Quote:
Originally Posted by jsb5717
Do "china bombs" get their reputation because manufacturers used under-rated tires that are destined to fail or because they are poorly made? I know this has been discussed at great length so not trying to re-open that one here. It just seems that perhaps the jury is still out on OEM tires that are actually correctly rated for the trailer.
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There are literally millions of China made ST tires of all brands rolling on our freeways and byways. They could not survive this long if they did not meet the DOT inspection criterion. There would be numerous recalls that would remove them from service.
The long standing minimum fitment requirement for RV trailer tires is for them to equal the load capacity of the vehicle certified GAWRs. RV trailer manufacturers have the authority to set GAWRs. Therefore, trailers were fitted with tires that were going to be overloaded when the consumer loaded their trailer to the maximum allowed cargo capacity. It's very difficult to load a RV trailer with the weight distributed evenly across the axles. Those traveling heavy almost always have an axle overloaded or at least a single tire position overloaded. Without any load capacity reserves those overloaded tires were destined to fail, early.
The following reference provides proof of what I say. It's a copy of a picture I took some time ago at an RV show. The axles are certified 5200# by the axle manufacturer. Keystone certified them at 5080# so they could fit ST225/75R15D tires rated at 2540# to those axles. That practice was done by just about every RV trailer manufacturer. Thus, "China Bombs" were established.
http://www.keystoneforums.com/forums...pictureid=6489