Westlake Tire disaster this past weekend...Head's up!!

[jleonard]

I also recently replaced one of my Westlakes with a Primewell because it was in stock at a local tires plus. Keeping my fingers crossed. (Load range E)
Failure of the westy was NOT from a blowout, but from a screw too close to the sidewall to patch.

[justdede]

We purchase Goodyear Endurance tires Friday that replaced our Westlake E tires. The Westlake had a born on date of 52/16 and had about 2500 miles on them (still looked good), but the peace of mind was well worth the expense.

Remember your tires age from the date they are manufactured. Four years is about the safe life for trailer tires. So with a tire born December 2016, replacing them by December 2020 is very wise. In this case it is the age, not the mileage.

[RobW-NC]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Sucks out loud! Wishing you safe journey's.

Thanks for the heads up. I have 4 16" Westlakes load range E that I will look at replacing next year. They have about 3k on them now. I will probably got to load range G.

I just replaced my 16" Westlakes with Sailun S637's which is a G rated tire.

[ElmonTX]

We have a friend that has a older Snowbird trailer with 15" wheels. He had numerous blowouts and I read in a magazine to upgrade to 16". He did that and has not had a blowout since. We sold our motorhome and purchased a Reflection 303RLS with 15" Westlake tires which got me thinking about my friends tires issues. If you look at the weight limits of your trailer you will find your tires and axle are at there limit (at least ours was). To make a long story short we upgraded to 16" wheels and Endurance tires. Costly but I feel a little better than running on the Westlake tires. The only problem I had was Discount tire put two year old tires on and I made them change to tires less than a year old.

[maddog]

I have a 2016 Reflection 303RLS. It came with Westlake E rated tires. Had one tire tread separate at about 70mph on I-70 in Colorado. The tire surprisingly did not go flat as it was riding on its steel belts. I felt a pretty good jolt but did not think much of it as we were getting buffeted by some pretty strong winds and the tire was still holding air. Drove through Glenwood Canyon and 80 miles later made it to camp when my wife alerted me to the damage as she was guiding me back into our camp site. I could not believe what I saw.... lots of damage and a completely shredded tire still holding air. Replaced all 4 tires with new Goodyear Endurance. I would assume the Westlake's had about 5,000 miles on them, the tread looked like new, and they were properly inflated, however they were 6 years old. Not sure how much the age of the tire contributed to the problem, but I will not keep tires that long again and will shy away from Westlake's. Saved the repairs for the end of the camping season this year, going to pick up the camper today, $5,600 damage... ouch!!!!

[justdede]

I have a 2016 Reflection 303RLS. It came with Westlake E rated tires. Had one tire tread separate at about 70mph on I-70 in Colorado. The tire surprisingly did not go flat as it was riding on its steel belts. I felt a pretty good jolt but did not think much of it as we were getting buffeted by some pretty strong winds and the tire was still holding air. Drove through Glenwood Canyon and 80 miles later made it to camp when my wife alerted me to the damage as she was guiding me back into our camp site. I could not believe what I saw.... lots of damage and a completely shredded tire still holding air. Replaced all 4 tires with new Goodyear Endurance. I would assume the Westlake's had about 5,000 miles on them, the tread looked like new, and they were properly inflated, however they were 6 years old. Not sure how much the age of the tire contributed to the problem, but I will not keep tires that long again and will shy away from Westlake's. Saved the repairs for the end of the camping season this year, going to pick up the camper today, $5,600 damage... ouch!!!!

Tough lesson to learn. We all need to remember with trailer tires is "the age not the mileage" and tires age from the date of manufacture (after 3 to 4 years you are on borrowed time), watch the load range, speed rating and inflation. Even the very best tires will blow or separate if you regularly press the limits in any of those categories. So sorry this happened to you.