Large Scale Central

US Distributor of Chineese tires does 'the right thing'

General Discussion
#1

I bought a Travel Trailer (RV) two years ago that came with Milestar tires made on China. I’ve read some bad things about these tires, but mine were doing fine until this spring. I noticed some nasty sidewall cracking on all 4 tires. I had planned on going out and spending over $400 to replace them before we could use the trailer again.

Following the advice of other RVers found on web forums, I phoned the warranty claims department of the US Distributor. The very nice lady at Tireco Claims took down the DOT codes from all 5 tires then without any comment at all, said she would ship me 5 new tires under warranty. No adjustments for tread used, no shipping costs. I just need to pull the old and mount the new at my expense. They are even replacing the spare which shows no sign of trouble.

It’s obvious from the number of posts in the RV forums and the ease of making this claim that the company has a known issue with a run or two of their tires, but I still have to hand it to them for standing behind their product and making the claims process so painless.

BTW - My first call was to the RV dealer who sold me the rig. He said cracking was “dry rot” caused by sunlight and not covered by the tire warranty. The second call was to R-Vision who made the RV. They are in Chap. 11 and can’t even discuss warranty claims, let alone pay them.

So now I need to decide if I try and sell these 5 for as much as I can get and go buy the reputable Maxxis brand that I was planning on, or do I give the Chineese tires another go.

#2

Okay Jon, what sort of RV do you have? I replaced my Hi-Lo Camper tires with Carisle Tires and haven’t had any problems since.

#3

I’d give’em a year and then see what they look like. But you’re the one pulling it, so it’s your comfort level and your decision.

#4

Two things I insist on concerning anything I may have rolling down the road…good tires and good brakes.
A blowout can put you in the other lane…quickly.
Ralph

#5

Jon, which forums are these messages on? RV.net? I’ll have to check out our tires too. But I think they looked decent the last time I did a quick walk around.

Jon.

#6

Jon -

I first saw posts about premature cracking on the R-Vision Camping Club website ( http://r-visioncamping.org/ ) which is a brand specific website that I belong to. Last week when I noticed mine were having problems I found lots of posts. Some on Outbacker.Com and others on RV.Net.

My tires are branded Milestar. They manufactured by Nankang in China who also makes several other brands including Nanco, Loadmax, Freestar and others. These are all distributed in the US by Tireco.

Almost every brand of “ST” tires has horror stories posted on the net. Goodyear Marathons used to have a good reputation, but they to are now made in China along with Carlisle and many other brands. The only brand I was able to find with a good reputation was Maxxis which are made in Korea. No-one makes ST tires in eh US or Canada anymore.

If my tire guy will take the new replacements in on trade, I’ll probably still go with a set of Maxxis, but if not, I’ll run them for a couple of seasons.

#7

I’ll have to check out our tires in the morning. We didn’t go camping once last year…

Jon.

#8

may I make a suggestion to keep my state’s economy going

http://www.carlisletire.com/

#9

Research Carlisle trailer tires you will find that they too are Chinese crap and have thousands of horror stories.

For starters look at http://www0.epinions.com/reviews/Carlisle_Radial_ST_Utility_Tire