For Those with castle Rock Tires

[BD Nomad]

After 3 years and 10,500 with my Flagstaff micro lite 21ds, I'm finally changing out tires for Goodyear endurance.

I reckon I got lucky as none of my tires blew up. Just wanted to throw that out there for those of you that are still running "china bombs"

[Nick Danger]

Bought my camper new in 2020. This is my 3rd season with the "china bomb's". Have had ZERO issues; but, I'm a once a month camper.

Will swap them out next year just because of age, not miles.

[5picker]

By my "unofficial" count reading several forums... that's 17 to the good and 78,999 with issues.

[Ken-m]

Well bombs or not you will get a better towing experience with the Goodyears than the castle rocks . It is night and day difference with road manners.

[BarabooBob]

Use of a TPMS will minimize the risk of a China Bomb or any other tire shredding and damaging your TT. Proper inflation goes a long way to tire life.

[RV Bicyclist]

Brand New RV w/ China Bombs 2021.
12 Trips in 1st Year (May '21 thru May '22).
Total of About 10k Miles because 1 Trip was from Oregon to Denver and Back.
On our 15th Trip w/ the RV, TPMS noticed 1 tire losing air.... I pulled over before it even leaked out completely but it had an obvious leak out the side of the tire.
Changed the Tire on Roadside and thought I had dodged a bullet....
Less than 5 miles later lost tire on opposite side of RV basically disintegrated and lost it's skin (like a retread). This one took my fender off (picked up and self-repaired). TERRIBLE spot on 2 way road. Had to wait 3 hours for Emergency Roadside Assist but got a 2nd spare installed and limped home.
2 Days later put on GoodYear Endurance.
Currently Traveling from Oregon to East Coast and back (in Virginia now). The GoodYear's do feel better and I'm much more confident due to all the posts I've read.
MY CONCLUSION: Even with TPMS I'd not trust China Bombs more than for a couple of trips for a couple of years.... I overestimated TPMS and tire pressure vigilence!

[2plus1]

Can I join in? I'm a Saint, never speed, never overload, never hit curbs. Get the picture? This is our second Rockwood Mini Lite, a 2020 2511S. The first was a 2017 2502KS which we put Goodyear Endurance on at the beginning of the fourth year. We are high mileage people and on average would put about 10,000 miles per year. The 2511S is in it's third year and I had hoped to finish out this year until this happened. We were in Sheridan, WY and that morning I did my usual 'walk around' and did not see anything unusual. I checked the TPMS and away we went. In fact we had an appointment to have new tires put on the truck in Montana. After a stop in Hardin we proceeded to the dealer, a friend, to put the tires on the truck. When he was done I asked him what he recommends for travel trailers (he has an RV). With that he walked over to the trailer and inspected the tires. He put his hand on the second one and said, "You're not going anywhere on these." The other three tires still looked OK just like the one in the pictures had looked only 4 hours earlier. The TPMS raised no alarm. We were headed for a full scale blow out. His guess is that the casing failed and created the excessive wear. I also have a guess and it's no more than that. In June as we were travelling along I94 in Montana we heard/felt a thump and guessed that something in the back of the truck made the noise. We exited and headed for the Wal-Mart. As we pulled in another RV chased us down to tell us we had a 'problem'. Problem is right, the 'thump' was the leg of our tongue jack hitting the pavement at 60 MPH (I told you I never speed). At this point the foot was gone as was about 1/2" of the leg. It is my guess that as the foot departed it struck that tire (drivers front) and damaged the structure of it. As I said it's just a guess. Diligence saved the damage to the trailer that would have resulted from the 'bomb' going off. We are thankful.

Paul

[Ken-m]

This is for 2plus1 , obviously those tires are well worn, looks to be uneven tire wear to me. From your article I can't tell if you're complaining about the good years or praising them. China bombs would have never got to that point. They would have blown long ago. You got lucky.

[2plus1]

Ken-M, I need to explain myself, that is the OEM Castle Rock tire with 2 1/2 seasons on it. I am neither complaining or praising. The other three still look OK, this one tire failed for some reason.

Paul

[2plus1]

I had better add that we put a new set of tires on then and there. Guess what? More Chinese tires, this time it's Rubber Master. It's all he had and like he said we were not going anywhere on the Castle Rocks. We will do our diligence and hopefully get a couple years out of these without problems. I'll let you know.

Paul