WESTLAKE TIRES cause $1600.00 in damage to 297RSTS travel trailer

[jabhoyt]

I have a 2019 reflection 297rsts. We camped last year from mid June to the end of September for twice a month for four days each. We starting camping this year in June, and made it only to September on the Westlake Tires. We had just purchased a tire pressure and heat etc. monitor. Just about to install it. We had a front passenger tire event, and it damaged the back right tire too. We expect a statement from Good Sam Tire and Hazard Premium Insurance that the tires are damaged due to manufactured defect. I see pictures on the forum that look exactly like our most damaged tire. The tread just tore off right on the road at 55 miles per hour. The other tire had a separated belt which was not there that morning. My husband religiously inspects the tires, and the tire pressure. This one tire did damaged to our travel trailer. Amazing that it took off the wheel panel, twisted fiberglass and tore the undercarriage. The repair cost $1600. I have RV insurance but they are not willing to pay the total bill. That stuck us with additional costs to our deductible. Why we were discussing the problem with them, they issued a check anyway. The Grand Design Dealer we used happened to be 27 miles from our accident. The dealer cut their hourly rate from $150 to $135 but the insurance company still wouldn't pay the full amount. They felt it should not take 10 hours for the repair.
We are so disappointed with this Grand Design Dealer for more than one visit issue, but they are the closest to us, 1 1/2 hrs. away. We have decided never to let them deal with our vehicle again. I have tried to complain to Grand Design in the past and I was told they don't have any responsibility to intervene etc. on any repair issues. This dealer had our travel trailer from October last year until February 2021 or so this year. We asked to have some warranty work performed and they refused at first to submit photos to Grand Design etc. I complained, and made myself such a pain in the _ _ _ that their newly promoted warranty guy finally submitted pictures. We ended up getting the item replaced. My point is, I continue to get stuck between this dealer and Grand Design or this dealer and the Insurance Company.
We have decided to take the travel trailer to Alabama and have a Grand Design Dealer repair it there. They are about 2 hours from us. Just pathetic but those Westlake Tires did that much damage, and the dealer wanted money and the Insurance said no. We were the ones that got taken in the end. I do plan to submit a claim to Westlake Tires. I find it irresponsible that Grand Design continues to put these tires on the trailers. We basically had less that 4000 miles on those tires. No excuse! We didn't get more than 7 months out of those tires. I am amazed that years and years of complaints and nothing changes.
The reason they use Westlake Tires, availability. They mass produce them so travel trailer companies use them. Like EVERYONE ELSE, we removed all five tires and have them replaced. We spent over $600 to have Maxxis 8008 tires put on the travel trailer. We decided to spend to get great tires. We should never have had to do this. I actually read the complaints and encourage my husband to replace the tires last year. I asked our dealer if they could change them out for other tires when we purchased the trailer. Well, they don't handle tires at all at this dealer. So, we didn't get them changed out when we purchased the trailer. My husband had hoped to get two seasons out of the tires, based on complaints. That didn't happen obviously.
WARNING to everyone else. REPLACE the Westlake tires NOW before this happens to YOU!!! $1600 in damaged to the travel trailer due to a tire shedding its tread. Westlake should pay for all the damage! I am in agreement with others on that fact. I didn't cause the damage. That tire did. Westlake should be liable. I will get money for two tires out of them for sure. However, by the time I am done, I will have paid out almost $1000.00 for deductible on RV repair, plus money insurance company would not pay, plus replacing five tires. No one should have to do this because terrible tires on placed on Grand Design trailers, and Grand Design knows this.

[bertschb]

...I actually read the complaints and encouraged my husband to replace the tires last year....

You gave your husband great advice!

I replaced the "E" rated Westlake Tires on my Reflection the day I picked it up. Many people do the same. Some take chances and see how long they can run them. Sorry to hear about the damage. That would make me sick. BTW, basically all RV manufacturers use cheap tires for their less expensive (e.g. <$50k) RV's. Grand Design is now using Goodyear Endurance and "G" rated Westlake Tires on many of their models now. Those are both excellent tires.

[xrated]

Sorry to hear about the damage to your camper. I will say however, a good TPMS system on the trailer tires can pay huge dividends in preventing what happened. My first mod on our trailer was a Progressive EMS system, and the next mod was a TireMinder TPMS. Both of those items went on the trailer BEFORE we started camping with it. TPMS is not a guarantee that you won't have issues, but it's a great head start on discovering an issue before it becomes serious and causes a lot of damage.

[Calbar]

I have a 2019 reflection 297rsts. We camped last year from mid June to the end of September for twice a month for four days each. We starting camping this year in June, and made it only to September on the Westlake Tires. We had just purchased a tire pressure and heat etc. monitor. Just about to install it. We had a front passenger tire event, and it damaged the back right tire too. We expect a statement from Good Sam Tire and Hazard Premium Insurance that the tires are damaged due to manufactured defect. I see pictures on the forum that look exactly like our most damaged tire. The tread just tore off right on the road at 55 miles per hour. The other tire had a separated belt which was not there that morning. My husband religiously inspects the tires, and the tire pressure. This one tire did damaged to our travel trailer. Amazing that it took off the wheel panel, twisted fiberglass and tore the undercarriage. The repair cost $1600. I have RV insurance but they are not willing to pay the total bill. That stuck us with additional costs to our deductible. Why we were discussing the problem with them, they issued a check anyway. The Grand Design Dealer we used happened to be 27 miles from our accident. The dealer cut their hourly rate from $150 to $135 but the insurance company still wouldn't pay the full amount. They felt it should not take 10 hours for the repair.
We are so disappointed with this Grand Design Dealer for more than one visit issue, but they are the closest to us, 1 1/2 hrs. away. We have decided never to let them deal with our vehicle again. I have tried to complain to Grand Design in the past and I was told they don't have any responsibility to intervene etc. on any repair issues. This dealer had our travel trailer from October last year until February 2021 or so this year. We asked to have some warranty work performed and they refused at first to submit photos to Grand Design etc. I complained, and made myself such a pain in the _ _ _ that their newly promoted warranty guy finally submitted pictures. We ended up getting the item replaced. My point is, I continue to get stuck between this dealer and Grand Design or this dealer and the Insurance Company.
We have decided to take the travel trailer to Alabama and have a Grand Design Dealer repair it there. They are about 2 hours from us. Just pathetic but those Westlake Tires did that much damage, and the dealer wanted money and the Insurance said no. We were the ones that got taken in the end. I do plan to submit a claim to Westlake Tires. I find it irresponsible that Grand Design continues to put these tires on the trailers. We basically had less that 4000 miles on those tires. No excuse! We didn't get more than 7 months out of those tires. I am amazed that years and years of complaints and nothing changes.
The reason they use Westlake Tires, availability. They mass produce them so travel trailer companies use them. Like EVERYONE ELSE, we removed all five tires and have them replaced. We spent over $600 to have Maxxis 8008 tires put on the travel trailer. We decided to spend to get great tires. We should never have had to do this. I actually read the complaints and encourage my husband to replace the tires last year. I asked our dealer if they could change them out for other tires when we purchased the trailer. Well, they don't handle tires at all at this dealer. So, we didn't get them changed out when we purchased the trailer. My husband had hoped to get two seasons out of the tires, based on complaints. That didn't happen obviously.
WARNING to everyone else. REPLACE the Westlake tires NOW before this happens to YOU!!! $1600 in damaged to the travel trailer due to a tire shedding its tread. Westlake should pay for all the damage! I am in agreement with others on that fact. I didn't cause the damage. That tire did. Westlake should be liable. I will get money for two tires out of them for sure. However, by the time I am done, I will have paid out almost $1000.00 for deductible on RV repair, plus money insurance company would not pay, plus replacing five tires. No one should have to do this because terrible tires on placed on Grand Design trailers, and Grand Design knows this.

Sorry to hear about your trouble. If it is any consolation GDRV now put Goodyear Endurance on the 297RSTS. I know that doesn't help you out but should help stop these types of issues. My 297RSTS came with 16" Westlake E-rated tires. They have been good so far and I expect to replace them soon. Hopefully I don't regret still leaving them on like your husband surely is right now. I think your 297RSTS has 15" tires and that is the heavy side of the trailer too. I think you will have much better reliability out of the Maxxis tires. I had them on my previous trailer and really liked them.

Rob

[bertschb]

...TPMS is not a guarantee that you won't have issues, but it's a great head start on discovering an issue before it becomes serious and causes a lot of damage.

Most of the Westlake "E" rated tire failures I've read about were tread separations where the tire was still inflated. No warnings from the TPMS in this case. I agree trailer TPMS is a great idea but when it comes to Westlake "E" rated tires, just replace them when you get your RV because the TPMS probably won't help.

[xrated]

Most of the Westlake "E" rated tire failures I've read about were tread separations where the tire was still inflated. No warnings from the TPMS in this case. I agree trailer TPMS is a great idea but when it comes to Westlake "E" rated tires, just replace them when you get your RV because the TPMS probably won't help.

That's probably true. I've got the Westlake "G" rated tires on the Momentum 394 and from what I understand there are very few issues with the G rated ones.

[Springerdad]

To the OP: I'm sorry for your troubles. But, how do you know if the tire came apart due to a defect, or because it lost pressure and overheated and then failed. My last trip out I picked up a nail on my left rear tire only 5 miles into the trip. I only knew about it because I could see the pressure dropping steadily on my TPMS as I drove. I was lucky - I was able to exit the interstate and change the tire BEFORE it blew out due to low pressure. I too have Westlake tires on my Reflection. And as larry0071 said, you chose the deductible, so it's not fair to expect someone to eat it for you.

[WhittleBurner]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. If it is any consolation GDRV now put Goodyear Endurance on the 297RSTS. I know that doesn't help you out but should help stop these types of issues. My 297RSTS came with 16" Westlake E-rated tires. They have been good so far and I expect to replace them soon. Hopefully I don't regret still leaving them on like your husband surely is right now. I think your 297RSTS has 15" tires and that is the heavy side of the trailer too. I think you will have much better reliability out of the Maxxis tires. I had them on my previous trailer and really liked them.

Rob

I hope you are jacking the trailer tires up off the ground to inspect frequently. Our Westlakes had plenty of tread but we were going to replace after the 2nd season ended. That was changed fast when Gary jacked up the trailer for inspection and found a fairly good sized split that would have not been seen if the tire was grounded. We don't know if it was failure or road damage ..just glad the inspection was done with the tires off the ground or it would have been missed.

[Calbar]

I hope you are jacking the trailer tires up off the ground to inspect frequently. Our Westlakes had plenty of tread but we were going to replace after the 2nd season ended. That was changed fast when Gary jacked up the trailer for inspection and found a fairly good sized split that would have not been seen if the tire was grounded. We don't know if it was failure or road damage ..just glad the inspection was done with the tires off the ground or it would have been missed.

Hi Marcy,

Thanks for the info. I do jack them up and look at everything I can see before we leave on a trip and when we get to where we are going. As well I do a quick inspection when filling the truck. I do this on the truck tires as well as the trailer. I have found screws, nails and cracks before. I actually found a few cracks in the tread of one of the tires a few weeks ago. Took it to the tire shop today and was told good to take on one a short trip but since they are starting to crack and are 4 years old now from date of manufacture to replace all in the spring or before my next long trip.

Rob

[LV Naturist]

Okay, let's all take a deep breath. @jabhoyt it's unfortunate that the dealer is not taking care of you the way they should. I had issues with our local dealer (not purchasing dealer thank goodness) and won't do business with them again. I would highly recommend you stay away from Camping World. As a company, their service department has a very poor reputation. Just sayin'.

As far as the TPMS system goes, you should be fine with metal valve stems. The issue is usually the other way around. Most flow through TPMS systems require metal valve stems because the rubber ones won't hold up to the added weight of the sensors. If you have the non-flow through's (these just replace the valve cap) either rubber or metal stems are okay. Bottom line here is I have never heard of a TPMS system that requires rubber stems vs metal. I think you're good there.

If I understood your post to larry0071 it appears the difference between what your insurance is paying and what they want is $125.00. I might be inclined to pay the difference, call it lesson learned, and move on. I can see a business charging for an estimate if they don't perform the repairs. They do need to pay their employees for the time spent on the estimate. Again, if I understand you, they won't charge you that if they do the repairs. With regards to the cost of the replacement tires, you were going to replace them anyway, so I don't see an issue there.

On a side note, perhaps you could find a mobile RV tech in your area that can handle any repairs beyond your expertise instead of taking the TT to your dealer. I've used them on my 381 even though there is a GD dealer literally less than 4 miles from my house. In my case, both repairs were warranty at that and GD paid all but the service charge. One Mobile tech even waived the charge for me...

Safe and happy camping!

John