I am with you 100%. I cannot believe that the most critical part of that RV from a safety perspective is where the manufacturers cut corners. I would think that is one area where the consumer would be willing to spend a little more to have some safety peace of mind.
I am surprised the attorneys have not swarmed all over the industry on this issue.

 

Misery loves company......I hate these substandard China bombs.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ts-please.html
I still have plenty of time to weigh all of my options and make a decision, but I'm currently thinking about upgrading my hubs/drums to 8 lugs, new 8 lug 16" high pressure rims and Sailuns. But I haven't ruled out the LT option yet either.

 

Went with LT this spring. Best thing I did

 

My trailer has no spare at all so I went over to my local Discount tire to buy a spare wheel/tire. They don't stock Sailun and won't get them for me. It's a spare so I wasn't really planning to buy that good of a tire. I ended up buying two sets of wheels/tires. In Wyoming/Colorado the closest town could be 100 miles. The closest town with a tire store could be even further. I bought two sets because I don't want there to ever be a case where I have to roll with only a single tire on one side.

 

If your going with st's go with Carlisle. JMHO.

 

I think the tires I got were Carlisle RH. Definitely ST load range E tires.

 

I got the Sailuns installed yesterday. As usual, nothing is easy no matter how much effort and planning I put into it. I ordered them thru Simpletires on Monday and they arrived at my local NTB (same as Tire Kingdom and Big O Tire for those of you not lucky enough to call Texas home) the next day. I called NTB last week to confirm they could install the tires if I ordered them and had them delivered. The girl there told me no problem. After I received the delivery confirmation from FedEx I called NTB again to verify they got them, schedule an appointment and discuss where they wanted me to park my 40' fifth wheel trail in their parking lot. She told me where ever it will fit as they'd be installing them in the parking lot. Long story short, got there yesterday over my lunch hour and was told by the teenaged girl manning the front desk, "We can't install tires on an RV, it won't fit in the install bay." Ya, well the previous 3 people I spoke with here said it wouldn't be a problem. She then confirms with her manager they can't do the install. "Just give me my tires please" and the teenager working in the install bay rolls them out and puts them in the bed of my truck. I called Discount Tires, spoke with them, rolled over there and they got them installed in under an hour no problems. I think they fast tracked it because I was blocking part of their parking lot For those of you in the Houston area, steer clear of the NTB in Kemah.

 

Be thankful you have time to decide. My blowouts happened on the way TO our 2 week vacation in Colorado from Houston. I had to do something and do it fast.

First blowout was halfway between Dallas and Amarillo in the middle of no where. Put the spare on and made it to Amarillo. Got that tire replaced at the Discount tire there.

Second problem - belt separation - only minutes from being a blowout - was right after Raton Pass. Put the spare back on the ground in it's place.

Third incident was in Colorado Springs. Had another blowout. Other side this time. Had to put the belt separated tire back on the ground next to the spare. It was Sunday and Discount tire was closed.

Limped about 80 miles from Colorado Springs to Denver at approx 35-40 mph. Trailer was rocking side to side from the out-of-round separated tire.

That was a long miserable drive.

Made it to campgrounds late Sunday evening.

Monday morning I took the blown out tire and the separated one to Discount in Aurora Colorado. Told them the story, showed them the tires.

They agreed to replace them all. Told them I would take the replacements loose and wanted to buy/mount the G614's instead of the Marathons.

They had to order them from a nearby warehouse, so I left the two wheels there, went back to camp, jacked up the trailer and propped it up on blocks with no wheels on it lol.

Went back to discount and had the remaining wheels swapped out when the tires got there from the warehouse.

Several hours of the day and about $1600 later..... I was sitting on a new set of MADE IN THE USA tires.

Great service from both Discount locations. Saved the vacation and made the drive home much less stressful.

So far the G614's have been great tires.

 

+1000000000000000

I've always had good luck with Discount Tire.

 

Some of the reasons my China Bomb Tow Max, never-on-the-ground spare was replaced this morning by a General LT to mostly match (slightly different tread design) the other four General LTs I've been using for the past year and about 10K so far trouble free miles. I still can't get over the sloppy, flexible sidewall and tread on the Bombs vs ANY LT tire. 15 minutes and 153 bucks for a warm and fuzzy. The seller thought I was nuts to scrap a new tire until I told him about the high failure rates of the Tow Max tires on heavy TTs/5ers.

 

In the last few days. I've seen many fifth wheels pulled off the road with blown tires. This was a 50 mile stretch of freeway.