Towmax Tire.....another story.

[gtfiver]

I think you are living on borrowed time with the Towmax tires, and personally I would change out all four. Duros have had their share of problems as well (read through the entries on this thread and other threads under Slick and Tired; I had a failure after about 18 months and 10,000 miles). I went with Goodyear G614s for my F35KS3, but that might be overkill for your model. Have seen posts recommending Maxxis, but I haven't had any first-hand experience and don't know where the tires are manufactured.

http://www.maxxis.com/Industrial/Trailer.aspx

[hikerflyguy]

Thanks GTfiver,
I'm so confused about what to do about the tires - I have Michleins on the truck and am thinking about gettting the Michlein Ribs but my tires are the standard 235/80R16 while the Ribs are 235/85R16 - unsure if they can be used with the rims I have now and if I'll have enough room between the tires or is that a concern at all??
We usually run light - never have exceeded the max wgt of 12+K ( my 30' 5er is 10,300 dry) so the load rating of the Ribs of 3040 will probably be close. (12160) - Think that the Tow Maxs are rated about the same.
Your Goodyear Gs are about the same price as best as I could determine.  I might be able to get either tire from my local tire shop but then there is the situation with the mounting and concern that they know how to jack up the 5er if they do it at all.
My buddy thinks that the reason that the rear tires are wearing could be that the trailer doesn't ride as level as possible - they had a problem getting the 5er level and had to reposition the king pin due to the high rails on the dually - I think that they also raised the suspension on the Mor-ryde.
I read that higher tires could also. I have about 5" clearance between rails and undercarriage of the 5er
Thank you for your help

[adminjim]

Gt5er,

Being an engineer, did you ascertain if the reason for failure of your Duro tire was an internal structural deficiency or the result of an encounter with a road hazard.  This is
imperative to knowing if there are inherent flaws in Duro tires, or simply the result of a real world encounter with an unavoidable object.  What was Duro's response to the the aftermath of your failure or the photos you sent them of the failed tire. 

This information is essential to all of us towing on Duro's that believe them to be better than Tow Max's and cant afford to swap to Goodyears.

Thanks

Jim

[gtfiver]

My tire develped a hemorrhoid, with a piece of belt sticking out right around where the tread and sidewall meet. I had no encounters with road hazards, curbs, etc that I am aware of.  I didn't take any pictures or attempt to get Duro to do anything about the failure. It did not seem worth the aggravation to me, and I wasn't interested in a replacement Duro anyway.

[gtfiver]

I have Michleins on the truck and am thinking about gettting the Michlein Ribs but my tires are the standard 235/80R16 while the Ribs are 235/85R16 - unsure if they can be used with the rims I have now and if I'll have enough room between the tires or is that a concern at all??

I'm not the biggest expert on tires, but based on my understanding of tire sizes, sounds like the Michelins would be about the same width as your current tires and would fit the rims, but the outside diameter would be maybe about an inch more. So there would be about an inch less clearance between the tires and a half inch less between the tires and wheel wells. If you are around 12k loaded, figure you are < 10k on the axles. So you would probably be OK with the Ribs from a load perspective.

[hikerflyguy]

After doing hours of research and talking with the Michlein rep (he doesn't reco putting the XPS Ribs due to the lower load rating - nearly 400 lbs less per tire) and reading some info about the Maxxis 8008s and unsure abut the quality of the Goodyear Marathons, Ive decided to replace all 4 with the Maxxis.  My local tire shop said that they can do the replcement - balance, mounting should cost about 140+Tx/tire.
Cost isn't really an issue as my wife said that she would pay for the tires from her SS stash.
I hope that I'm making the right decision but probably will be in better shape than leaving the Tow Max on the 5er - I recalculated the est. mileage on the tires on one of my sleepless nights and had forgotten about many trips - tires have well over 20K on them - I must have a tire angel looking over us.
Any additional comments/advice will be appreciated and welcomed.

[eldondr]

I replaced a set of Goodyear Marathons about 2 years ago with a set of the Maxxis 8008s and was very pleased with them. Unfortunately I can't attest to their reliability due to the fact that I traded that unit for my current Cameo after just a few thousand miles on the new tires but I had no problem with them during that time. When it comes time to replace the Duro's, unless something else that I perceive to be a better choice comes along, I will probably go with the Maxxis. Let us know how they hold up for you.

[hikerflyguy]

I ordered the Maxxis 8008 today and the tire shop will put them on for me - The reason I went with the Maxxis tires is that I haven't heard any really bad things about them and the my tire guy said that he puts a lot of them on for others.  It's a simple swap out.
Since my 5er is only 30', I should be okay with these tires as I'm really careful about the inflation and wgt of the RV.  I'll post after the trip and give an update as I know by the many posts, tire replacement is a nerve-racking issue.
Thanks to all who responded - it's nice to know that there is support/knowledge out there because most of the info you get on-line isn't very trustworthy.
Now if you have a dental question, I can help you with that!!!