Westlake Tires are JUNK and a safety hazard.

[Bungy]

I agree, Westlake tires are total junk and definitely a safety issue. Had to change out Westlake China bomb on busy Inerstate on 2018 Imagine with just over 3 years from tire date of mfg. , glad Hero unit showed up and deverted traffic to other lane.
Now have 5 Goodyear Endurance tires, don't forget to switch out spare. Guy at campground has new 150 Reflection 5th wheel that came with Goodyear Endurance tires except spare is Westlake. Got nail in one of Endurance tires and had to put Westlake China bomb spare on, he switching spare to Goodyear ASAP. Goodyear repaired his Goodyear Endurance at no charge. Hate to think what would have happened if he had blowout with China bomb spare.

Looks like the problems with the Westlake tires are predominately on the entry level Imagine tt’s.

[livinthelife]

Looks like the problems with the Westlake tires are predominately on the entry level Imagine tt’s.

Could be. Maybe not. We (Reflection) had our first Westlake replaced by the dealer at 2 months (kept losing air). Second one replaced at 4 months (discovered large bubble on inside of tire when we went to hitch up at end of trip, tire pressure of 28). Replaced that one with a Goodyear Endurance. Once back home, replaced the other 3 tires with Endurance. We just didn't want to mess with them any longer.

[Wicked ace]

Looks like the problems with the Westlake tires are predominately on the entry level Imagine tt’s.

I had one blow up on my reflection about two months ago. Irony was I planned to replace them after that trip so I'd be ready for the next. I now have 4 new Endurance as well. On my way back to the campground I too immediately noticed better ride and handling.

[OurNewEra]

Looks like the problems with the Westlake tires are predominately on the entry level Imagine tt’s.

I don't know that I would call an Imagine an 'entry level' trailer. The issue, if you believe there is one, is with the load range E Westlake tire. The GVWR of the trailer determines which load range should be put on a particular trailer or line of trailer. Reflections and Solitudes are heavier so they get a load range G. Imagine XLS and Transcend are lighter so they would most likely get a load range D.

So there is no correlation between the Imagine being an 'entry level' (in your opinion) trailer. It has to do with the GVWR of the trailer and the load range of the tire; and GDs decision to put Westlake tires on their units; and there being a perceived or actual quality issue with the Westlake load range E tire.

[CaptPicardo]

Purchased a new 2600RB a few months ago. It came with the Westlake tires on it. I figured I would be able to sneak in a few trips before upgrading to the Good Year Endurance. Well, that wasn't remotely close to reality. The trash tires that came on the trailer lasted two trips and roughly 250 miles. The tread is splitting and peeling off of one of the tires. Hopefully Grand Design pulls their head out and realize that cutting corners to reduce costs creates safety risks; especially in the form of tires. I HIGHLY recommend upgrading your tires immediately if your trailer comes with Westlakes. I can already here numerous people saying "they've never had a problem with Westlakes," and "have driven a million miles on them," and so on and so forth. To those folks: good for you, and consider yourself lucky. I'd rather not leave the safety of my family and to all those on the road to luck; and I can imagine most will agree. I off-road here in Southern California all the time, so the lecture on tire pressure is not needed. Safe travels!


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I really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences with tires. We are new to RV'ing and I'm a nervous nelly so have been watching ours like a hawk. We have the Westlake ST235/80R16 Radial Trailer Tire - Load Range G on a 2019 GD Solitude. They have about 8k miles on them thus far and are looking great still. Does anyone have any experience with that particular tire - if so, would love to hear your experiences.

[bertschb]

We have the Westlake ST235/80R16 Radial Trailer Tire - Load Range G on a 2019 GD Solitude. They have about 8k miles on them thus far and are looking great still. Does anyone have any experience with that particular tire - if so, would love to hear your experiences.

Welcome to the forum. If you do a search for this tire, you'll see hundreds (thousands?) of posts about the G rated Westlake tires. The general consensus is they are excellent tires. The E rated Westlake tires? Not so much....

[CoChris]

I really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences with tires. We are new to RV'ing and I'm a nervous nelly so have been watching ours like a hawk. We have the Westlake ST235/80R16 Radial Trailer Tire - Load Range G on a 2019 GD Solitude. They have about 8k miles on them thus far and are looking great still. Does anyone have any experience with that particular tire - if so, would love to hear your experiences.

A lot of people here have the Westlake load range G tires on their Solitude and momentums. In short, it appears to be a good tire. I have recently heard of the first failure of a LRG G Westlake, and am still waiting to hear confirming information. You can use the search function (upper right of every page) to find multiple discussions on these tires. Be careful to determine if people are talking about the load range E (problematic) or the load range G (good history) Westlake tire. There is quite a difference in the two.

That being said, I plan to replace my factory original Westlake LRG G tires with Sailun tires next year, stickily because they will be on their 4th year. After ~12k miles they still look very, very good.

Chris

[GeoffnCheri]

I really hate to say it this but this thread is crap. Every tire manufacture has issues. With the thousands of Westlake's E rated tires there will be many users who state they are junk. Did GD put E rated tires on heavy RV, which should have had G rated tires.. yes. This is not a tire issue.

Since changing to G rated on their larger RV's have the complaints reduced...Yes... Do most RV users check their tire wear and pressure prior to a trip, I don't know but I will say doubtful..

Google Goodyear Endurance Blow Outs and you will see there are many disenfranchised tire owners

Three years on our Westlake's checking air pressure and tread wear every time we roll with no issues regards. There are tens of thousands od Westlake tires out there with no issues. I am not discounting the OP's post, but to jump on a band wagon without doing actual research does not provide educational value to this forum.

Will I replace my Westlake's next year...highly likely as we will have four years on them, but not because someone says they are junk.

[NB Canada]

I agree this thread is not at all helpful

I also agree that most don’t check their tires
Watch most when they leave the campground and I never see anyone checking tires unlikely they do it at home either


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[Tgunter5]

I would not say that. Your total tire capacity is 8600 lbs for a 7495 lb GVWR Trailer. Your tires are rated higher than the GVWR of your trailer and you have not even taken tongue weight into account. With 13% tongue weight your tires will have nearly 32% margin. I think you are good to go. I had a Rockwood trailer that had LRC tires on it that were rated for just over 7000 lbs and the trailer had a GVWR of 7650 lbs. Rockwood took tongue weight into account so the tires basically had 0% margin. I upgraded to LRD to give me some margin. On my 297RSTS GD gave me over 40% margin which I was ecstatic to have coming from the Rockwood. Even my 5200 lb axles cover my GVWR or 9995 lbs. Once of the many reasons I bought this trailer from GD.

Rob

Thanks for the clarification! I truly feel better with a 32% "margin of safely"!!!