Data on Westlake Tires - From Grand Design

[BigGuy82]

When I ordered our trailer I wanted the Goodyears. But when I saw GD's price I thought they were NUTS. I put Sailuns on after the second trip.

MORE of the story. We started with 300,000 tires with an incredibly low failure rate. Then we start backing out spares, unreported failures and tires that were swapped out before anyone ran on them and the failure rate starts climbing.


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[Leon T]

I think the GD report of the Westlake failure rate is inaccurate because it lacks tremendous amounts of data. They need to market and sell. I don't blame them, just not buying it. I still own a Westlake on my spare tire rack and I'm going to go have it replaced as well. Discount talked me into leaving it on there, but I've had spares "blow out" too.

And you guys running Sailuns,I don't mean to offend by trashing Chinese tires. It's just my personal choice to always support American workers whenever I can. I have been guilty of buying Dodge pickups made in Mexico though, so I get it. Sometimes you just have to do what seems right for you at the time.

And we all know that the BEST pickup is a Ford cab and chassis powered by a Cummins with an Allison tranny.

[Likes to tow]

I think the GD report of the Westlake failure rate is inaccurate because it lacks tremendous amounts of data. They need to market and sell. I don't blame them, just not buying it. I still own a Westlake on my spare tire rack and I'm going to go have it replaced as well. Discount talked me into leaving it on there, but I've had spares "blow out" too.

And you guys running Sailuns,I don't mean to offend by trashing Chinese tires. It's just my personal choice to always support American workers whenever I can. I have been guilty of buying Dodge pickups made in Mexico though, so I get it. Sometimes you just have to do what seems right for you at the time.

And we all know that the BEST pickup is a Ford cab and chassis powered by a Cummins with an Allison tranny.

I agree however I bought the Ram to get a Cummins and ended up liking the Ram as good as my 4 previous Fords

[COLRetired]

Yes, and GD was charging somewhere near $3200 for that option. That’s a major rip off. I put 6 new Goodyear G614’s on for cost of $1800. I sold the West Lakes online and got $500 back. Even if I threw the West Lakes in the trash I saved $1400. Maybe that’s why they couldn’t sell any Goodyears.

I love my Momentum and I have no complaints with GD. But GD, or anyone for that matter, cannot defend that.

I had the same experience. When I ordered my 384GK I looked into putting on G614's as it was still an option. GD wanted $2000 for them. I did a bit of research (simple Google search for G614's) and realized I was getting ripped off by GD if I decided to order the upgrade. I ran the Westlakes E's for almost 2 years and 13,000+ miles. I kept a keen eye on the tire pressure and inspected the tires before each trip (still do with the Sailun's) but always had that underlying concern that I'd get a blow out and destroy my 5er wheel wells. Well, I switched to Sailun S637's, gave the Westlakes to my brother-in-law who owns and runs a 2,000+ acre farm (they'll work well on his farm trailers) and have purged that feeling of wondering when/if the tires are going to blow.

Pete

[DieselDevilDog]

Get rid of those "China Bombs". We were not allowed to put them on anything when I drove for Chrysler at the Arizona Proving Grounds. All tires made in China are Crap! Poor build design, low standard glue, etc, etc. They do not adhere to our (USA) manufacturing standards. I know your trying to justify these crappy tires Tom but if you said anything else, your job would be in jeopardy. Please put on tires made in the USA. We deserve to have good tires on our rigs!

[Halifax Jack]

wondering who here have weighed their rigs. I have a 2019 295RL GVRW is 10180 lbs. I weighed my rig at a CAT scale. Very lightly loaded former boaters so weight sensitive, little to no water black and grey empty perhaps 10 gallons of potable the rig came in at 10250 lbs 1850 pin not the 1350 listed. So it would be very easy to overload my rig. I am suppose to be a 150 series rig!!

[CoChris]

wondering who here have weighed their rigs. I have a 2019 295RL GVRW is 10180 lbs. I weighed my rig at a CAT scale. Very lightly loaded former boaters so weight sensitive, little to no water black and grey empty perhaps 10 gallons of potable the rig came in at 10250 lbs 1850 pin not the 1350 listed. So it would be very easy to overload my rig. I am suppose to be a 150 series rig!!

Many on this site have weighed their rigs. use the search function for "weight" and you will have lots of hits. As delivered from the dealer (full propane, battery) and accounting for the 45 gallons of fresh water in tank (from dealer), my total and pins weights were very close to the factory weight slip. Which where ~185# (total) and ~70# (pin) over the brochure weights. All in all, very close.

Back to the subject, I am now on my second year with the factory LRG G Westlakes and have ~8,500 miles (including estimate for delivery) without problems. Heading out in a week and plan to put about 2,000 miles on them. I do check tire pressures (w/gauge and TPMS) and inspect the tires regularly. I will replace them after three years at the latest, irregardless of the visual appearance, tread depth or lack of air leaks. I will put Sailun's on.

Chris

[acadiaforever]

wondering who here have weighed their rigs. I have a 2019 295RL GVRW is 10180 lbs. I weighed my rig at a CAT scale. Very lightly loaded former boaters so weight sensitive, little to no water black and grey empty perhaps 10 gallons of potable the rig came in at 10250 lbs 1850 pin not the 1350 listed. So it would be very easy to overload my rig. I am suppose to be a 150 series rig!!

Hi,
Two comments. First, many of us use 20% of vehicle weight as a planning number for pin weight, so with a GVW of 10180, your pin weight seems to be right in line. As of my last weighing, mine is actually 22%. Second, and I'm not trying to nit pick, but you say "it would be very easy to overload my rig." It seems like you already are... Hope I didn't miss some nuance in your post.
-Al

[Aridon]

I’m not sure that I buy Tom’s statistical math. Agreed that at 1/2% of 300,000 tires you have a one in 200 chance of a tire failure. The chance of a second unrelated tire failure is still 1/200. (This does not include a second failure caused by overloading from the first failure) The total population for each possibility of failure remains at 300,000 tires. It does not reduce to 25% of this just because you have 4 tires on your trailer.

Rob

I was about to post this.

[Backforty]

Here’s what I experienced. I bought my first fifth wheel this April. A very lightly used 2017 350M. I had done my research before purchasing which is what lead me to the Grand Design brand. I was aware of the problems people were reporting with the Westlake tires and considered replacing them right out of the gate. I purchased a TPMS system prior to taking delivery. The system requires the wheels to have metal valve stems and these wheels had rubber stems. So my first trip after picking the rig up was a stop at the nearest tire shop to get them swapped out. The tires were 235x80x15s (e rated ) the build date of the tires was 25th week of 2016 (less than three years old) . The tires had less than 2k miles on them. I asked the service tech at the tire shop what his opinion of the tires were, his answer was they look to be in great condition. After a three day stay in Florida,I have the TPMS sensors installed and I’m on my way home to Michigan. About halfway to Savanna, I go to pull into a rest stop, I look in my mirror to check traffic and I see my driver side fender flapping in the wind !. When I get out at the rest stop, you guessed it, one of my tires has come apart and tore the crap out of the side of my rig. I replaced all the tires in Savanna with g rated Sailun tires. The damage to the rig was $2,600.00