Discount Tire refuses to sell me LT tires for my trailer

[John E Davies]

Anybody else had this happen? They insist on ST tires due to liability. I was pretty steamed but I remained polite. With difficulty!.

Comments? Is this happening to other owners? From other stores?

Thanks

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

[Rivernerd]

1 minute ago, John E Davies said:

From other stores?

I'll bet Les Schwab will sell you LT tires for your Oliver. 

But, I wonder why you so strongly prefer LT tires.  Do the ST tires offered have fewer plies or less aggressive tread  (for your gravel road adventures)? 

[CnC]

Discount Tire isn't the old Discount Tire of decades ago - since the founder died.

I'd go with Les Schwab and then compare with Costco.  I find they all will honor the more competitive price.

Charlie.

[rideandfly]

John,

Discount Tire replaced our Ollie tires about 1 1/2 years ago with Cooper LT tires. Sounds like a possible policy change. 

[Mike and Carol]

20 minutes ago, rideandfly said:

Discount Tire replaced our Ollie tires about 1 1/2 years ago with Cooper LT tires. Sounds like a possible policy change. 

Same here.

[topgun2]

1 hour ago, rideandfly said:

Discount Tire replaced our Ollie tires about 1 1/2 years ago with Cooper LT tires. Sounds like a possible policy change. 

Same here 6 months ago.

Bill

[John E Davies]

2 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

But, I wonder why you so strongly prefer LT tires.  Do the ST tires offered have fewer plies or less aggressive tread  (for your gravel road adventures)? 

Because they are better for how I use my trailer. ST tires are overbuilt and FAR stiffer to withstand abuse better like overloading, under inflating or driving too fast.They do not have the tread pattern I desire, or the sidewall cut protection. Using STs on very lightly loaded axles like on an LE2 is far from ideal. IMHO, of course everybody can disagree. Is Oliver still supplying LT tires on new trailers?

Wouldn’t you prefer off road tires on your off road Oliver?

John Davies

Spokane WA

[MAX Burner]

Although we still do business with DT, we've also had very good luck with Costco Tire section, FYI.

[Steve Morris]

5 hours ago, John E Davies said:

Is Oliver still supplying LT tires on new trailers?

Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse A/T Tires, in LT225/75R16

 

 

[routlaw]

I just had a set of LT tires installed on my LE2 this past month at Les Swab. We do not have a Discount Tire store in the state as far as I know. Tire Rama will also install LT tires on trailers. FYI, I went with the Vredistein Pinza AT due to their top of the line reviews on Tire Rack. Also the last time I checked Costco WILL NOT do trailer tires. 

As for ST vs LT, every time I have read the specs for ST tires they are rated at 65 miles per hour and I cannot tell you how many times I have seen Travel Trailers blow these things completely to smithereens. Just saw this the other other day on I-90, and last year as we were heading up to the Flathead Valley here in Montana a 5th wheel blew out tires literally right in from of us as we were passing going the opposite direction. Coming back from that trip we watched yet another trailer blow its tires on I-90. 

You will not ever see me putting a set of ST tires on our Oliver.

[CRM]

34 minutes ago, routlaw said:

As for ST vs LT, every time I have read the specs for ST tires they are rated at 65 miles per hour and I cannot tell you how many times I have seen Travel Trailers blow these things completely to smithereens.

 

Goodyear Endurance ST's are rated to 87mph. Faster than I ever plan on towing...

[CRM]

22 hours ago, Steve Morris said:

Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse A/T Tires, in LT225/75R16

 

I thought they moved back to 15" tires?

[Geronimo John]

1 hour ago, routlaw said:

I went with the Vredistein Pinza AT due to their top of the line reviews on Tire Rack

Excellent choice. 

GJ

[Fritz]

RE: ST vs LT:  Here in SW Idaho, both Les Schwab and Commercial Tire are happy to sell LT tires for the trailer.  For what it's worth, the guy at a local Commercial Tire store (a regional chain that serves SW Idaho) mentioned that ST tires stand up better to scrubbing when making a tight turn with the trailer.  He said that LT tires, by virtue of stiffer sidewalls, suffer more wear from scrubbing.  Most of the wear that I observe on our OEM tires appear to be on the outside of the tread, consistent with scrubbing (I do not believe it is from under-inflation).  That said, when needed I will likely replace our tires with LTs, for the reasons that John mentioned earlier, and for peace of mind when highway driving under high-temperature conditions).

[Ollie-Haus]

18 minutes ago, CRM said:

I thought they moved back to 15" tires?

The switch to 15" ST tires happened in mid April. We got some of the first Goodyear Endurance ST223/75R15 that were installed on the E2. Load rating at 80 psi is 2830 x 4=11320#. Obviously we don't need that much capacity so lowering the pressure to 60 psi still gives us more capacity than the GTW, and the tires are not working hard at all. 

The whole ST tire blowout problem is because so many manufactures are installing the china made junk and passing the problem on to owners, all just to increase profits by a couple hundred dollars per trailer. Also many manufacturers are only putting just enough tire capacity on trailers to meet the GTW on the sticker. The typical camper running down the road is maxed out if not over weight for the tires it's rolling on.

Even though Oliver is now back to using ST tires, they have ensured a very wide margin of load capacity for safety and have chosen to supply a much more reliable America tire unlike other manufacturers. 

[MAX Burner]

1 hour ago, routlaw said:

Also the last time I checked Costco WILL NOT do trailer tires. 

Didn't know that, good to know.  Our experience has been only with TV's.  Thanks!

[MAX Burner]

21 minutes ago, Ollie-Haus said:

The typical camper running down the road is maxed out if not over weight for the tires it's rolling on.

Exactly right on!  MAX's "hard rule" on towing anything - DON'T SKIMP ON RUNNING GEAR.  Period.

[SeaDawg]

2 hours ago, routlaw said:

Also the last time I checked Costco WILL NOT do trailer tires. 

I "think" when I checked with our Costco, they would mount if I brought in the tires and rims, but they can't accomodate the trailer. That was five years ago, or so, and I haven't checked back since.

I've had that "bring in the rims and we'll mount your new tires thing" done at Sam's and Walmart,  for the boat trailer and other small trailers .

We take the Oliver to a local independent tire shop. He sells good tires, does a nice job at a fair price. 

Quality  ST tires have come a long way. We have run on ST tires for 150k miles, and 16 seasons. No reason for us to change upnow,  imo.

 

[Geronimo John]

On 6/6/2023 at 12:49 PM, MAX Burner said:

On 6/6/2023 at 11:03 AM, routlaw said:

Also the last time I checked Costco WILL NOT do trailer tires. 

Didn't know that, good to know.  Our experience has been only with TV's.  Thanks!

Bring the rims in and tell them it is for your XXX vehicle.  

GJ

[katanapilot]

On 6/6/2023 at 5:03 PM, routlaw said:

Also the last time I checked Costco WILL NOT do trailer tires.

That's quite interesting, since Costco sells trailer tires. https://www.costco.com/atv-golf-trailer-tires.html

[John E Davies]

4 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

Bring the rims in and tell them it is for your XXX vehicle.  

Probably won’t work because the backspacing of trailer wheels is different than most car wheels. DT website will not allow you to buy tires without entering a vehicle model.

 John Davies

Spokane WA

[Geronimo John]

14 hours ago, John E Davies said:

Probably won’t work because the backspacing of trailer wheels is different than most car wheels. DT website will not allow you to buy tires without entering a vehicle model.

That's true.  

I used to use COSTCO for our tires, but for new tires for the TV, Discount Tire's cost, service and guarantee was a better deal with the 5% military discount.

For our F-150 I looked really hard at the Cooper's (Max Burner) and others.  Was not impressed any longer with the Michelin AT2's.  Compared to almost anything, they were inferior ... other than in price.  I ended up purchasing Nitto Recon's for the F-150 for install in three weeks.  For Ollie I'll likely be following a suggestion like Routlaw's (Vredistein Pinza AT's).  It is more of a highway tire with off road abilities.  Rationale is that I want to have more off road capability for our TV, but want less "Stone Tossing" for Ollie's axles.   

If you are not familiar with the Discount Tire/Tire Rack test and ratings I highly encourage you to check it out.  You can select on a scale what attributes you want and it will make recommendations accordingly.  I must have Some great pearls in the above that have me clearly planted in the LT camp for tires with manners on road at high speed. run at least 50 combinations of inputs just to get a real feel for what is available and recommended for different "your uses".  

Some really good info from several owners.  I took to heart these: 

On 6/5/2023 at 7:40 AM, John E Davies said:

Wouldn’t you prefer off road tires on your off road Oliver?

On 6/6/2023 at 11:03 AM, routlaw said:

You will not ever see me putting a set of ST tires on our Oliver.

On 6/6/2023 at 12:53 PM, MAX Burner said:

Exactly right on!  MAX's "hard rule" on towing anything - DON'T SKIMP ON RUNNING GEAR.  Period.

GJ

[Mountainman198]

On 6/5/2023 at 9:29 AM, John E Davies said:

Anybody else had this happen? They insist on ST tires due to liability. I was pretty steamed but I remained polite. With difficulty!.

Comments? Is this happening to other owners? From other stores?

Thanks

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

The E2 tire size is a alternate size for Toyota FJ62 (e.g. 1989). If it were me I would order the tires from Discount online for a 1989 FJ62 and take them  to the local store to have them mounted and balanced.  From my experience, the tire technicians are young kids who won't inspect your rim backspacing or even care.  The technicians did not even know how to pull my standard transmission Dodge into the bay, they are certainly not full of vast car knowledge,