Tire disappointment

[john soulliere]

Less than 500 miles on 2021 Imagine 2500RL, Westlake tires. One loses pressure. Leaving on a trip. Lions head "no questions asked" warranty is full of questions. Can't use the tire even as a spare. Grand Design opts to use a spare that is even more sub-par than Westlake -- some unheard of brand that looks like it should be on a flatbed trailer. Really GD? For what, $50 bucks you could have put the matching tire on the spare.

so now I'm rolling one heartland (not a bad tire), three Westlakes and a POS spare. I will beg and fight to get the fourth Westlake replaced then use the heartland as the spare. All because of $50.

[ThePowells]

As with your other post, I'm sorry that your not happy with the tire choice. Any tire can lose air, regardless of the brand. The question is why did it lose air? Valve stem? Bead problem? Cracked wheel? Foreign object imbedded in the tire? That isn't mentioned. The Westlakes used to be a questionable choice, but not for the tire quality but the load rating. once Grand Design went to the next higher load rating for those trailers, the failure rate plummeted. Grand design also offered the Goodyear Endurance as an optional tire at a great savings. That option was dropped due to lack of interest either as a retrofit or ordered unit. Would you say that Michelin makes a sub standard class 8 truck tire? I saw one that had vaporized on a decked tractor running 65 MPH. Brand new, truck hadn't even had roadspray on it yet and less than 15% of the rated weight on the tire / wheel .
As I pointed out in your other posting, it all comes down to pricepoint. Many much heavier units have ran thousands of miles with the same tires without a problem. Catastrophically slinging the tread is one issue, simply having a flat is another. Will the Westlakes remain on mine, yes, at least until a difference in my towing style dictates a change to a better tire and that will be a commercial wheel and tire. As far as the NQA warranty, how long would any company stay in business if they would replace an item simply because an owner called and claimed that it had failed? There has to be some type of verification.

[Cate&Rob]

john soulliere
Hi John,

It is unfortunate that you have encountered a tire problem, but loss of pressure is seldom the fault of the tire. There are many other possible factors as noted by ThePowells Jerry. I don't think that Lionshead is questioning whether they will replace your tire, they are seeking to learn why it failed (as any product manufacturer should).

Trailer tires are in extremely short supply, which is why Grand Design is choosing to use a different brand and perhaps even a different wheel for the spare. This is not an uncommon practice across many cars, trucks and trailers since the spare is often not used at all and if it is, this is for a short period of time until the road tire is replaced. Just out of curiosity . . . how have you determined that the spare is of unacceptable quality?

Rob