Looks like another big shift in trailer tires...

[geotex1]

Hello all, been slammed with work and travels, but felt it very important to drag this up and share experience of a mutual failed experiment if you will with the Hankook Vantra TH31 tires... Short story, I warn you away from these as G-rated replacements! The longer details are below.

About 1-month short of a full year ago, I bought a set of these tires after waffling back-and-forth as G614s were untouchable and my beloved Sailuns made a bad manufacturing decision, and OE Westlakes, which had given us 10s of thousands of trouble-free miles were not available and began cracking. The Vantra is absolutely a stout, heavy tire, and all were manufactured in the same week of 2022 that was only 11 weeks before I had them installed...

Close to the same time, a couple we travel with a couple weeks each year coincidentally made the same choice of tire. Same exact tire size/rating and they had 2 tires with one date code and 2 tires with a 2 week later date code and all made later than our set. Their 5er is a Montana and pretty similar to our S-Class in terms of numbers.

Nikki and I put just under 9K on them since installation while our friends were about 6.5K as they camp host part of the year. We are both fanatics about tire pressure and inspecting the tires and torque each move. However, a notable difference between us is that I religiously wash my wheels and tires because of the corrosive disc brake dust (they have drums) and apply 303 front and rear to the tires, and if we are parked anywhere more than a few days I put the tire covers on. Our friends are more utilitarian and do not pamper their tires and tend to just get their coach washed and waxed by mobile guys every 3-4 months.

Nikki and I only had an Easter trip so far this year as I had to travel to my plants abroad, and our 5er has actually been stored in a friend's barn while I was traveling because we needed the space open at the house for heavy equipment to relocate our buried propane tank. Anyway, we met up with our friends on Memorial Day and they advised that all of their new Vantra tires had sidewall cracks and were replaced! I was stunned because at that time their tires were not even a year-old from manufacturing date! First thing the next day I went over to the barn, flashlight in-hand, and found the same on all of ours - outside face and inside face, cracks of varying width and depth!! The cracking on our well-cared-for tires looked about the same as theirs...

I had serviced the bearings before the Easter trip and honestly cannot say if I did not notice anything because I was not looking and/or the tires were clean and still looking good with having been 303ed and covered with winterization or if cracking occurred quickly or possible during the Easter run. This is something I would normally notice because I am just wired to see the details... Nonetheless, I have been jumping through warranty hoops now for the past week and have been fighting the uphill battle ranging from it's normal, to your camper has issues, to you're overloaded, to you don't care for your tires properly. Some ozone cracking is normal, but this cracking is not. Shot them down on the issues because I had to deal with a cracked frame last year (after the tires installed) and everything about the running gear was inspected by an irrefutable source and deemed true and without issue; printed out regular CAT-scale history and I had each wheel position scaled last year and had the document as well from it; and, I was able to produce photos over the past 10 months showing the tires covered at various stays and security video from our home showing our winterized S-Class level on its jacks and tires covered.

I am envious of our friends because they had their tires installed by a really good shop that really stood by them because the shop recommended the Vantras to them and it was not much fuss, just inconvenience, for them to be made whole. On the other hand, I went with a local, family-owned chain shop (6 locations) because they're the only Hankook dealer within a 2 hour drive and, unfortunately, they have no interest in fighting for their customer! In fact, they wanted to be paid for the warranty inspection Hankook required, and understand this was after taking our coach to them the first time and this time I took the wheels and tires off to them thinking I was getting a resolution. I'll update once it shakes out one way or the other, but between the performance of the tires and the customer experience so far, I just cannot recommend these.

[Tourusa]

Hi geotex 1, I have just found your thread and have some spider cracks on all 4 Hankook tires which are 6 months old, can you see my picture below and advise if this is similar to yours thanks

[Hoopy Frood]

Wow, that's discouraging for six month old tires. What is the date code?

[Tourusa]

Wow, that's discouraging for six month old tires. What is the date code?

2022 fitted Jan 5th 2023 from California’s distribution around 1800 miles use

[Second Chance]

Hi geotex 1, I have just found your thread and have some spider cracks on all 4 Hankook tires which are 6 months old, can you see my picture below and advise if this is similar to yours thanks

@Tourusa -

Welcome to the forum. @geotex1 doesn't get on the forum as frequently as he used to. Here are a couple of ways to make sure someone notices that you're asking them a question:

1) If you use "Reply With Quote" (to the right of "Reply") as I have here, folks will know to whom you are responding and that person will get a notification.

2) You can also tag folks using the "@" symbol and their user name (as I have done yours) - they'll also get a notification that way. (Note that the syntax of their user name has to be exact - i.e., "geotex1" rather than "geotex 1" with a space.)

3) You can create a signature block with your RV and tow vehicle information (see mine below). That way you won't have to repeat that information whenever you post or ask a question - and others won't have to ask. You can create a signature by going to:

Forum Actions (on menu bar) -> Edit Profile -> Edit Signature (under My Settings on the left)

Rob

[Tourusa]

Wow, that's discouraging for six month old tires. What is the date code?

Hi these tires are 2022 installed Jan 2023 by zip tires in California

[huntindog]

Sailun S637 tires being reported pretty commonly with early failure from Vietnam plant... For time being, only coming from Vietnam given the situation with China import.

We already know Goodyear is discontinuing Endurance line to focus on passenger vehicle tires... Pertanent to my need,,
the G614s have hit ludicrous pricing...

Hankook ST01 and TH31 brand new to market so unproven...

Cooper's H-rated seems to be doing OK in couple years out, but I have learned nothing in the pipe for 16" wheels.

Westlakes G-rated perform fine and may be the only reasonable choice...

Anyone have any intelligence on other mainstream options? Interesting to note, Kumho makes one of the best commercial trailer tires in Europe... Seems like with the outrageous number of new campers out there rolling along, someone else would want to get in the game.

Its the same problem it it always had been.
Most people can not justify the price of a premium tire for a TT that gets towed 2-3 times a year. The ST tire was originally conceived to fit this need. Goodyear in one of their ads actually said it's ST tire was an affordable solution for your trailer tire needs.

No manufacturer has in my memory ever had a good, better, best line of STs.
Most all ofthem do offer such a selection in their LT lines.

[Loverdover]

For sure, time will tell . Yes, G-Rated. I hyperlinked the details on the product in that prior post if you want to check 'em out. I bought them off TireRack.com (awesome shipping) and had Les Schwab install them.

@CaptPicardo have you found any issues with your Hankcooks now/present day with more miles? Can you list your manufacture date in your reply? Plz:’/ty!

[Gfbaab]

Someone is selling a full set of 17.5” wheels with the h rated coopers in the for sale section. Looks like a heck of a deal. I have them on mine and have no complaints

I have the coopers on our 310 gk, 3 yrs old, 12-15 k on them and thinking of replacing them with same tire. just rec’d pictures from a friend with 310 gk and new good year endurance tires that peeled off the rims and ruined one of the rims. I was thinking about the endurance tires as replacements but have changed my mind.

[Hoopy Frood]

Replacing 3 year old Cooper tires? Are they looking bad? If they were mine, and looked good, and held air reliably, I'd run them at least another couple years.