car hauler are only 5” wide so I will have to buy 6” wheels in order to get the 225’s on it. Cheaper than new tires tho....

Thanks again for getting back to me.

[Forest Ray River]

Yes, my new custom ordered Rockwood 2104S TT (22’-4”) arrived yesterday And it did indeed have the Goodyear Endurance tires on it. I was very pleased to see that, as I had already budgeted $750 for upgrading the tires as my first “project”.

[whjco]

Originally Posted by Forest Ray River

Yes, my new custom ordered Rockwood 2104S TT (22’-4”) arrived yesterday And it did indeed have the Goodyear Endurance tires on it. I was very pleased to see that, as I had already budgeted $750 for upgrading the tires as my first “project”.

I'll bet that was a nice surprise! Maybe Forest River is finally getting with the program when it comes to putting reliable tires on their RVs.

Thanks for the info!

[SantaFe big sky]

Why bother replacing the Castlerocks? The first blowout only cost me $3200. Fortunately the tire exploded right in front of the only tire store in 50 miles either direction.

[Blacklock]

What about switching to LT tires. They are not that much more money and rarely blow out?

[JDHutton]

Originally Posted by Blacklock

What about switching to LT tires. They are not that much more money and rarely blow out?

Been thinking this also.

[eye95]

You will get many opinions on whether you can or should use LT tires on a trailer.

I don’t remember the arguments exactly, but the tire expert at the Rally last year absolutely convinced me that trailer tires are for trailers and truck tires are for trucks. I will live by this rule.

YMMV. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by eye95

You will get many opinions on whether you can or should use LT tires on a trailer.

I don’t remember the arguments exactly, but the tire expert at the Rally last year absolutely convinced me that trailer tires are for trailers and truck tires are for trucks. I will live by this rule.

YMMV. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.

Funny, some trailers come from the factory with LT tires. Look it up.