Mission tires - Montana Owners Club

Old Swede · 07-20-2008, 03:16 AM

So I am a real greenhorn to the Montana site and forums. I have a 2007 Montana 3075RL with less than 500 miles on the road. Looking at a few iems about the Mission tires I get the feeling that " they are duds?" Now what I read there are serious problems ! Has anyone had good results and got reasonable service life from them. Or should I start looking for replacement tire right now. I have had Sunnybrook 5th wheel rigs prior to this Montana and have always used Goodyear so I m comfortable with them, but really are Mission tires all that bad ?

JimF · 07-20-2008, 03:27 AM

Yes!!! They are that bad, I got almost 9,000 miles out of them (1 year).

richfaa · 07-20-2008, 03:56 AM

On the other hand we ran ours for over 12K miles without issue and they looked good when we replaced them.. We would have replaced any OEM tire at about that times because we feel that OEM tires, no matter what country they are made in are not of the highest quality. Many have had good luck with the missions. We report the bad luck..It never hurts to get a higher quality tire.

dsprik · 07-20-2008, 04:10 AM

Don, we have a little over 8,700 miles (8,743 actually) on ours and due to the high incidence here on the forum of failure, I called and talked to a Tireco rep. They are the distributor for Mission (and other) branded tires.

She was very nice and urged me to go out and examine my tires extremely close for signs of any cracking or bulging whatsoever, then call her back. She was seemed very eager to help me if I could find anything at all wrong with my tires.

I couldn't find anything wrong as this date. Tread, sidewall all look "like-new" yet. My 3400 mfr'd on 7/20/06 (2 years ago today) and the date stamps on all 5 tires are April of 2006.

BB_TX · 07-20-2008, 05:27 AM

I just replaced my Missions after 1 yr and 5000 miles with Michelins. No failure, but I did find a bulge starting on the inside of the front curb side tire. Did not want to take a chance on it failing on the road.

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-20-2008, 07:21 AM

DCA,
I had been in the tire business for many years prior to my RVing lifestyle. When the problems with the Mission tires first cropped up I was the one that kind of defended them. Over the years I had dealt with numerous brands and each and everyone went through a bad stage in the manufacture of a certain line of tires. It's just the nature of the beast. All manufacturers have their good days and bad days. I was willing to accept that the Missions just had a whole bunch of bad days. Problem was these bad days just kept going on and on and we were hearing more and more bad reports. Than last September in Iowa I had 2 of my Missions go bad the same day with 2 seperate problems. The first tire had sidewall seperation and actually blew out. Fortunately for me I was sitting in a diner parking lot when it happen. The other 3 tires were inspected and found a tire with tread seperation. Sidewall seperation and tread seperation may sound like the same thing but in actuality they are not. I could go deeper into seperation but I don't have the time or space to do that.
Anyway both tires were replaced and we were back on the road to the Fall Rally. After the rally we headed south toward Florida. We overnighted in Louisville, KY. When we were ready to get out on the road I found I had another flat. After careful inspection I found 3 bubbles indicating sidewall seperation in the flat tire. I immediately replaced the 2 remaining tires. The 4th tire had no indication of any problems but I was not going to take a chance on it.
Now do I believe the Missions are junk? I ain't 100% sure. The next batch of Missions imported into the USA may be as good as any other tire. Will I ever buy a Mission tire? Not on your life. Will I ever accept delivery of any type vehicle equipped with Missions? No Way.
Would I accept or buy any other tire made in China? Why not. It wasn't that very many years ago everyone was against anything made in Japan. Today they make some of the highest quality tires you can buy and to be perfectly honest they made quality tires back than.
I can go back to the days of Uniroyal having problems, the Firestone 500, BFG, Goodyear and Yes even Michelin.
If I were you I would maintain the proper air pressure at all time and inspect the tire frequently for any sign of separation. Small bulges in the sidewall or the tread seems to be crowned while the other tires are not and above all do not exceed the 65 MPH speed rating especially so on these hot hot summer days when the road service can be 50° hotter than the air temp. It's not a bad idea on these hotter days to take more breaks to allow the tires, engine, transmission, etc to cool down. It is also a great opportunity for the driver to step out and stretch his legs and just relax

exav8tr · 07-20-2008, 12:10 PM

And go pee!!!!

Waynem · 07-20-2008, 01:23 PM

Stopping for rest room breaks seem to be coming more frequently now-a-days.

I had less than 1000 miles on my Missions. After hearing and knowing persons who have had problems, and seeing the DOT manufacture year of 1999 on the Missions, I decided to have peace of mind. I replaced them all with Michelin. It was before all the talk about warranty, etc., so it was $1300 out of my pocket. But, I do have peace of mind.

sailer · 07-20-2008, 03:42 PM

I did mine with b f goodrich 85 as they are stamped made in america and comerical grade , great switch as i got over 500. from tirco and the bf cost 900. pluse so yes i am happy

Bob Pasternak · 07-21-2008, 01:08 AM

We put close to 40,000 miles on the Missions that cames with our '03 2955RL w/o problem. They were balanced and rotated at intervals. The first time I asked the dealer to rotate them, I was informed that "no one rotates tires on an RV." I told him his was not to question my judgement but do as I asked, that was what he was paid for. When we sold the unit it still had 5/32 tread depth. With this 3000RK we got Missions. Took it to the tire shop right from the dealer and had them balanced. A couple were hideously out. I don't think we have much more than 10,000 miles on these and they still look pretty good.

Since I've said this, I'll probably go to our storage yard and find 3 flats.

Steve and Brenda · 07-21-2008, 07:07 AM

Anyone desiring Mission tires are more than welcome to claim my set with less than 1500 miles on them from my garage. Just drop me a note next time you're in Abilene Texas and they're yours. There's only 4 of them (three with 1500 miles plus the spare) as the 5th shredded apart and tore my rig's wheel wells and skirting.

richfaa · 07-21-2008, 07:21 AM

Not defending them or any other tires and many different brands have had problems including those made in the USA. Just stating our experience with the Mission Tires. It was what it was. Changing them out for whatever reason is a personal choice.

rubble express · 07-27-2008, 12:41 PM

I was just looking at the good ole Missions and noticed that the load rating on them is 3520lbs @80psi. Just wondering why most other E rated 10 ply tires are all rated at 3042lbs @80psi? Anybody?

LonnieB · 07-27-2008, 02:31 PM

The Missions have a 65 mph maximum speed rating. Most LT235/85R16E tires have a speed rating of 112 mph. By lowering maximum speed, maximum load can be increased.

ChuckD · 07-29-2008, 04:09 AM

After reading all the comments on the Mission Tires I called Tireco and laid it right on the line to them and they sent me 5 new tires. After changing them out I call the 800 number for them to pick up the old tires, They said to put them outside and put a note on them showing they were for pick up by UPS. 29 days and still no pick-up. I have now put them in the garage and I will see if they call for them, If they don't I am going to throw them away.

exav8tr · 07-29-2008, 09:21 AM

Chuck, They are probably inundated with Mission tires and don't really want any more!!!! Ya Think???? lol

ChuckD · 07-30-2008, 09:46 AM

Yep I Think

bncinwv · 07-30-2008, 01:26 PM

I don't know if the dealer sent my failed Missions back or not. They lasted one year and approximately 7000-8000 miles (sorry, don't track mileage, miles per gallon, or anything that involves math when I am off work). I now have about 800 miles on the the replacement Made in China specials. They look exactly the same as the Missions did, no evidence of anything. I like Glenn, defended them at the beginning, but now adamantly believe that something is amiss in Mission town. If you still have them, please check them regularly, inside and out. Our problems were documented on another thread and I truly feel blessed that we never had a catastophic failure considering that I think I drove about four hours after the chunk of tire decided to disembark from the circular rotation that the rest of the rubber was undergoing. I will not wait a year for these, they will be replaced over the winter.
Bingo

ljensen · 07-30-2008, 09:12 PM

I had to replace 3 of the 4 on my 3400. Only had 5000 miles all three were seperating on the outside walls. I say they are junk. Louis in pittsburg Californioa

bsmeaton · 07-31-2008, 08:29 AM

Bingo,

My boat trailer has Goodyear Marathons (also made in China) and they look exactly like the Mission's as well. I think they only have one tread mold and they use it on everything. I think I saw some beach sandals from China with the same tread (maybe they were your Mission tires)

Anyway - I replaced the Marathons on the boat, not because they were worn, not because they were checking or the belts had slipped, and certainly not because they had chunks falling out. No - I replaced them because they were 12 years old!! and I didn't want to risk them anymore. I replaced them with........Marathons.

With that, hopefully it was just a glue problem with the Missions and your new ones are safe even if they do have the same tread.

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