Tires for long trip: HELP!

[TOMA60]

We are heading out next year for our first long trip in late spring (~5500 miles) and I am concerned about the safety of the factory Ranier tires. We have a 2022 Montana HC 295rl.
The previous owner put less than 5000 miles on the rig when we bought it.
They look like new, but I am reading both good and horror stories for Ranier tires. My question is this: should I be concerned enough to upgrade them before we start, or should we be fine. I will be adding a TireMinder TPMS system before we go. If it matters, we will be going from 600 ft up to 9000ft+ in elevation and temp ranges from ~40F to 90F. Just looking for guidance.

[Ram Montana High Country]

Tires may be good for an extended trip or not. So what is the cost for piece of mind? In my case, I bought Sailun ST235 85R 16 tires. My only thought is Raineer tires tend not fail passively.

[77cruiser]

Never had any problems with mine, just wore out after the Morryde fiasco.

[TOMA60]

Originally Posted by Ram Montana High Country

Tires may be good for an extended trip or not. So what is the cost for piece of mind? In my case, I bought Sailun ST235 85R 16 tires. My only thought is Raineer tires tend not fail passively.

Thanks for your reply! No tires are perfect and any tire can fail, but it does help to know that Rainier tires, as a rule do not fail without outside influences.

[TOMA60]

Thanks for the input. Glad to hear you had no issues with the Rainier's.

[mhs4771]

Keystone/Crossroads tried putting Rainiers on Redwoods a few years ago. They had extremely high failure rates, but Redwoods do run a lot heavier than the typical Montana and a High Country would be ever lighter. So you might be okay.

[jsb5717]

Originally Posted by TOMA60

Thanks for your reply! No tires are perfect and any tire can fail, but it does help to know that Rainier tires, as a rule do not fail without outside influences.

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. I think with a little research that you'll find a higher failure rate for Rainier tires than you would like. Sure, they can last 4-5 years as they should, but there have been many more failures than you will find with Sailun, Carlisle, and other better rated tires. I believe most failures are delaminations. They just fall apart from the inside and then explode. The damage they cause can be very expensive.

Ours also came with Rainier F tires. After 1 year I replaced them with Sailun G tires for added peace of mind.

As you said, any tire can fail...it's an odds game. Personally, I'd be swapping those Rainiers out for Sailuns before a long trip. A better tire is pretty cheap insurance. YMMV

[AZ Traveler]

Originally Posted by TOMA60

We are heading out next year for our first long trip in late spring (~5500 miles) and I am concerned about the safety of the factory Ranier tires. We have a 2022 Montana HC 295rl.
The previous owner put less than 5000 miles on the rig when we bought it.
They look like new, but I am reading both good and horror stories for Ranier tires. My question is this: should I be concerned enough to upgrade them before we start, or should we be fine. I will be adding a TireMinder TPMS system before we go. If it matters, we will be going from 600 ft up to 9000ft+ in elevation and temp ranges from ~40F to 90F. Just looking for guidance.

Put 5 new Sailuns on it. You will sleep better. They are fairly inexpensive.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by AZ Traveler

Put 5 new Sailuns on it. You will sleep better. They are fairly inexpensive.

Unless you have a money tree, nothing is fairly inexpensive theses days! Just sayin....

[TOMA60]

Originally Posted by jsb5717

I'm not sure that's necessarily true. I think with a little research that you'll find a higher failure rate for Rainier tires than you would like. Sure, they can last 4-5 years as they should, but there have been many more failures than you will find with Sailun, Carlisle, and other better rated tires. I believe most failures are delaminations. They just fall apart from the inside and then explode. The damage they cause can be very expensive.

Ours also came with Rainier F tires. After 1 year I replaced them with Sailun G tires for added peace of mind.

As you said, any tire can fail...it's an odds game. Personally, I'd be swapping those Rainiers out for Sailuns before a long trip. A better tire is pretty cheap insurance. YMMV

Thanks for your input! Yes, as noted, it is the research that got me concerned and why I thought I should get input from people with more knowledge and experience than me. Carlisle is one consideration if needed that I saved. Carlisle at $136 ea vs Sailun at $211 ea. I had not planned on a big expense before the trip but safety for my wife and I and the risk of damage to the 5th wheel are pushing me toward a purchase. I like the Carlisle as it looks like it will shed water better to prevent hydroplaning, but maybe this is not an issue for trailers.

[Carl n Susan]

Originally Posted by TOMA60

..... Carlisle at $136 ea vs Sailun at $211 ea.....

Sailun S637 235/85/R16 are available for $146 to $174 each. Walmart has them for $166 and free shipping. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sailun-S6...hoCSl8QAvD_BwE

[ep4me]

There is a lot of misinformation here, Rainier is made at the same factory as saliun
Keystone gives them a 6 year warranty. All g rated tires have a pretty good track record no matter the manufacturer. It is the e rated tires that fail that give the brands a bad reputation. Do g rated tires fail, absolutely but their track record is better than the best e rated tires. There are a lot of good g rated tires out Hercules is every bit as good as saliun, Hankook vantra is probably better so is Goodyear. They are they more expensive yes. Most likely but your rig cost any where from 85k to 130k plus, so does it make sense to worry about cost compared to the total cost of your rig, just my opinion.

[Mikendebbie]

My rig came with Raniers. It was manufactured in November 2017 and we bought it January 2018. We replaced them with Sailuns Dec of 2021.
We put about 10k miles on them and had no trouble. My rig was stored outside our S&B with no cover for the first 3 years and I noticed the tire skin was "crazing" (cracking)...not sure that is the correct term. That scared me into pulling the trigger on the Sailuns - and I bought a 5th Sailun for the spare.

[DutchmenSport]

Ranier tires, 5 months after we purchased the camper.... 300 miles from home, had another 300 miles to reach our destination. .... Somewhere in Tennessee .... Had this guy put our spare on .... carefully drove on South of Charlotte, NC .... Couldn't find an RV dealership or a tire shop that had an appropriate RV tire .... found a semi-truck repair shop in South Carolina and they recommended replacing with Hercules (they used Hercules on commercial trailers). Replaced all 4 tires. Never had an issues with the tires since.

[Lee-CI]

Our High Country came with Nexan ST235 80R 16 G rated tires. Replaced with Sailun ST235 85R 16 G rated tires after 14 months for piece of mind.

[ScottnSue]

If I were going on a trip that long, I would replace those tires with better ones, (I have the Goodyears), and still add the tire pressure monitor system. The peace of mind would be work the expense.

[phillyg]

I've concluded, after seven years of looking at tire threads on multiple forums, that Ranier tires are, anecdotally, the worst of the worst. Every once in a while someone posts about having a good experience with them, but they're far outnumbered by the failures. In a few instances unmounted spares have been reported as blown out.

[twindman]

Don't try to cheap out and keep the tires. I just had my tire blow and the damage was $9600!!! Luckily my State Farm insurance paid all but the $500 deductible.
And my tires LOOKED fine - tread good, etc. RV tires age out rather than wear out most times. (Blowout was my own fault - thought they were newer than they actually were)

[scottz]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

Unless you have a money tree, nothing is fairly inexpensive theses days! Just sayin....

I thought you had one.

[TOMA60]

To all, thanks for your input and advice. My MHC is in storage now, but I have decided to change the tires out in spring before our trip. No money trees grow in my yard unfortunately, but I would rather have a smooth first big trip than deal with a bad blowout. No guarantees in life but an ounce of prevention goes a long way. Sincerely,