Mission tire recall Thread - Page 11 - Montana Owners Club

SlickWillie · 06-05-2009, 02:38 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Desert RVer

TLG,

Call TireCo back and tell them that they know and you know and most if not all Montana owners know these tires Mission tires are bad. Tell them it would be in their best interest to replace all 5 and you won't accept anything else. I had two Missions go bad and they replaced all 5 with FreeStars, but I had to be more than a little forceful. Do not back off. They know they have a huge financial exposure and liability. Just be very firm and as an absolute last resort mention reporting the situation to the appropriate federal agency. I don't know why they haven't been shut down but until us Montana owners get organized nothing probably will happen. The intial post suggested a forced recall, but 20 pages later I don't see any progress in this needed effort. We need to quit talking and get serious about this effort before someone gets injured or even worse killed. Also consider our own liability if pieces of one of our shredded tires creates an accident along side of us or behind us. Our insurance won't cover all the expense. This is a very serious problem and severe financial exposure for all of us.

They don't care if you complain to the NHTSA or anyone else. I promised them (Tireco) I would file a complaint, and I followed through with it. IIRC, at that time (fall of 2008) there were like ten complaints about Mission tires dating back to 2005. Seems like folks will complain on the RV forums, but won't follow up with anything else.

If you check, many of the tire recalls are the results of tire importers notifying the NHTSA of problems, not from consumer complaints. After the debacle with the Dometic refrigerator recall, I have lost all faith in the NHTSA doing anything worth while.

rickfox · 08-10-2009, 01:51 PM

Well all,

After losing 2 of the Mission tires, I finally got Tireco to pay for one replacement, and send 4 new Freestars to replace the rest. Now, on a 4,000 mile trip, I blew one of the Freestars. By looking at the blown tire, you can not tell it was a radial ply tire. All the tread is gone, and only side-to-side cords are left connecting the tire beads. I have taken special care in making sure that all tires were at proper pressure and that I did not ever hit anything with them.

It's clear to me the Freestars are no better than the Mission tires they replaced. Interestingly, if you go to the TireCo.com web site, you will find they no longer provide any information on the Freestar tires. I will give them a call tomorrow morning, but fully expect they no longer sell them, and no longer support them. Just another example how the consumer is sold junk that is no good, replaced by junk that is no good, and of course the manufacturer that sells them to us (Keystone) likely does not give a hoot.

Makes me wander if my next 5er should be from someone else.

Desert RVer · 08-10-2009, 08:22 PM

rickfox,

Oh no! I'm running 4 Freestars on the ground right now and also a Freestar spare after replacing all 5 of my Missions at about 10,000 miles due to tread separation. Have about 2,000 miles on the Freestars. I would not allow myself to believe that Tireco would send me 5 badly built replacement tires after going through all the problems with the Missions. It sounds like my thought process was and is totally wrong. This is almost criminal. I just don't understand how TireCO and Keystone can continue this charade! The lack of good business ethics and judgement here is unbelievable. Scary and yes it will impact my next purchase too.

HamRad · 08-10-2009, 09:22 PM

Desert RVer,
So you're saying that at 10k miles on your Mission tires you were having trouble with them? Flats, blowouts and tread separations? Or did you just change them out because of what you read?

And are you having trouble with your Freestar tires?

And if you're just now noticing business ethics problems you must live on a different planet than I do.

So tell us what your problems are with the Freestars.

Thanks,
HamRad

Desert RVer · 08-10-2009, 10:55 PM

HamRad,
Please read rickfox's post just ahead of mine and then read my post again and I think all your questions will be answered.

trailbuff · 08-11-2009, 08:13 AM

I have replaced all of my Mission tires with Good Year G614's which are G rated and made in the USA.
Two of the Mission tires had bulges in the tread and I sent them back to Tireco. Tireco reimbursed me $102.00.
Tireco only reimbursed me for one tire because one of them had a PLUG in it. The plug was in the tire before I bought the Monty (new 2008). We weren't aware of the plug until the tire was dismounted.
I contacted my RV dealer and they refunded me an additional $64.00. Not much but better then nothing.
I have three Missions laying on the floor of my garage collecting dust. I would not GIVE them away.
I went to my RV dealer a few weeks ago and all of the new Montana's on the lot had Good Year Ribs on them which are made in China.
I also looked at several Charriage brand 5er's and they all had Good Year G614's (made in USA) on them.
I don't know anything about the Good Year ribs.
Trailbuff

Tom S. · 08-11-2009, 09:50 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Desert RVer

rickfox,

Oh no! I'm running 4 Freestars on the ground right now and also a Freestar spare after replacing all 5 of my Missions at about 10,000 miles due to tread separation. Have about 2,000 miles on the Freestars. I would not allow myself to believe that Tireco would send me 5 badly built replacement tires after going through all the problems with the Missions. It sounds like my thought process was and is totally wrong. This is almost criminal. I just don't understand how TireCO and Keystone can continue this charade! The lack of good business ethics and judgement here is unbelievable. Scary and yes it will impact my next purchase too.

Freestars are made by Nankang, which is headquartered in Taiwan. It appears Nankang makes both the Freestars and Mission tires (surprise!).

You might find this of interest:
http://www.aboutautomobile.com/Tire/...ankang/Nankang

And:
http://www.aboutautomobile.com/Tire/...ankang/Mission

HamRad · 08-11-2009, 12:58 PM

Desert RVer,
I reread the posts you mentioned and it did not answer my questions but that is OK. I read in another thread that there were tire problems with the Freestar tires.

I have had all except one of my OEM tires blow out or separate on me. They were not Missions or Freestars. I believe they were Generals or something like that. The tires on our rigs seem to be an issue no matter what the brand.

Good luck,
HamRad

sreigle · 08-11-2009, 02:19 PM

Rick, do you know the tire blew out or might it have gone flat and you ran long enough on the flat to shred the tire? When I've had tires that looked like what you described it was because of running it flat. It might have blown earlier and then I ran it flat for awhile. I'm really not sure. I've had several of those situations with Goodyear Marathon tires but my Freestars so far have been good (knock wood). I'm hoping yours is not indicative of what I should expect. I had one Goodyear Marathon that I heard pop. I didn't hear any of the others and suspect I ran them while flat. No sway or anything. Here's one of the Goodyears. Is this what yours looked like? I had eyeballed these tires when filling the fuel tank just five miles before this happened. I think I may have picked up a nail in the filling stations dirt drive although I'll never really know.

And this one is the Goodyear Marathon I heard pop. Thus we got stopped right away before the rim could shred the tire. You can see where this one blew out.

rickfox · 08-11-2009, 03:07 PM

Good question Steve,

I do not know for sure what happened. We had pulled out from a rest stop about 10 miles back (I always check the tires at these stops) and were running about 62 mph on I-95 which was fairly crowded. Most of the cars were passing us in the inside lane at the rate of perhaps one going by every 10 seconds or so. Then one pulled by pointing at our trailer. Thinking that others who had been passing us would have motioned if we were running flat, I am assuming that things happened rather quickly and that we did not go very far running flat. But of course we all know about assumptions. Interesting, I did not feel any difference in the ride eventhough the tire was clearly no longer there.

Also interesting, is the fact that this is the second tire to go bad on the front driver's side axle. This is also the one that seems to distort the most when I make backing in turns to the left.

Also very interesting is the fact that while we were down at the RV shop having the new tire mounted, I checked out a brand new Cyclone toyhauler made by Heartland - a fairly high end product - it sported 6 new MISSION tires!!!! It seems like many of the RV manufacturers have gone mad!?

berridge · 08-12-2009, 03:56 PM

I have been in contact with Walter Cannon through www.rvsafety.com re my concern about the lack attention paid by rv manufacturers to safety issues like tires and suspension shackles. Others may want to do the same. I suggested he check out the MOC site for the grusome details. Walter assures me that he sees these issues as serious and will bring them to the attention of the various manufacturers that he has dealings with. Surely with pressure applied from several directions the appropriate authorities will at least put pressure on for action. At the least each unit should come with a detailed service manual as per the auto industry rather than a bag of conponent booklets! Can you imagine the the resulting fuss if the Mission tires had been installed on cars rather than RVs.

dsprik · 08-12-2009, 07:04 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by berridge

Surely with pressure applied from several directions the appropriate authorities will at least put pressure on for action.

I heard a very wealthy businessman speak once and he talked about getting people/companies to change. He said they will change "when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change..... Period."

I think that would apply here.

Desert RVer · 08-12-2009, 07:24 PM

The pressure needs to come from the consumers.

rickfox · 09-07-2009, 11:28 AM

For what its worth, I called Tireco the other day and complained about the Freestar replacements I received from them in August of last year - to replace the Mission tires that originally came on my Montana.

Interestingly, although they apparently no longer support Freestar - what a surprise - they told me to file a claim. I did, they sent UPS to pick of the blown tire, and apparently are going to reimburse me for the purchase of a replacement tire.

Its better than a poke in the eye with you know what.

Desert RVer · 09-07-2009, 11:59 AM

rickfox,

What do you mean when you state that Tireco "no longer supports Freestar"? No warranty support?

Jay Bird · 09-07-2009, 01:40 PM

Last Sep (08) on our way to Goshen the Mission on the passenger side blew and the other one on the road side had a large bubble. Both tires were on the same axle. We had about 2400 miles on these tires. The tire dealership we went to in Deleware, OH said the other two tires were stressed and put it in writing. End of the story, we had to fork out over $600.00 bucks on the spot to get new tires. Of course TIRECOs settlement was less than what we paid out. But I guess something was better than nothing.

Desert RVer · 09-07-2009, 02:02 PM

As long as we RV Owners let TireCo to get by with this they will continue to do what they are doing.

rickfox · 09-07-2009, 02:25 PM

Desert RVer,

Although I have not yet been reimbursed for the blown Freestar tire, they sent UPS out to pick of the tire remains, and have indicated that once they are satisfied the tire is Freestar, they will reimburse me for the Goodyear tire I purchased - so I would say they are covering the warranty.

However, if you go to their web site - tireco.com - Mission is nowhere mentioned, and although Freestar is still listed, there is no link associated with it. The Tireco rep. would not comment on why this was the case, and had no answer to my question asking if they still represented Freestar in the US.

Desert RVer · 09-07-2009, 03:17 PM

richfox,

It is my understanding that Mission and Freestar brands are made by the same manufacturing company in China. I don't know how Tireco is still in business and how any Tireco employee could answer their phones for more than a week. The ethics of this situation are untenable. I just don't know why an appropriate governmental agency and/or class action suit hasn't put them out of business.

rickfox · 09-07-2009, 05:33 PM

I don't know whether or not both brands are made by the same company, but I believe that Tireco is simply the US distributor. It is my understanding that Tireco is not the manufacturer. Should Sears be held accountable for Goodyear tire failures?

It was clear to me by comparing the limp contruction of the Mission tires to the Freestar, that the Freestar was of superior contruction, although apparently still not up to acceptable performance. Perhaps after being put behind the 8 ball twice now, Tireco has decided not to rep the Freestar any longer. Hopefully none of the other brands they are now selling are coming from the same unreliable manufacturer.

For me, I'm heading for a more recognised brand name, and it will certainly be part of the conversation and deal should I purchase another new trailer. I won't accept any other new trailer purchase that has some no-name tires on it.

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