15" tires, Goodyear Wrangler HT or Goodyear Endurance

[Westcoasting]

Hi everyone i had crappy tires on my work trailer and after i was out of tires i swapped out the tires on my travel trailer to my work trailer (Wrangler HT's)

Now i am about to buy 4 new tires for my travel trailer and wondered if anyone has anything bad to say about the Endurance trailer tires or if i should stick with Wranglers. Trailer weight is about 5500 roughly.

Thanks for any thoughts/opinions

[Bigbird65]

Great comments Atlee. With as much traveling as you do it won't take too long to prove or dis-prove these tires. Many China bombs have failed with very few miles on them, 14,000 miles in my case. I read every tire thread that I come across and have yet to find one talking about a failure of an Endurance tire.

[Atlee]

I do have a "travel" trailer. 🙂 I travel, rarely camp. I use it extensively in the fall for football games. Usually a minimum of 8 and most of the times more. Last year we went to 13 using the trailer. The football trips have been from Richmond to Orlando, to Syracuse, to South Bend, and to West Lafayette. The short football trips have been from Richmond to Blacksburg, a 440 mile round trip and there are at least 6 of those per year. Plus we've been to Orlando several times to visit in laws.

The single longest tow was from Richmond to the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles and return. That trip alone accounted for over 7,900 miles.

And all of them were on Maxxis ST205/75R14 LRC tires.

Like you, I much prefer the higher speed rating of the Endurance. Even though I still drive between 63 and 65 on the interstate, I like the extra margin of error I have now. And as you said, sometimes it's unavoidable to get up to 70 or so. For me this was usually when getting on an interstate.

I'll have a pretty good idea how good the Endurance are in about 3 years, if not before.

Bigbird65 wrote:

Atlee wrote:
What happened to you, happened to me, down to fortunately catching the problem while it was sitting still, and not on the highway.

My tires were Maxxis ST205/75R14 LRC. I did have over 30k miles on them, but they looked nearly new. Tire store said it suffered belt separation.

I replaced the Maxxis with the latest Carlisle and then sold the trailer.

My new trailer came with OEM GY Endurance tires.

You certainly got a lot of miles out of your Maxxis tires Atlee. The seductive thing about these offshore tires is that they look great until they go boom. You were very lucky.

With these C load rated tires the speed rating is commonly 65. I think this is a hard number that should not be exceeded. How many of us creep up to 70 or more with these tires? Probably most of us at one time or other, whether intentional or not. One of the best features of the Endurance tires is that they are rated at 87 mph. This is comforting if you want to run 70 all day on a hot day.

Glad the Endurance tires came on your new trailer. The trailer manufacturers are catching on.

[Bigbird65]

Atlee wrote:
What happened to you, happened to me, down to fortunately catching the problem while it was sitting still, and not on the highway.

My tires were Maxxis ST205/75R14 LRC. I did have over 30k miles on them, but they looked nearly new. Tire store said it suffered belt separation.

I replaced the Maxxis with the latest Carlisle and then sold the trailer.

My new trailer came with OEM GY Endurance tires.

You certainly got a lot of miles out of your Maxxis tires Atlee. The seductive thing about these offshore tires is that they look great until they go boom. You were very lucky.

With these C load rated tires the speed rating is commonly 65. I think this is a hard number that should not be exceeded. How many of us creep up to 70 or more with these tires? Probably most of us at one time or other, whether intentional or not. One of the best features of the Endurance tires is that they are rated at 87 mph. This is comforting if you want to run 70 all day on a hot day.

Glad the Endurance tires came on your new trailer. The trailer manufacturers are catching on.

[Atlee]

What happened to you, happened to me, down to fortunately catching the problem while it was sitting still, and not on the highway.

My tires were Maxxis ST205/75R14 LRC. I did have over 30k miles on them, but they looked nearly new. Tire store said it suffered belt separation.

I replaced the Maxxis with the latest Carlisle and then sold the trailer.

My new trailer came with OEM GY Endurance tires.

Bigbird65 wrote:
Thanks for the reply profdant139. I have read a lot of threads on tires since we got ours and there are a lot of people replacing their offshore tires with Endurance tires.

On our long Spring vacation trip this year we were in Suffolk Virginia and getting ready to break camp. I was doing my usual checking each tire for pressure and anything unusual. On the right rear I found a raised place with the steel cord showing. 3/4 of the tire looked perfect. 14,000 miles on the tires. Found a set of ST205/75R14 at Discount Tire in Virginia Beach. Put the spare on and went to Discount Tire. Man we dodged a big bullet. Sure happy with the new tires. Out the door with new high pressure stems and balance for $532. Very nice folks at Discount Tire. The dealer said it was belt separation. Usually these offshore tires look perfect and run great until they blow. I was lucky.

[Bigbird65]

I think Trail Express is pretty typical of what you don't want on your trailer.

[SoundGuy]

Bigbird65 wrote:
On our long Spring vacation trip this year we were in Suffolk Virginia and getting ready to break camp. I was doing my usual checking each tire for pressure and anything unusual. On the right rear I found a raised place with the steel cord showing.

Trail Express tires, eh? Same tires that came stock on my 2014 Coachmen Freedom Express, exact same failure I had with the curb side front tire this past summer. I got lucky as I had just returned from a camping trip and parked on our driveway when I discovered the failure. Later inspection showed the tire had simply split, exposing the steel tread, and inside the tire had bubbled in a large oval shape. I replaced all four with a set of Endurance.

[Bigbird65]

Thanks for the reply profdant139. I have read a lot of threads on tires since we got ours and there are a lot of people replacing their offshore tires with Endurance tires.

On our long Spring vacation trip this year we were in Suffolk Virginia and getting ready to break camp. I was doing my usual checking each tire for pressure and anything unusual. On the right rear I found a raised place with the steel cord showing. 3/4 of the tire looked perfect. 14,000 miles on the tires. Found a set of ST205/75R14 at Discount Tire in Virginia Beach. Put the spare on and went to Discount Tire. Man we dodged a big bullet. Sure happy with the new tires. Out the door with new high pressure stems and balance for $532. Very nice folks at Discount Tire. The dealer said it was belt separation. Usually these offshore tires look perfect and run great until they blow. I was lucky.

[profdant139]

Bigbird, thanks for the link to that article. It was very interesting, especially the part where the Goodyear executive said that one of the reasons they make the Endurance in the USA is for marketing, in response to consumer demand. He also referred to RV Internet discussions (presumably including this forum).

In other words, when we have complained about quality control in China, someone was actually listening!

I wonder if consumer distrust of Chinese products in general will push companies to make more things in the USA. Certainly, that is true in China itself -- after the baby formula scandal (plastic filler in Chinese formula that caused widespread kidney damage), Chinese parents demand US made formula, when possible.

Someday, Chinese companies will get the word and will ramp up quality control, just as Japan did. There was a time (1950s and 60s) that "Made in Japan" meant inferior stuff. That is no longer the case, of course.

[Bigbird65]

We have the Endurance tires on our Minnie 2101DS. So far so good. 2500 miles. Here is an interesting article on the Endurance tires. Three of the reasons I bought these tires: Load range D, speed range N (87 mph), and made in the USA. Here is an interesting chart:


Original link:

[Crabbypatty]

I put 4 new Goodyear Endurance tires on the TT this past summer. They are quiet and when checking them after hundreds of miles, are cool to the touch. I also air them down to 20lbs to camp on the beach and they work very well also. Im glad I bought them

[Atlee]

What do you mean when you say "Really like the way they ride ..."? Obviously it doesn't mean the trailer's comfortable to ride in, since that's illegal. Does it mean it tracks well behind your TV? Does it mean it doesn't move from side to side?

tinstartrvlr wrote:
Endurance, so far so good, but only about 2k miles. Really like the way they ride compared to the crappy tires they replaced.

[Westcoasting]

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Stick with a tire rated ST or LT.

That's what they are... one's a lt and the other is an st.

[time2roll]

Have read posts of HT failure but hard to always know the circumstances.
Endurance seems to be a highly improved ST tire but only been on the road 10 months. It will be year 4 to 6 when we start to know.

[theoldwizard1]

Stick with a tire rated ST or LT.