Rv tires

[Bob4x4]

Rusty my 25 ft Airstream only weighs 6k fully loaded. It doesn't need too much tire the Airstram fanatics all rave about not using to stiff of a tire

The oem Gys held up great but the new china versions are down right scary

 

[HBarlow]

GVWR is 13,780. The last time I weighed the trailer there was 11,000 pounds on the axles.

The weight helps explain why you are seeing satisfactory results with GY-614 tires. They aren't loaded to near capacity.

The load rating of LT235/85R16LRE tires is 3042 which gives a total carrying capacity of 12,168 lbs. LRE tires are adequate for adequate for your trailer and most trailers of that size and weight are factory equipped with LREs.

My HitchHiker has a GVWR of 14,100 and weighs that when loaded for travel. It's OEM equipped with LRE tires. GY-614s were offered as an option but knowing their history I declined them. Many of the HH owners buying larger units now have dumped their GYs after failures and upgraded to 17. 5 wheels and tires. Last time I was at Chanute they had a nice looking set of aluminum wheels with a good used set of GY-614s for sale in the parts department. Price was only $500 for four.

My original Uniroyals suffered failures at low mileage so I replaced them with Michelin XPS Ribs and have had no more problems.

 

[GAmes]

On paper LREs would be sufficient for mine EXCEPT: The geniuses at Monaco put more weight on the left side of the trailer. The bedroom slide and the kitchen slide which also includes the entertainment center,and nearly all the inside storage cabinets are on the left side. As a result the left two tires are carrying 6000 of the 11,000 pounds. That leaves a whole 84 pounds of capacity to play with. Not enough for me. And yes, originally the trailer came with LREs, Good Year Wranglers, IIRC. When Monaco replaced two broken wheels they also gave me a new set of GY G159s which I still have on my deckover flatbed. Prior to going to Alaska in 2009 is when I installed the G614s.

 

[Cummins12V98]

The GY G614 G original tires are 5 years old on our MS 36 SB3 and had about 2/3 tread left, never had a flat. So I replaced the with GY G114 H tires and Alcoa 17. 5" wheels. I also swapped the 9/16" studs for 5/8" so I could get the higher rated Alcoa's with hub centric application. I sold the tires and wheels off the MS for $890, that paid for a pretty good chunk of the new tires and wheels.

I have a set of GY G614G with 9/32" tread left that came off my last rv I traded for the MS. I was planning on using them on the MS but realized that the G is too close to max wt on the MS. So I have a great set of GY G614 G for sale in NW WA.

Ron

 

[NIsaacs]

1,014 veiws, 44 replys and no response from the OP. I guess we are just entertaining each other



Nick

 

[RustyJC]

1,014 veiws, 44 replys and no response from the OP. I guess we are just entertaining each other

Nick

Well, maybe we're putting some information out on the forum that a newbie will find and use when this subject comes up. In reality, that would probably require use of the Search function, so that realistically ain't a gonna happen!!

Rusty

 

[HBarlow]

On paper LREs would be sufficient for mine EXCEPT: The geniuses at Monaco put more weight on the left side of the trailer. The bedroom slide and the kitchen slide which also includes the entertainment center,and nearly all the inside storage cabinets are on the left side. As a result the left two tires are carrying 6000 of the 11,000 pounds. That leaves a whole 84 pounds of capacity to play with. Not enough for me. And yes, originally the trailer came with LREs, Good Year Wranglers, IIRC. When Monaco replaced two broken wheels they also gave me a new set of GY G159s which I still have on my deckover flatbed. Prior to going to Alaska in 2009 is when I installed the G614s.

That's a fairly common problem with many of the older double slide trailers. My first fifthwheel, a '95 Travel Supreme bought used, had two slide outs on the street side and was originally factory equipped with LRG GY tires. It has a GVWR or 14,500 and is much heavier on the street side. I actually had extra springs added on the street side when I replaced the springs, shackles, brakes, and bearings right after I bought it to stop the sag on that side. When I bought it it had four mismatched no name LRE tires. I replaced them immediately with Michelin XPS Ribs in LRE and towed it all over the country without problem. My son-in-law has owned it since '07 using it for temporary housing for his job superintendents working out of town. I still move it from jobsite to jobsite about twice a year in the west Texas region. It's on its second set of Michelin XPS Ribs, still trouble free.

 

[richardcoxid]

DavidBates



I like you am tired of the G/Y G614 RST LR G tires and their problems.



I don’t see where you are located, in the Pacific N/W- Intermountain West there is a tire supplier called Les Schwab (about 400 stores), I just purchased 4 Geo Star tires in the same size, they are labeled “14 ply rating” and “for trailer service only”, 0f course made in China (what isn’t these days?) I hope that the L/S guarantee is as good as they say it is! We shall see!



Does anybody have any Good/Bad information about these tires?

 

[Shadrach]

I just got back from a trip to Vancouver Island with the truck and trailer. Round trip was 3300km ( about 2000 miles ) It sure is nice to have the power of a Cummins to pull those mountains. I did blow a trailer tire and I didn't even know it until someone flagged me down. I had left the campground an hour earlier and had looked at all the tires, even took the pressure on the truck ones but NOT the trailer tires. The tire was completely destroyed of course. The beads are still on the rim but the tread was just hanging there. A few more minutes and it would have been gone, probably damaging the trailer as it left earth. We were on a straight stretch ( there aren't too many of them ) South of Blue River, BC ( about 575 km - 350 miles from home ) and it was the right hand front tire so I was reasonably safe in changing it as BC has narrow shoulders. The tire was a Goodyear Marathon ST225/75R15 load range C and was in good shape. These tires were on the used trailer when I bought it last summer. There is about 7/32 thread on them and the spare was the same model but brand new ( 9/32 tread and it still had part of the sticker on it) The steel rim did have minor damage on it probably from me hitting the brakes. I went to the tire shop ( Goodyear dealer ) when I got back and carried in the remnants of the tread and said to the guy " I have a problem with one of your tires. It won't hold air" :-laf I asked what he recommended and he said there were only 3 of that tread available. I made a comment about GY Marathons not having a good reputation and I asked what else he had and he recommended some name I hadn't heard of. When I asked who made that model he said "Carlisle". I told him they had a worse reputation. He didn't seem impressed with me ( oh well ). I didn't buy anything from him.

Fortunately there was no damage to the trailer body or the wires going to my brakes on that wheel and I was able to change the flat safely. As of now I don't have a spare and for us the camping season is almost over. I don't know why the tire went flat. Did I run over something or did the sidewall just blow? It was a warm day the day before ( 35 *C -95 * F ) but this was in the morning and the temp wasn't that hot at that time of the day. I can't afford to buy all new Michelins or fancy aluminum rims but I will do my research in a TPMS as I think that is a good idea anyway. I'll see if my buddy who works at an RV dealership can get me a couple of decent spares for now and I'll carry 2 which isn't a bad idea anyway. That way if I do blow another one I won't be at the mercy of the local tire shop in downtown nowhere.

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Shad

 

[6speed]

Another thing I do is I always keep my tires covered. Those ugly UV rays are hell on tires. I installed snaps and just snap them on before i back the trailer in. I would do after I parked it, but with a 10 1/2 hole to put it in and 8 1/2 wide trailer, my fat belly just can't seem to fit between the fence and the garage.

 

[TLane]

Well, time for me to fess up. We took a trip to Colorado over the week of labor day and one of my Maxxis tires has started to fail. My wife spotted it as we were leaving the campground to head home (Hey! look at this tire!), so I changed in the campground. It has just started to separate the tread, the tire has noticeable cracks in one spot at the corner between the sidewall and tread; the tread at that point has a bulge to it. I checked the air pressure just before we left, and bought one of those IR temp guns and used it every stop on the way up, no problems spotted. So no damage to the trailer, but that one is going back to discount tire for warranty. This particular tire is only 3 years old. So now I'm considering 16" rims and Michelin LT tires.



The problem is, the Michelin tires on the truck have so much sidewall cracking, that chunks of rubber have started coming out of one of the tires. These tires came on the truck when I bought it new, but the truck was 2 years old when I bought it. Date code on the tires is 2907, which is about right considering when the truck was built. I've only put 18k miles on the truck, so there's lots of tread left but the tires. I'll see what I can get for warranty.



Is there a good water based tire goop that would help with the sidewall cracking? Or do I need to buy RV style tire covers for the truck?

 

[DavidC]

Well, time for me to fess up. We took a trip to Colorado over the week of labor day and one of my Maxxis tires has started to fail. My wife spotted it as we were leaving the campground to head home (Hey! look at this tire!), so I changed in the campground. It has just started to separate the tread, the tire has noticeable cracks in one spot at the corner between the sidewall and tread; the tread at that point has a bulge to it. I checked the air pressure just before we left, and bought one of those IR temp guns and used it every stop on the way up, no problems spotted. So no damage to the trailer, but that one is going back to discount tire for warranty. This particular tire is only 3 years old. So now I'm considering 16" rims and Michelin LT tires.



The problem is, the Michelin tires on the truck have so much sidewall cracking, that chunks of rubber have started coming out of one of the tires. These tires came on the truck when I bought it new, but the truck was 2 years old when I bought it. Date code on the tires is 2907, which is about right considering when the truck was built. I've only put 18k miles on the truck, so there's lots of tread left but the tires. I'll see what I can get for warranty.



Is there a good water based tire goop that would help with the sidewall cracking? Or do I need to buy RV style tire covers for the truck?

I had 1 or 2 Maxxis tires go away about the same time. No damage as they were caught before that. I am not sure any tire will last very long with the amount of usage most RV's get on the road, if they rolled at least every other weekend you may get a reasonable amount of mileage out of them before replacements were needed. As for the truck my suggestion would be to use 303 and covers as that is what I do on the RV and never saw any side wall cracking, just tread seperation as covering did not solve that problem.



Dave

 

[Matt42]

I use something called "303 Protectant. " It's expensive, but worth it. DO NOT use Armor-All. In my experience, it seems to suck the plasticisers out of the rubber and actually make things worse. I get the 303 protectant, which may be called 303 Aerospace Protectant, from Amazon. It's sometimes found at auto parts places and RV places. Bear in mind that tires will eventually age to a point where they are dangerous to use. They may have lots of tread left, but that's just the way life goes. I recently replaced the tires on my truck, and they had more than half the tread remaining. But the newest was made in 2007. The oldest was 2004. Not safe to drive on. Michelin tires tend, in my experience, to fail more "politely" than the crap brands. What I mean by that is that the Michelin tires separate, but we have to really ignore the odd road feel from the separations for a long time before they actually fly apart. With the crap brands, the time between initial separation and catastrophic failure ca be quite short. I can refer you to the parents of some deceased children in our neighborhood for an anecdote. That was a RR Firestone on an SUV at freeway speed, if my memory is correct.

 

[labarn]

Rusty JC your problem was the MS should have had a higher load range tire when you bought it. It started at the factory so you corrected their error.
This is usually the problem for any new buyer.
labarn

 

[RustyJC]

Rusty JC your problem was the MS should have had a higher load range tire when you bought it. It started at the factory so you corrected their error.
This is usually the problem for any new buyer.
labarn

Actually, the G614s were operating well within their ratings. The GVWR of the MS is only 16K lbs (remember, mine is a 2004). At full GVWR, the pin weight would be ~20% of GVWR, or 3,200 lbs, leaving 12,800 lbs on the axles, or 3,200 lbs per tire. The G614s are rated at 3,750 lbs at 110 PSIG, so they were NOT overloaded.

Now, is 550 lbs per tire enough "margin"? We could argue that all day, but there's no doubt that the Michelin XTA with a rating of 4,805 lbs @ 120 PSIG certainly is operating more conservatively with a reserve capacity of 1,605 lbs per tire at full GVWR.


Rusty

 

[labarn]

Well if tires lost strength as they age you are still better off with what you have now.
labarn