What now?

[fishman]

Approximately two years ago I decided to replace my 15 inch West Lake (China bombs) Load Range E and upgrade to 16 inch Goodyear Endurance tires 235 80R 16 also Load Range E. Many of you may not want to hear this but my West Lakes served me well with getting over 20,000 miles on them and no flats. Now two years later, with barely 9,000 miles, my Endurance Tires are down to 3/32 to 4/432. The weight I pull is well below specs for the coach and hasn't changed much over the years. I check the tire pressure frequently. The only change is the upgrade to 16 tires, which in my opinion should have given me better mileage all things the same. I am in a quandary now. I looked at Carlisle HD and compared them side to side with the Goodyears. Goodyears certainly have stiffer sidewalls but tread depth is starting at 8/32 where the Carlisle is 10/32. I am really reluctant to buy another set of Goodyear Endurance's. I know that this topic has been beat to death but really haven't heard any reports on the Goodyears Endurance after someone has used them for awhile. Mostly, "I just bought them and they are great". Thoughts?

[NB Canada]

Why not buy west lakes ?
They sound like the best tire
Mine have served me very well and provide a smooth ride

[GeoffnCheri]

We ran our Westlake's from delivery in 2017 until February 2022 without issue. We also replaced with GY Endurance. Time will tell but so far so good.

[JR the Burner]

Are they rubbing? I tried to just go from 205 => 225, and it rubbed, I had to keep stock size on my 2600RB = 205/75R15.

Approximately two years ago I decided to replace my 15 inch West Lake (China bombs) Load Range E and upgrade to 16 inch Goodyear Endurance tires 235 80R 16 also Load Range E. Many of you may not want to hear this but my West Lakes served me well with getting over 20,000 miles on them and no flats. Now two years later, with barely 9,000 miles, my Endurance Tires are down to 3/32 to 4/432. The weight I pull is well below specs for the coach and hasn't changed much over the years. I check the tire pressure frequently. The only change is the upgrade to 16 tires, which in my opinion should have given me better mileage all things the same. I am in a quandary now. I looked at Carlisle HD and compared them side to side with the Goodyears. Goodyears certainly have stiffer sidewalls but tread depth is starting at 8/32 where the Carlisle is 10/32. I am really reluctant to buy another set of Goodyear Endurance's. I know that this topic has been beat to death but really haven't heard any reports on the Goodyears Endurance after someone has used them for awhile. Mostly, "I just bought them and they are great". Thoughts?

[fishman]

No rubbing, plenty of clearance. I checked with GD with the proposed changes in size.

[Planehauler]

Good question. I just took an Endurance off yesterday that looks like it failed internally. Still holding air and I wouldn’t have seen the bulging in the tread area if I had been parked on it.
Bought these in 2019 and they have 18000 mi.on them.
I stuck it back underneath as a spare ,but if I need it before I get a new one I’ll have to treat it like a donut.

[geotex1]

@fishman, what did you finally decide? These are always good data points for forum members, especially when related to tires and their changes over time... After my personal experience with Carlisles, I will never, ever run one on anything even if given to me freely! YMMV. I chimed in here because we have been caravaning with friends in dragging a TT, and they have not had good experience with identically sized Endurance you mentioned. On fact, GY replaced two of 6 the purchased (carry dual mounted spares) due to belt separation. They then replace a third after a bulge formed and grew after running the desert highway for 4 hours. Now, even after rotating through spares, they really need new tires and estimate 10.7K on the remaining originals. Their TT has just about 900# of CCC left when they're dressed in full camping form. Interestingly, GY's position is that they have their trailer brakes set up too aggressively. Almost comical to hear because they're running ordinary drum brakes actuated with a P3.

[fishman]

I've been gone on a river trip so haven't really decided. Was leaning toward Carlisles. I called uhaul and they said that is what they put on all of their trailers. I figure to reduce lawsuits and claims, that they put on a good tire. Now I'm curious what what your experience was. Your friends experience certainly adds to my reservations about GY.

[Steven@147]

I've browsed through the tire threads here just keeping informed for the day we had to buy new tires for our rig. With all the conversations about tires one could get the idea that they are a great big crap shoot! Goodyear Endurance for our tire size with load range G are not made for our Solitude.

Our Westlakes were a little over 4 years old, had almost 15000 on them plus 1100 for the trip new from the factory to our Texas dealership. Never had a problem with them. Rotated them side to side only once. Always run TPMS with them. They were showing signs of too much wear and I don't want to take a chance under normal circumstances and run them too far and maybe end up with damage to the side of the RV, so it was time to bite the bullet.

When looking for new tires 235/80/16 Load Range G, I had decided on using Sailun based on this forum of owners reviews running heavy Solitudes, even with the debacle of the last years Sailun recall. I found Sailun tires at Simple Tire online for $180 each free shipping, seemed to be the best price. Received them at our RV park in a little over two days. Just for grins I looked up Westlakes and they were way over $200 each where I found them.

Well all in we paid $900 with local $20 a pair mounting. I checked the date codes and they were not in the recall range. The Sailuns seem to be a little more stout than the Westlakes even with the same specs. I didn't have them balanced because I run Centramatic balancing plates, they seemed to do a great job. Funny the local Firestone dealer could change out three of them with some trouble but on the fourth they could not get the Westlake tire off the rim, their machine was not robust enough to get it off. Very stiff sidewalls. They mainly deal with cars and light trucks. I took the fourth to a Goodyear truck place that mainly deals with semi tires, they had it changed in no time.

They left the hard valve stems on the rims and just changed the reed valves, we talked about this before I had the tires changed. I have the TPMS sensors back on just to keep an eye on the Sailun tires to see if they maintain constant air pressure, no leaks.

Well now we have paid our money, we'll see how they run.

[russhd1997]

Approximately two years ago I decided to replace my 15 inch West Lake (China bombs) Load Range E and upgrade to 16 inch Goodyear Endurance tires 235 80R 16 also Load Range E. Many of you may not want to hear this but my West Lakes served me well with getting over 20,000 miles on them and no flats. Now two years later, with barely 9,000 miles, my Endurance Tires are down to 3/32 to 4/432. The weight I pull is well below specs for the coach and hasn't changed much over the years. I check the tire pressure frequently. The only change is the upgrade to 16 tires, which in my opinion should have given me better mileage all things the same. I am in a quandary now. I looked at Carlisle HD and compared them side to side with the Goodyears. Goodyears certainly have stiffer sidewalls but tread depth is starting at 8/32 where the Carlisle is 10/32. I am really reluctant to buy another set of Goodyear Endurance's. I know that this topic has been beat to death but really haven't heard any reports on the Goodyears Endurance after someone has used them for awhile. Mostly, "I just bought them and they are great". Thoughts?

If I had to make the decision that you're faced with I'd replace the "Good For A Years" with West Lakes and not look for something else. I worked as an auto service technician for 42 years and would never recommend them to my customers. I saw too many issues with belt separation like the tire in your picture. I wouldn't put another mile on that one by the way.

I put West Lakes on the TT that I had two trailers ago on the recommendation of my tire dealer. He said that they sold a lot of West Lakes and had zero issues with them and I had the same result. My last TT came with them and with all of the hype about China bombs I towed it for 6 years with no problems. When I replaced those I replaced with Goodyear Endurance tires jumping on the band wagon like everyone else. I had no problems with those either but they were only two years old with about 2000 miles on them when I traded that TT for the Transcend Xplor that I just bought. It came with West Lakes and I'll see how it does.

I'm glad that you posted this information about your experience with the Goodyears. There are a lot of people out there that need to see this when they're shopping for tires. Like you I've read a lot of good reviews about the Goodyears from people that just put them on.