Greenball Towmaster SS Special Trailer Radial Tire from Costco or SAMs

[nautiqueman]

Any comments? I'm considering this tire for my 34' Classic.

[Momtoza]

Towmaster are horrible tires. Ours had less than 500 miles on them when they started exploding. All SIX tires exploded, one by one. Very dangerous. One exploded when my husband was just a few feet away. He couldn't hear for about an hour. Thank goodness he wasn't hovering directly over it, which is why he was out there in the first place. It was the last of SIX tires to spontaneously combust. We should have just set the money we spent on fire. It would have been safer.

[Ray Eklund]

My 23 foot Safari with 14" Marathons. Accidents 'wanting' to happen with C Rated tires.

Costco Towmaster 14". Never one issue with mine.
Les Schwab Towmaxx 14". Never one issue with mine.
Both brand's tread wear out too quickly under normal use.

If you can avoid ST tires for your 34 foot, I would reconsider.

LT tires for a 34 foot. Airstream upgrades to LT Michelins. Read up on those Threads. I will never use another ST (Trailer Tire) again. The standards of construction are not comparable to a P or LT rated E tire.

People are too concerned over a couple hundred dollars more for better tires. The ST tires wear faster and have less tread to begin with.

Momtoza... what did you replace the Towmasters? LT tires... I have to assume. Finish your story. I hope it had a happy solution.

After observing how some trailer owners and RV owners hit curbs, pot holes and tow their vehicles behind a bus through hedges and landscaping... no wonder some can destroy a tire, or tires.

Much like cleaning a loaded rifle... what led up to losing six tires?

[Momtoza]

Ray,

Ours were e rated. 235/80/16. They blew up sitting still, less than 500 miles on them. One at a time, over a period of 3-4 months.

At the moment the trailer is on Jack stands in front of our shop while we attempt to research the different tires.

This is a 38' 5th wheel used to trailer cars to and from the race track. And it moves from bay to bay on our shop while they are redoing the inside.

Several friends have had their tires explode while they were towing. Not a pleasant experience. Not to mention being incredibly dangerous.

But the hubby is seriously considering Maxxis. That's the last I heard anyway.

[nautiqueman]

I have learned I'm not going to tow much over 70 mph so the tires don't overheat. Also I have nitrogen in the tires and air pressure to 80 per the tire spec. I have towed about 1000 miles with no issues.

I appreciate the open forum here for ideas and experiences to be shared. Thanks!

[Bill M.]

So I assume you bought the Greenball Towmaster?

[nautiqueman]

Yes
I will be the test case here. I didn't change the factory wheels to 16's
I've had great results from the Goodyear marathons in the past.

On the way home from the purchase of this AS, I did experience a blowout but no damage to the unit. However the tires were 6 yr old towmasters

[Tyvekcat]

Check out the Hercules line of tires.
http://www.herculestire.com/tire-gallery/commercial/specialty/

Load range 'E' in 15 inch. I had a set for five years on a 'some other brand' travel trailer and were perfect. No dry rot, but I kept them covered when not using them.
They were recommended to me by some friends of mine that had them on horse trailers. Horses are heavy. Thats why I call them the 'dark horse' of tires.
My friend has the 16 inch, keeps them pumped up to max pressure all the time. I doubt he goes over 65 mph with them ( I know I didn't). But they wear very well.
They are kinda hard to find.Just another option.
I am not affiliated with Hercules tire, just had a good set, and plan to get another set when my current ones hit the time limit.
Have a good one

[xrvr]

Originally Posted by nautiqueman

Any comments? I'm considering this tire for my 34' Classic.

Are those the same ones AS used to sell?

[hhendrix]

My original GYM's failed after 3 years. Before leaving for Alaska, I went to Les Schwabe to have the tires rotated and balanced. Soon got a phone call stating the GYM's were so far out of round they couldn't be balanced. At the last minute we had to buy a set of 10 ply Towmasters.
Fast forward about 2 years and 12-15K miles, I had a blowout near Flagstaff, AZ. No Les Schwabe nearby, so we could only find tires at a Big O store. Bought two Commodores because one of the other Towmasters wasn't wearing well.
So now I have 2 Commodores and 2 Towmasters. I took the AS into our local dealer (Northwest Airstreams) to have the brakes checked, tires rotated, and some minor service done. When I came to pick up the AS, the dealer had put on a spare because another Towmaster had failed. Both failures were due to internal tread and belt seperation. The Towmasters never seemed to wear well or evenly despite regular rotation and air pressure maintenance. Les Schwabe replace the tire under the almost worthless Towmaster warranty, but I could hardly wait to replace the entire set.
That was it for me and marginal tires. If you research here there is all kinds of doom and gloom with most brands except 16" Michelins. So, several of us went to the Sendel distributor, bought 16" wheels and waited for a Michelin tire sale. Based on my experience so far, I would never recommend GYM's or Towmasters even thought AS supplies both. The Michelins have so far performed well with wear, handling, and even maintaining air pressure. BTW, many tire dealers say it's not necessary to rotate the tires on dual or triple axels, but my experience is that the rear set seem to scrub more in turns increasing the wear. That was especially true with the Towmasters.
Another piece of advice, buy from the biggest tire dealer you can. Someone with stores in almost every state, like Americas Tire. While many like Costco, I don't think they have as many stores and some don't sell tires. Because sooner or later, you will have a tire issue. It also a good idea to practice changing a tire including getting out the spare from its location.

[Ray Eklund]

hhendrix... impressive failure!

I was looking at what was left of your tire tread. It appears you were on borrowed time. I replaced my Maxxis with Tow Max once the tread gets below 50%.

The tread on ST tires is so minimal, I do not even recall any tread wear indicators between the tread to get one's attention.