How old is your trailer?  Sorry to say but the tire deal is like beating a dead horse.

  I seen a new trailer several weeks ago, (a 2006 model), brand new that had never been sold. It was a 4 horse, big lq, three 7000# axles, with six of the worse cracked Uniroyal Laredo AWP's you've ever seen..... I looked at the tires and they were three years old. Trailer has only sat on the lot and gets pulled to a show now and then for display. They will clean up the trailer and these tires get greased with this tire dressing crap that's full of alcohol..... Know what alcohol does to a tire sitting on the ground, in the sunlight? Sidewall cracks you could stick a quarter in. The only thing is, the Chinese tires don't need the help of the alcohol, they will unravel all by themselves. Good luck, but your best bet is to buy a set of Goodyear G614's if you need something that stout, or a set of Michelin XPS Rib's or even a Goodyear Marathon. The Marithon is built in China but it meets Goodyears U.S. standards, it has the UV protection.

Some info from other sites as well as HTW about Trail America Tires as well as others.

http://www.heartlandowners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3340

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=189875

http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=10956

http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=9319

http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=9193

Good luck....

well this is what we have found out about our tires that are on our trailer. 

Agree 100% with this. The other option Sundowner would have had would be to assign a GVWR for the trailer that is a total of the axles or tires, then when the trailer as a whole is overloaded they would have been to blame. This is the whole reason for a GAWR on the VIN plate.

(quote I HOOF IT) The load range G carries a maximum load is 3750lbs(3750x4=15,000lbs) That is 3,000lbs less than the GVWR.

  I would think that extra 3000+# would be on the pin in the bed of the truck. What's the individual axle ratings... 8000#

   My S.W.A.G. is, you got 16000# of axles, 15000# of tire, 20% of the trailers GVWR in the bed is 3600#.... 18000# GVWR minus 3600# on the pin equals 14400# on the trailer axles.... So you are good, you're maxed out, but you're good to go. You just got a sorry set of tires. Be sure you're running level and none of those turns where one side of the trailer is trying to back up while you are going forward... That will tear up the best of tire, maybe not at that moment, but run it hard, loaded heavy, in hot weather and you'll find out how bad they were damaged. One other thing, some of those Chinese built "trailer tires" are speed rated to 65 mph.... Anything much above that when loaded, they will start to disintegrate in a hurry, cords breaking, chunks flying off, exploding, etc... Most all of the "ST" tires are speed rated to 65 mph.

  Good tires ain't cheap, cheap tires ain't good and if they are 5 to 6 years old, it's time to replace them.

  My thought is, if Sundowner is at fault for anything, it because they used the CHEAP tire.... approx. $100.00 a piece, for the Trail American -vs- $300.00 for a G614RST tire.... Do that five times for one trailer (4 on the ground plus the spare) and that's a savings to SD of.... $1000.00 for that one trailer!!!! I wouldn't have ever bought the trailer with the Trail America tires, but that's just me.

  Next thing for you to do is load everything up and roll it across the scales, that's the only way you'll know for sure that you are correct. What does each truck and trailer axle weigh when loaded???

BUT...HOW OLD ARE THE TIRES?

Check the DOT code...you may be unpleasantly surprised...

We checked the air before the first blowout, after that and before the 2nd and 3rd blowouts, and both service centres said the tires looked good - no cupping, no cracks, very little wear.  And there was no loss of rubber first, the tread completely separated and the tire EXPLODED in an instant.

I sued Firestone after one of their tires failed and almost killed my whole family. My attorney wisely would not take the case on a contingency basis, wanted $3k to start, and I finally got him down to billable hours @ $275/ per. The Firestone dealer that inspected the tire remains, said the blowout was definitely caused by a carcass failure which resulted in a thread separation. Without seeing the tire, Firestone Inc denied any wrong doing, and refused any compensation. After several refused demand letters and corporate run around, I stopped throwing good money after bad; the exact response Firestone expected.

The problem was, according to my attorney, is that a death did not occur. Because my physical damages amounted to aprox $2300, it would cost more than that to pursue the case. Had a fatality occurred, the higher liability would have made the case worth pursuing.

It is very difficult for one person to sue corporate america because of the financial difficulties. Their litigation cost are figured as part of the cost of doing business, and are budgeted on a yearly basis.

The only people that win in a class action suit are the attorneys. The litigants usually see very little, individual compensation.

BOL  Gard

Curiosity question Gard - Is there a reason you did not attempt anything with Ford on the issue? If I am remembering right, Ford was specifying a lower psi for the tires than what Firestone recommended...

yep, just replaced all four of mine last week!!! tires had less than 7500 miles on them, always at the correct pressure, stored inside, no winter hauling, no salt, washed everytime after use. tire guy said he had never seen anything like it, he stated that the tires should of easly lasted many more miles.

Gard,

I too had the Firestone steeltex tires on my F-350 they started to seperate and it felt like the front end was coming out from under the truck, changed them both for michelins while hauling away from home got home and talked to the firestone tire dealer and they said they would have to have the tires on the truck to honor any warrenty, I told them by all means you put them on the truck and drive it and please take out extra life insurance and besure your insurance covers my truck! Long story short I got nothing but also have never ever ever bought firestone tires again on any of our fleet of 5 vehicles or three trailers. Also my horse trainer and his horse trainer son who hauled my trailer will not buy firestones, so who ended up the loser?

Pat Moore

I have a Cimarron trailer with those cheap tires, Trail America,  we also had 2 blowouts this weekend alone.  So far 4 out of the 5 tires have blown with less than 5,000 miles.  It is a crying shame.  The dealership we bought our trailer at, asked us if we had bought the tire warranty at the time of purchase.  They should of crammed it down our throats, and told us that the tires were cheap, made in China and would not last long, do damage to our fenders when they fly apart in less than an 100 miles on a cool day going up and less than 25 miles on the way home.

As much money as all of our trailer cost us, not including the precious cargo we are carrying, trailer manufactures, and dealers should put top notch tires on all trailers.

The Cimarron Factory said we could call Trail America and have had all of the tires replaced, I told him NO WAY.  They are suppose to give us Good Year replacements at their cost, on 3 tires since we already have one tire.  I would rather have a discount on good tires than the same pieces of c+#p that I had.

Is there not a government consumer protection agency that would look into this as it seems pretty widespread and these blowouts could be life threatening, not to mention the cost of the trailer damage when you figure how many people are affected.

Maybe one of the equine media channels would do a story on it?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091103957_pf.html