15 inch tire recommendations

[SCBillandJane]

Until this last trip I would have recommended Maxxis tires in the 15 inch size. I was at the North end of Lake Champlain in New York when a truck flagged me down and showed me a trailer tire about to blow. It had a bulge on the inside of the tire about the size of a softball.
My tire history is that I bought my TM used in 2008 and bought all new Maxxis tires from Tire Kingdom in Tampa Fl. where I bought the trailer because the original tires on the trailer would have been 5 years old at the time I purchased the TM.
I have since been to Key West, Alaska, Washington state, Maine, and south of San Diego to go to the 4 corners of the US. Total distance has been between 35,000 and 40,000 miles in two years. The tires have held air well and shown little wear. I keep them at 65psi and normally drive at about 65mph or less.
After reading about all the trouble others have had with tires I would have recommended Maxxis tires.To my surprise, when I replaced the failed tire, the tire dealer in Vermont showed me the date of manufacture of the bad tire and I was shocked. It was made in 2001 which means I bought a 7 year old tire in 2008 that I thought was new.
Now I don't know whether to replace with the same brand or not. I find it hard to blame a 9 year old tire that lasted that many miles. Has anyone made a list of 15 inch tires that have the 2500+ weight rating? Any recommendations?
I will strongly suggest that when you next order tires for your TM that you tell them that you want them to show you the date of manufacture before they mount the tires as well as to balance and to use metal valve stems. You have to tell them to ballance and check that they did. The tire shop in Vermont doesn't do that normally for a trailer tire, and it is their practice to inflate trailer tires to 50 pounds not 65psi. It is sometimes hard to find an air pump at a gas station that will pump up to 65psi.

I would agree that you've got good mileage off some really old tires.

Our Goodyear Marathons have only seen 10,000 miles but there is some odd wear on the curb side, and I've been running at 50psi. Hopefully 65psi will fix that.

I picked up a small 12V tire pump at Walmart that makes it easy to maintain pressure on all tires on our trailer, TV and bicycles. Would recommend it.

I think that all things considered the maxxis did well. I just put maxxis on my trailer but I made sure I checked the date before they were mounted (1310). If you ever buy tires in Tampa again I can recommend Broadway tire. They had good prices and had no problem with me checking the tire dates.

[ShrimpBurrito]

I agree with the other folks -- considering their age, I think you were very lucky they lasted as long as they did. My last set of Kumhos was only 6 months old when I bought them, and they both blew 3 years later.

You might consider looking into whether or not there are any laws regulating the age of tires at the time of sale. It seems ridiculous that a dealer could sell a 7-year old tire as brand new, and especially without some sort of disclosure. But I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't. However, perhaps before even doing any research, you might fire off a nasty gram to the HQ of your dealer and your manufacturer, copy the appropriate organizations (BBB, Consumer Reports, DOT, etc.) and ask that they provide you with a new set. That might get the desired effect without much effort.

Based on what I've heard about the Maxxis, I don't think I'd hesitate to get another set -- just make sure they are much younger. Around the LA area, as well as Grand Junction, CO, it is not difficult to get new tires with a date of manufacture within a year of date of sale.

As far as capacity, look for a load range E tire.

Dave

[Wavery]

I find it very hard to comprehend that a tire store could possibly have tires on the shelf for 7 years.

I think that you would have a very hard time convincing Tire Kingdom in Tampa Fl or the BBB that something shady hasn't transpired since 2008.

I can only see 2 likely scenarios.......... 1. A very crooked employee at the tire store pulled a switcheroo........ 2. Someone saw your trailer parked somewhere, and switched his old tires for your new tires and you never noticed (maybe in a storage yard???).

In any event, if you got that kind of service out of 7-year-old trailer tires..........I'd like a set of those (only not 7-years-old). I sure hope that you had a chance to thank that truck driver......

[ShrimpBurrito]

I seem to recall there is some sort of serial number on tires....or am I dreaming? I kinda remember them being printed on a receipt of mine at some point. That would confirm or discount whether or not they are the tires the dealer intended to sell you. Then call Maxxis and ask them for the date of manufacture for those serial numbers.

Dave

Originally Posted by harveyrv

I find it very hard to comprehend that a tire store could possibly have tires on the shelf for 7 years.

I wish it was that way, but alas it's not. They can sit for even longer than that. Tire manufacturers/distributors don't allow you to turn back in your unsold inventory. Most retailers will DD (discontinued) the older tires at a discount to move them off the shelves after about two years. Notice how I said most (not all)

Same things goes for manufacturers and/or distributors. They'll discount the older tires to move them out of the warehouses.

It's all a very delicate balancing act. The manufacturer/distributor/retailer has to figure out what quantity tires they are going to manufacture/stock/sell in a certain timeframe. They want to have enough tires to meet demand, but not too many to have just sitting around. Nobody makes money on "unsold" tires.

A tire manufacturer usually doesn't produce a certain tire every day. They have what are called production runs. For example, they may make 10,000 tires one week of a certain tire. Really , how many they produce, are decided on how many pre-orders they have. Once they produce these tires, they may not make this certain tire again until they have orders for another 10,000. That may be the next week, the next month, 6 months, etc. That's why there are shortages sometimes on certain tires......as their inventory is sold out, but the next production run hasn't happened. This is happening more and more in the tire biz, as everyone is wanting to carry just in time inventory.

They can also produce so many tires for stock, without having the tires sold, but think they will sell the tires in the near future. I see a lot of this with OE tires on new cars. They may have a obligation to supply, say Ford, with a million tires, but Ford doesn't produce that many vehicles after all. The manufacturer then is stuck with more supply than demand, and he will discount these tires to wholesalers/distributors to move them out of their warehouses and recoup their money the best they can....sometimes at losses. I am seeing Goodyear currently doing this with several tires.

These wholesalers jump on them, because of the discount, and try to sell them too......but they sometimes get stuck also with tires that don't move well.

I just saw one of our wholesalers, selling a tire that I know was discontinued over 5 years ago, so these tires are going to be 5+ years old to start with. They also weren't selling that at 5 year old prices, and were fetching todays prices on that size. I laughed at them when they tried to sell them to me. I also sent back some 4 year old tires they sent me the other day.

Nope, sad to say, I'm not the least bit surprised at 7 year old tires being sold off the shelf.

Where is the year of the tire displayed? Another question: Who do you get to mount and balance the tires. Call me silly, but I can't envision a TM up on the hydraulic lift at a tire dealership. Do they do it, or do you have to bring it to a RV shop?

[countrygirl]

We have done this in two different ways. First we took off the tires one at a time and drove about 3 miles had the tire balanced at Tire Kingdom brought it back and put the time one. Repeat process for other side.

More recently we took the TM to a different tire shop (best price) and had the tires replaced one at a time while was stood there and watched. The new tires are also balanced. We decided we like to take the tires off one at a time and reinstall ourselves.

You can not jack the TM up at or on the axle. You can not lift it with a car jack.

I will see if I can find the tire date thread for you. The date is on the side wall of the tire. It may even be on the side wallturned to the inside of the mount. Mine were the first time I looked. I could not see it on on the side wall that was easy to see ...I had to scoot under the TM with a pad and pencil.

[countrygirl]

I could not locate the thread on here. But I found this at Tire Rack:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11