Good afternoon, Gentlemen. I wanted to share my experience with this particular brand of trailer tire. The spelling is correct, probably because they are manufactured in Thailand. I have them on my 2019 ATC 20' (18' + 2' V-nose) enclosed trailer. It is a Quest model with barn doors instead of the drop ramp because I also used it in my business on occasion. I loaded equipment and customer orders with a forklift so therefore couldn't have the drop door. I have been to the ATC factory and saw them drive a forklift onto a drop door for one of their 5th wheel toy haulers but that's a different animal. I ordered 1' extra height because of the door header for the barn doors to be sure I could fit my SXS in there. I ordered 6k torsion axles with EOH brakes, oil bath hubs, e-track on the floor and walls, and a spare tire mount on the inside wall. I had the dealer add the 14 ply tires and an electric jack. My previous experience with the 14 ply tires was with Sailun, another brand from over there, and they were excellent tires. I had them on two goosenecks, a 24' PJ and a 24' Maxx D. Never any issues with them in the 5 years I owned those trailers. I'm not sure of the mileage but we used them daily delivering materials to customers in a 250 miles radius. So, whenever i talked to my dealer about the 14 ply tires, and the appropriate rims, he said he stocks the Rainier brand and that they were very good tires. He wasn't kidding. I just replaced them after 7 years and well over 50k trouble free miles. the only thing I had done was to plug one tire because of a screw and rotating out the unused spare and placing the repaired tire as the spare. The tires are 235/80/R16, LRG, M speed rating. I run about 100 PSI in them as my trailer, SXS, and assorted stuff I haul in there is maybe 5500-5800#. I don't know exactly howe many miles were on the old tires, but an educated guess would put them at 50k +. I've towed this trailer to western AZ twice, SW Utah twice and up through Moab, Hatfields & McCoys trails in WVA twice, Windrock Off Road Park in TN twice, South Bend, In 4 times, plus the usage closer to home. I tow this rig on the Interstate at 75-80 mph all day long. I check the tires at each fuel stop, they used to be quite frequent with the stock 34 gallon tank but have been cut in half with the addition of the 60 gallon S&B fuel tank, and they are barely warm. Unless these tires are totally unlike the previous set I will continue to buy them as replacements when the need arises. Oh, almost forgot, I also have a set on my 25+5 Diamond C gooseneck. They were standard on that trailer with the 7k torsion axles and EOH brakes. It rides super smooth too.

 

When we bought our camper (26 foot pull behind) in 2018 it came with 4 Rainier tires. Being that it is a smaller camper, they were also smaller tires, 205/75/14, Load Range C. Thanks to the wisdom departed to me via the internet, I quickly learned that these tires are "China Bombs" and that I should expect them to explode the minute they moved... in fact, often times it doesn't even require movement as they will many times simply explode even if they are mounted on a carrier as a spare!

But, instead of taking the sage advice of the mighty Google and its expert contributors, I decided to give them a shot. I also decided to take it upon myself to apply some effort on my part by applying a bit of inspection, protection, maintenance and sensible driving measures (something I didn't see mentioned much, if at all in the many rantings of severe China Bomb tire explosions!)

Upon inspection, they looked good. I then made sure they were aired up properly, added a TPMS and (get this) drove a sensible speed! Every time I stopped I would check them, in the beginning I used an infrared thermometer until I knew I could rely on the temp reading on the TPMS. When the RV was not in use I also cleaned the tires and covered them so that the sun wasn't eating away at them... After a couple of years of proper maintenance, frequent inspections and minding my speed I started wondering if the internet could have been wrong... gasp!

5 years later, I decided to swap them out without a single failure. They still looked great, however, I like easy numbers to remember, so I decided that I will swap them at the 5 year mark simply due to age. In the end, the Rainier (China Bomb) tires were great tires for me.

Now sure, I could have been lucky and gotten a good set, but reading on the internet, that just doesn't happen. Any tire from China WILL fail, and any tire that is not a GY Endurance is a China Bomb. The GY Endurances are the ONLY option simply because they are made in the USA. Period.

First off, what I have found by reading though different posts about "China Bombs" is that very few of the people reporting these failures could tell you what the air pressure in the tires should be, and forget what they were when they blew up. They never checked them, or they just quoted a number they read or heard somewhere... Secondly, very few of them actually talk about any sort of prevention or maintenance schedules they implement with their tires. And thirdly.... have you seen the way some of these folks drive while hooked up... often times even improperly... The front wheels of their tow vehicle are barely on the ground, the hitch is inches from digging into the road and they are flying by me like I am sitting still, even at 68 mph! My take away from all these ridiculous rants about China Bombs is that people treat RV tires as if it's a one-and-done type of component. They get the RV from the dealership and they are good to go... fast and hard with no effort or even inspection on their part. Then they smash into pot holes at 80+ mph, the curb them nonstop, and they run them with low tire pressure, but when they fail, it's the tires fault...

What's funny is that when shopping for tires to replace my original Rainiers, I almost got a set of GY Endurance tires.... but in my research at that time, I noticed almost as many reports of failure with the GY Endurance tires, some just miles from the shop where they were installed, as with "China Bombs." The difference is that "China Bombs" are made up of many different brands, while the Endurance tires are 1 model... it seemed to me that the Endurance failure rate was higher than other brands, unless you lumped all the other brands into 1 group, China Bombs. So, I passed on the Endurances. I actually thought about another set of Rainier's, but I ended up going with a set of Maxxis 8008's due to all the good reviews on them, and actually stepped up to a load range D. (And yeah, you can dig up bad reviews on them too, but 1. question the accuracy of said reviews, and 2. compare the number of them to other tires...) So far, these Maxxis tires have also done great, and I have put many more (long) miles on these and they are still good, however, due to my 5 year rule, I will swap them out next summer, and I will likely go with the same Maxxis tires. But, I wouldn't hesitate to put a set of Rainier's back on if that was my option.

Of course routine inspections, routine maintenance and protection are key for any tire. Also, sensible driving goes a long way.... There is a saying: "If you don't schedule a time for maintenance, your equipment will do it for you." Unfortunately, many people now days are too lazy to provide maintenance, but are eager and quick to scream about how bad something is when it fails, regardless of their neglect. You know... "It's not my fault!"

Anyway, glad to hear about another happy Rainier user!

 

Agree with everything Chad says. Proper maintenance is the key for any tire. I'm on my second set of Kenda Karriers on my camper, load range E. They're made in Taiwan and have been very good for me so far. Some have bad reputations but most of those I think can be attributed to user error. But then again, some brands just aren't manufactured very well and can fail often with every precaution taken.

 

Some may have had a bad reputation, but maybe, they fixed their manufacturing issue too. It's hard to change a bad reputation, but real easy to change a good one.

 

I've had 2 Endurance tires blow on me in the last 2 years. Tires were both in good shape. I checked PSI and monitored on TPMS. I put 4 Sailun's on just recently and keep them at 90 psi.

 

Glad to hear of another (or two(or three)) decent brands out there! I personally prefer Carlisle, but have heard a lot of good about Sailun. Sounds like there might be a few others as well.