Airstream *NON-ST* Tire Poll

[Phoenix]

AIRSTREAM *NON-ST* TIRE POLL – This poll applies only to NON-ST tires installed on Airstream travel trailers. Owners of Airstreams with ST (Special Trailer) tires, should NOT participate in this poll. Instead, they should enter their responses at this link: Airstream Tire Failure Poll.


Important Guidelines for Poll Participation

This poll must be completed in one session.

Also, because each member may only respond to this poll ONE TIME, new Airstream owners and AirForums members who have recently converted from ST (Special Trailer) to NON-ST tires may wish to delay participating in this poll, until they have accumulated significant mileage without incident, or until they have a tire failure. Otherwise, this poll will only indicate the number of Airstreams that have switched tire types.


Thanks, in advance, for your participation!

[Bruce B]

What am I doing wrong?
I don't see a poll...
Bruce

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Bruce B

What am I doing wrong?
I don't see a poll...
Bruce

You're doing what I'm doing - and seeing no poll 😳😀

[FCStreamer]

Not to mention a poll of forum readers is not exactly representative.

[Rich W]

I don't see the poll, but I see the Pole when I look in the mirror.
Is this going to be a poll or a survey?
Why does the ST group have to go to a poll that contains the word "failure" but the non-ST group's doesn't?
How are you going to keep the non-ST people from participating and skewing the results?
What is the purpose of the poll?
Why is there air?
What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Oh look, time for my medication....

[SteveSueMac]

Unladen swallow! Very well played!


"He bravely ran away!"

😂😂😭

[FCStreamer]

OMG. I see the poll now. It's a lot of work. Makes me glad to have ST tires...

[Phoenix]

Sorry for delay. Posting of the initial message and poll questions are done in two parts; so the post appears first, while the poll questions are still being entered. The last poll was done late at night, so no one was up to see the delay.

To answer a couple of questions (my responses are in BLUE TEXT):

• A poll of forum readers is not exactly representative -- Sorry, that's all we've got. If anyone can find a more representative sample, they are welcome to write another poll. Also, I'm sure there will be complaints about this poll being composed of anecdotal comments with no hard data. Again, others are welcome to find their own data. For now, I suspect this is all of the information we'll get; that's why I wrote the poll -- There is no hard data on tire reliability on Airstreams.
  
  
• Why does the ST group have to go to a poll that contains the word "failure" but the non-ST group's doesn't? -- The original "tire failure poll" was written a couple of years ago, and there were things I would change if I could. However, once posted, polls can't be edited; so what you see is what you get.
  
  After the "failure" poll was written, I recognized that there was no way for members to enter details on ST tires that hadn't failed; so I wrote a separate poll for that. However, people who are happy with their ST tires don't seem to be interested in telling anyone about them. Also, what's to tell?
  
  The NON_ST Tire Poll has the questions reorganized, so two polls are unnecessary; and hopefully, there will be very few entries in the "failure" portion of the NON-ST poll. Also, I hope members don't enter data for nails and similar road hazards, as this will skew the data away from catastrophic failures, which are what I think most readers are interest in.
  
  
• How are you going to keep the non-ST people from participating and skewing the results? -- Like any poll, one cannot control who enters what. Most likely, there will be mistakes by individuals, and probably trolls who just want to mess with the poll results. However, in most cases, these can be identified and accounted for, with adjusted results posted after the fact.
  
  For example, in the "tire failure poll" that ended up containing data mostly for ST tires, there was an entry for 16" Goodyear LT tires. This looked odd, so I contacted the poll participant; and I discovered that an incorrect box had been checked, and the tires were actually GYMs. There were a couple of entries like this that can be compensated for in analyzing the final numbers. However, the poll entries, displayed numbers and percentages cannot be altered or corrected due to the peculiarities of the underlying BBS software that stores the data and does the poll calculations.
  
  
• What is the purpose of the poll? -- It's mostly to satisfy my personal curiosity; and I think many AirForums members would like to know whether the switch to 15" XL tires, 16" LT tires and the new Michelin Defenders are any better than the OEM GYM ST's.

In any case, I hope this poll will provide some entertainment and possibly some useful information for those who haven't switched, and justification for those who have.

[sb55]

I can't open the poll, but I stuck with 15" rims and bought 15" General Grabber LT tires. Works great on my 25' Safari. Over 8000 lbs capacity on 6000 lb GVW. In 1.5 years they haven't lost any air.


On an island in Vermont

[Phoenix]

Important Note for Poll Participants

About halfway down the poll questions are three questions that look like the text below:

======================================

[ ] HAS A *NON-ST* TIRE FAILED ON YOUR AIRSTREAM – If YES is selected, please continue with this poll. However, if your answer is NO; please stop, and do not proceed further. The questions that follow pertain only to NON-ST tire failures.

[ ] Has a NON-ST tire failed on your Airstream in the past 10 years? – Yes (Please continue.)

[ ] Has a NON-ST tire failed on your Airstream in the past 10 years? – No (Please stop here.)

======================================

I now realize that the instructions sound like you are not supposed to answer any of the questions from here down, if you have not had a tire failure. However, please make sure you select (checkmark) one of the last two questions (in bold text, above), whichever is appropriate. Otherwise, the percentages for this subsection will be incorrect.

Thanks!

[Phoenix]

• Despite its apparent length, this poll is relatively short. If you are not reporting a tire failure, you need only complete the first half of the poll, which contains 17 easy questions that will take only a minute or two to answer.
  
  For example, the second question asks for the name of the TIRE MANUFACTURER; and while there are 29 possible answers, it only takes a few seconds to pick the one appropriate response. Similarly, the other questions in the first half of the poll are easy and quickly answered.
  
  
• If you are reporting a tire failure, the second half of the poll collects failure details, including expenses. You may wish to scan the questions in this portion of the poll to see what data you need to gather before taking the poll. Remember, the poll must be completed in one session. You cannot answer part of the list of questions, and then return later to finish the remainder.
  
  
• It's interesting to note that no NON-ST tire failures have been reported so far. However, in the first few hours, only seven AirForums members have completed the poll. I know there are a lot more people running non-ST tires, so I encourage those members to take a few minutes to share your tire experiences.

Thanks!

[OTRA15]

Re-posting the link to the other AS Tire Failure Poll for ST tires, where some further comments and questions are. Thanks Phoenix for doing all this work.

Peter

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f438...oll-76867.html

[OTRA15]

Moderators and administrators, could this poll and the other one be made into Sticky topics in the Tires sub-forum?

Thanks

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f438/

[CapriRacer]

Is there a way to tell when the entries were made? I have a working hypothesis that ST tires have improved and the way to tell is to look at when the entries were made.

[Rich W]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Unladen swallow! Very well played!


"He bravely ran away!"

������

T'was Sir Robin, bravely running away from the Two-Headed Giant.
Tis but one answer for the unladen swallow question....
African or European?
Wrong answers will get you cast into the gorge of eternal peril, where they make the GYM ST tires.

[Phoenix]

Could the person with the NON-ST failure please post the details for their tire incident (tire manufacturer, model, size, inflation pressure, etc.)?

Unfortunately, during poll creation, the POLL OPTION that allows participants' screen names to be displayed was not selected. Consequently, it's impossible to tie a person's answers in the first half of the poll, to their failure responses in the second half; and this option cannot be changed after the poll was posted.

Thanks.

[Don McKelvay]

Thank you Phoniex for putting this survey together. I completed it, my 1994 34 footer was the first trailer my dealer changed the ST 15 inch to passenger tires 16 (on American Racing rims) back in 1994 and I am the second owner. One of his main reasons was a smoother ride and a slightly lower profile. And, another advantage is passenger tires are available almost everywhere. Some people have been concerned but when you add up the loads each tire can carry over 6 tires, there is still about a 2,500 lb window before being overloaded. I have owned it for 11 years and have had some flats mostly due to screws, etc or driving over curbs where the tire blew out.

I had a little difficulty completing the survey given after this last trip of 11,000 miles to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon on the worst roads we have seen in 25 years of towing, we had a total of 7 flats. The worst was a blow out with no indication on our TMPS (luckily no body damage), one tire had 3 flats and all withing 3 inches of each other but were slow and warning was given on my TMPS so I could stop. 2 of the other 3 were due to screws and nails, again my TMPS saved the day. And finally the last one could not be explained. All tires were less than 4 years old. Interestingly all the replacement tires were manufactured about 10 months before I purchased them.

We usually travel 13,000 miles a year and 'usually' have no problems.

I will be interesting to see any conclusions you derive from the survey.

[interstateflyer]

Originally Posted by Don McKelvay

Thank you Phoniex for putting this survey together. I completed it, my 1994 34 footer was the first trailer my dealer changed the ST 15 inch to passenger tires 16 (on American Racing rims) back in 1994 and I am the second owner. One of his main reasons was a smoother ride and a slightly lower profile. And, another advantage is passenger tires are available almost everywhere. Some people have been concerned but when you add up the loads each tire can carry over 6 tires, there is still about a 2,500 lb window before being overloaded. I have owned it for 11 years and have had some flats mostly due to screws, etc or driving over curbs where the tire blew out.

I had a little difficulty completing the survey given after this last trip of 11,000 miles to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon on the worst roads we have seen in 25 years of towing, we had a total of 7 flats. The worst was a blow out with no indication on our TMPS (luckily no body damage), one tire had 3 flats and all withing 3 inches of each other but were slow and warning was given on my TMPS so I could stop. 2 of the other 3 were due to screws and nails, again my TMPS saved the day. And finally the last one could not be explained. All tires were less than 4 years old. Interestingly all the replacement tires were manufactured about 10 months before I purchased them.

We usually travel 13,000 miles a year and 'usually' have no problems.

I will be interesting to see any conclusions you derive from the survey.

Would you mind telling us which tires you were running on that trip.

[Don McKelvay]

Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max P235/65 R16. Back in 2011 I had Goodyear Comfort Tread Tour and in 2008 Goodyear Accuride but I guess tires change over the years.

[MelGoddard]

Originally Posted by FCStreamer

Not to mention a poll of forum readers is not exactly representative.

Well, any kind of a 'poll/survey' of owners is better than a 'kick in the porch'!

How else is the guy gonna get any information that means anything???