Time for a Westlake tire update

[Tom&Joan]

The terms "dual" and "tandem" cause a lot of confusion because they are so often used incorrectly.

DUAL wheels are when there are 2 tires on each end of the same axel or, to say it another way, 4 tires on 1 axel.
If you say dual axel it should mean an axel with 2 tires on each end

TANDEM axels means 2 axels.

On a typical camper we have tandem axels and single tires.

So as regards derating the tires, it would not normally be necessary to derate the tires.

Doug is correct on the AXLE terminology.

[cjrhea]

+1 on Westlake is a China Bomb.

1. I check air pressure before every trip.
2. Speed is kept to 65mph.
3. Tires were stock from GD and have date codes around 1814 (on a 2015 GD 350M).
4. Not sure of total mileage, but on the order of 4-6K miles.

3.5 hours from home, Westlake tire on my 350M came apart (tread separation) and damaged RV rearward.
Tire was still holding air.

For those who doubt posts without photos...

[bertschb]

@cjrhea -

Sorry to hear of your tire problem. Was that an "E" rated Westlake that failed?

[Leon T]

+1 on Westlake is a China Bomb.

1. I check air pressure before every trip.
2. Speed is kept to 65mph.
3. Tires were stock from GD and have date codes around 1814 (on a 2015 GD 350M).
4. Not sure of total mileage, but on the order of 4-6K miles.

3.5 hours from home, Westlake tire on my 350M came apart (tread separation) and damaged RV rearward.
Tire was still holding air.

For those who doubt posts without photos...

You did better than I did. Mine had date stamps around weeks 36 to 38 of 2015 and a few weeks back I caught the tread separation before we hit the road. Glad it didn't do even more damage to your trailer. Extremely pleased with the Goodyear Endurance I have on two trailer now. Made in the USA. But I was bragging about Westlakes too, until the tread bubbled...

[Dave27]

It's my turn to have a tire problem. I was adjusting my brakes and when I rotated one of the tires, it seemed to be out of round. It is the driver side rear tire, less than 12,000 miles on it, an original Westlake. You can see it didn't wear even across the thread one the first picture. It is down to the wear bar on the outside edge, and has significantly more tread on the inside edge. The second picture is the tire rotated 180 degrees. The wear doesn't look too bad. What could cause a tire to wear like this? Is it a tire defect, or is the tire out of balance? It doesn't look to me like the wheel is out of alignment. I am going to replace the tire(s) and I want to make sure there aren't any other issues I should address. Any thoughts?

Dave

[Cate&Rob]

It's my turn to have a tire problem. I was adjusting my brakes and when I rotated one of the tires, it seemed to be out of round. It is the driver side rear tire, less than 12,000 miles on it, an original Westlake. You can see it didn't wear even across the thread one the first picture. It is down to the wear bar on the outside edge, and has significantly more tread on the inside edge. The second picture is the tire rotated 180 degrees. The wear doesn't look too bad. What could cause a tire to wear like this? Is it a tire defect, or is the tire out of balance? It doesn't look to me like the wheel is out of alignment. I am going to replace the tire(s) and I want to make sure there aren't any other issues I should address. Any thoughts?

Dave

Hi Dave,

That is a really interesting wear pattern. It looks like either the tire or the wheel are not concentric with the hub. Before blaming the tire, if you spin the wheel, does the rim run reasonable true?

Rob

[Dave27]

Hi Dave,

That is a really interesting wear pattern. It looks like either the tire or the wheel are not concentric with the hub. Before blaming the tire, if you spin the wheel, does the rim run reasonable true?

Rob

I didn't notice anything with the wheel. I will take another look tomorrow.

[WhittleBurner]

Get the tire off the ground and give it a good spin. Look at the tire from in front of the tire or rear depending on which tire it is. Look for any kind of wobble back and forth, but also look at the bottom of the tire to see if there is any kind of drop suddenly as it is spinning. The wobble could indicate a bad wheel. The drop would be a belt shift. Get the wheel spinning pretty good to get a good look.

[cjrhea]

@cjrhea -

Sorry to hear of your tire problem. Was that an "E" rated Westlake that failed?

Yes, they are load range E tires.

[cjrhea]

You did better than I did. Mine had date stamps around weeks 36 to 38 of 2015 and a few weeks back I caught the tread separation before we hit the road. Glad it didn't do even more damage to your trailer. Extremely pleased with the Goodyear Endurance I have on two trailer now. Made in the USA. But I was bragging about Westlakes too, until the tread bubbled...

Yup... I'm going with the Endurance too. The 85 has a better load index than the 80, so will switch to that size. G614 seems like overkill. When this happened, I called around to see what tires I could find where I was camping (Quad Cities IA/IL). None of the dealers had Endurances in stock (or G614), so I drove home on the spare (same Westlake as the rest). My local Goodyear dealer snickered when I told him of my issues with Westlakes... "Yea, we get a lot of campers going to Endurance. People come back in to tell us how much better it tows with the new tires."

Hopefully, I'll get some time this week to get the tires swapped out.