Tires - Montana Owners Club

adelmoll · 08-27-2009, 05:27 PM

Hey Keystone.. With what we paid for the new Big Sky with full body paint that we love, we would have gladly paid the extra to get tires that didn't blow after a few thousand miles. Today we had to replace a second tire after about 6000 miles of travel. We check the PSI before we ever travel and have the tire moniters to be sure we are correct. Even with all the precautions, a tire blew and did damage to our under-belly... Thankfully it blew that way instead of the skirting with the full body paint or it could have been a lot worse.

Come on and give us a chance... Safety is a prime concern to us and we are willing to pay to get it.. Don't scrimp on safety.

Art-n-Marge · 08-27-2009, 05:36 PM

What was the tire brand? I thought for some time especially the new 2009/2010 model years they went away from problematic tires (like Mission). The popular replacement was Goodyear Marathon, but some members are starting a dislike for them, too.

What brand did you have? What brand did you replace them with? What did the DOT code say? Make sure you check the DOT code that has a bunch of characters after it. If there are only 4 characters, then the full DOT code will be on the other side. This will provide the age and manufacturing information.

Glenn and Lorraine · 08-27-2009, 09:25 PM

Hi Helen, sorry to hear of your misfortune. These tire failures just never seem to end.
Do you happen to know just what caused the blowout? Not all blowouts are due to manufactures defect. Very many blowouts are caused by road hazards such as pot holes, sharp objects being run over. Catching a curb going in and out of driveways can weaken the plys thus creating a blowout down the road.

steves · 08-28-2009, 02:00 AM

Bill/Helen:
I too had a ST Carlisle blowout on the way home from Florida this winter and it took out part of the underbelly. I could not find a replacement tire anywhere within 100 miles so I had to buy a LT tire and convert that to my spare as the weight rating is much less than the ST tire. One more problem and I will go with the Goodyear G614 tires. Your point on safety as well as the inconvenience is well said.

dsprik · 08-28-2009, 02:26 AM

Maybe if they made tires an optional upgrade with a couple choices. Wouldn't cost Keystone/Montana anything more, and then customers would get what they decided to pay for... Just a thought...

As an after thought... Doesn't Keystone/Montana have wheel choices (aluminum/steel)? How hard would it be to include tire upgrades for an appropriate charge?

steves · 08-28-2009, 02:47 AM

This is a good issue to discuss at the Goshen rally!

Bill and Ann · 08-28-2009, 02:56 AM

Keystone probably wouldn't want to give the indication (by way of upgrade) that they were putting inferior tires on their untis.

steves · 08-28-2009, 03:03 AM

Bill - Statistics - I think all we need to do at the rally is have a show of hands as to whose had tire problems especially on the new heavier (Z) frame units. I do agree with your comments!

HughM · 08-28-2009, 03:40 AM

Bill & Helen, The main thing is that you are safe and are able to repair what damage was done. Keystone may take notice when one of their new rv's that came with cheap tires injuries someone from a blow out and legal matters surface. Litigation is not a pleasant road to travel.
Optional tires shouldn't be a problem, I'm sure alot of buyers would upgrade to G614 or Michelin's just to be safe. I brought the Michelins with only 1,000 miles on previous tires.
Safety is my main concern.
Hugh

8e3k0 · 08-28-2009, 04:49 AM

Just because of the reputation and history of the Good Year Marathon "Made in China " tires that we ended up with on our new 09 Montana we made the change immediately to LT "Made in USA" tires that are proven more reliable. Please remember Standards are very low on all RVs. Here in Canada because of the brakes on our 7000 lb Dexter axles they are down rated to 6000 lbs by CSA (Canada Safety Standards). Brake width would have to be increased to 3 inch before it will meet the 7000lb rating!! Safety Safety Safety very important! Ellis

Lawman · 08-28-2009, 08:05 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by steves

Bill - Statistics - I think all we need to do at the rally is have a show of hands as to whose had tire problems especially on the new heavier (Z) frame units. I do agree with your comments!

The other side of the coin is that our forum deals with problems...nobody starts a thread entitled "No problems with my tires." It would be interesting to find out how many have NOT had problems with their tires. That would give us a true picture.

Art-n-Marge · 08-28-2009, 09:37 AM

Well Lawman, I gotta respect your post because someone has now created a "No problems with my tires" thread.

You had a good idea but for this to work EVERY member will have to post their experiences and include those who have had a bad experiences - this now turns into an informal poll. Plus there are some that can post they had no problems, as an example, that's because several persons played the odds the Missions would fail and replaced them.

Then there's the point Glenn brings up regarding what actually cause of failure - tire problem, suspension problem, road hazard, owner negligence, owner driving habits, etc.

Finally, just because no one has had a tire problem, doesn't mean they won't over time.

But I really do like your profound thinking.

adelmoll · 08-28-2009, 09:49 AM

We could not find a name on any of our tires so we had to call Keystone. They told us that we had Carlisle. When the truck arrived to put a new tire on for us they brought a Goodyear Wrangler but either it was a faulty tire or put on wrong and the bead has a crack all the way around the tire... What a nightmare.

We went out today and purchased four new Michelins. We also changed the spare tire even though it had never been on the ground. After leaving Minneapolis next week we will be going through the middle of Chicago and we sure don't want that to happen there... We also had them put in all new valve stems as we were not happy with the ones that came with our Big Sky.

Glenn, there was no way to tell what caused the blow out. It was the side of the tire that had a big hole in it..

Art... When you are sitting in a corn field to get off a very busy highway in the hot sun waiting for help, there is no way we were going to question the date of the tire that would get us out of there. We did make sure that the four new ones we bought today had recent dates.

Keystone did give us the # of Carlisle so we could call them to let them know we were not happy with their tires. We will wait a day or so to calm down before doing that.

As for the "No problem" thread, let me be the first to tell you that we did not have any problems with our 2005 3475rl tires. We did put all new tires on it but that was only after traveling about 50,000 miles with it including four months in Alaska. They were the Tacoma..

Helen

gitrdun · 08-28-2009, 10:02 AM

I had the Tacoma tires made in the USA and blew one in Texas doing 3700.00 worth of damage. Next week blew another, lucky not much damage. All tire pressures were checked and monitered. Broke down and bought new set of Goodrich commercials. Old tire had approx. 14,000 miles. Tread was perfect and no cracks on sidewallsand no warning just pow.

richfaa · 08-28-2009, 11:39 AM

We had the infamous Missions on our 06 3400. Ran them @10K miles then changed them out to LT Coopers. Had no problems with the missions and they were wearing normally. Actually my confidence level in any RV OEM tire is low and I would have changed out any brand at about the same milage. I was influenced by the problems reported on this and other forums. Be it noted that this is our 5th RV and we have always changed out the OEM tires within the first couple of years.

bob n pam · 08-28-2009, 12:08 PM

Helen, I'm sorry to hear of your blowout and rig damage. I'm with you on Montana offering an option of upgraded tires. I think it's a good idea.

Pam

grooving grandpa · 08-28-2009, 04:28 PM

I also have Tacoma Tires on my RL 2955, 2005. Somewhere between 15-20K miles. Only trouble was a very,very slow leak at the rim on one tire. I am very happy the the Tacoma Tires.

exav8tr · 08-29-2009, 03:39 AM

Who makes the Tacoma tires? I cannot find anything on them except "tires in Tacoma WA, or the Toyota Tacoma"?

OntMont · 08-29-2009, 04:23 AM

So far as I have been able to find out, Tacoma tires were made by Cooper Tire. They may have been a private brand for Keystone, (and possibly other RV mfrs). I never heard of anyone being able to find them for direct sale to the public. Some people replaced them with the equivalent size tire from Cooper. They were an LT rated tire. With hindsight, they seem to have been a pretty good tire, I don't recall tires being a hot topic at that time. (pre 2006)

on edit: Found this on another Forum from 2005. It was posted by Bill Frisbee, who is (or was) an MOC member.

As part of an on-going discussion on another forum, I today contacted Cooper Tires who confirmed that they did, at one time, manufacture Tacoma RV tires. They informed me that they no longer do so and suggested that I contact Parrish Tire Company, the company for whom they produced Tacomas. Parrish Tire confirmed that Tacoma RV Tires are no longer manufactured by anyone and are no longer available for sale/purchase.

exav8tr · 08-29-2009, 04:25 AM

Thank You John!

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