Les Schwab Towstar Trailer Tire Inquiry

[Norma]

On our last trip (last week) I noticed two of the Westlake tires that came with our 287TRLS were separating on the side on the tread. Had no option but to go to the Les Schwab dealer in Brookings Oregon. I got the STR Towstar Trailer tires. ( The service was outstanding. They were busy and said it would be 2 hours B4 they could get to me. They had me finished in a hour.)

Are these good tires? Is anybody out using these? I still need to replace the other two and wondering if there are other options out there, like the Hercules Power ST2, or Goodyear Endurance.
Thanks f'or taking the time to read this.

[howson]

Norma -- I can't remember a thread about "Towstar" tires. Goodyear Endurance typically gets good reviews. My personal favorite is Sailun based on my (limited) experience with trailer tires. I still have the Sailuns installed and I do not have any issues. Full story here: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...talled-315rlts

Cate&Rob (or any other forum member with knowledge): is it OK to mix brands of tires on a trailer? My assumption is the mix will have similar size.

Howard

[Cate&Rob]

I have not heard of Towstar trailer tires. A number of different brand name tires from China seem to appear and disappear from the market. Sailun is a Chinese brand that has earned a good reputation and been around for a while, but are not available in smaller sizes. Goodyear Endurance tires are perhaps the only trailer tire made in the US. These have a good reputation but there are reports of failures just like any other brand of tire. Goodyear tires are popular and can be difficult to find. Maxxis is another off-shore brand of trailer tire that has been around for a long time and has a good reputation.

As far as mixing tire brands, this is usually a temporary measure and should be OK as long as all tires are the same size and the same load rating.

BTW . . . This is just the perspective of another owner . . .

Rob

[Guest]

Many of the Chinese lower cost tires fail at alarming rates where all tire makers will have some failures. Its the number of failures that's cause for alarm. There was a time when we had issues with E rated off shore tires here. There are plenty of posts on those issues with tread shedding with the tire still fully inflated. This may have been an application error but when seeing many posts of the gum strip letting go of the tread, I became cautious and removed my off shore tires after two seasons. A strategy of moving from D rating @ 65psi to E rating @60psi while using inflation tables has worked exceptionally well for us. This accomplishes a couple of advantages.

1) The tire is no longer inflated to its maximum side wall pressure.

2) Lower inflation with a higher rated tire provides a safeguard due to higher endurance with the load being supported.

With the GY tires having a good reputation, we will always work to support workers here and the company that is based here.

Jim

[Norma]

Thanks to everyone that replied to my post regarding Towstar tires. After further research, it appears to me that it's pretty much a crap shoot regarding trailer tires. It seems all tires have issues in regards to separating, so I'm going to replace the other two tires with Towstar in stead of having two different brands of tires. I saw a post stating Towstar tires are made in South Korea but who knows.

Happy Trails to all. 73
Roger KG7NTP

[Cate&Rob]

Norma

I think your assessment of the situation and your plan are correct. Tires from anywhere and any brand name can fail for several different reasons. All we can do is maintain them correctly, avoid over loading or over temperature and monitor constantly. The term “China Bomb” is thrown around by many who don’t realize that this term goes back nearly 30 years to when tire manufacturing first began there. The entire tire manufacturing industry, in all countries, has improved significantly since then.

Rob

[TheNescios]

Completely agree with Rob - though I have a preferred option when I replace tires.
I invested in a TireMinder i10 TPMS system and even use it vs the factory TPMS on my tow vehicle as it gives pressure and temperature and rotates the display between the tow vehicle and trailer, mounts easily alongside the rear view mirror which minimizes taking my eyes away from the really important stuff and has alerts for low/high readings out of tolerance.