Community Forums

vandelhearts · 06-05-2019, 02:25 PM

HELLO! Hey Folks.. I hear good things about the Goodyear Endurance st trailer tires... BUT, has anyone used or had, or heard of these tires, MIRAGE made by GREENBALL? My TT uses st205/75r/14's. I have been comparing the Goodyears to the Geenball tires. Both are load range D, Speed rating N and both are 8 ply.
The Endurance are USA Goodyears, not all Goodyears are USA tires but the Endurance ones are. The Mirage are china. So even being from China, Would they be any good? They have a max psi of 65. My original trailer kings are only 50 max psi. Both the Endurance and the Mirage tires have same D load and both have 87 mph speed rating.. any thoughts? Thanks Guys!

vandelhearts · 06-05-2019, 04:29 PM

Hi.. I forgot to mention.. the Mirage tires are only $200 bucks for all 4, and the Endurance tires are about $425 bucks for the 4. Not counting mounting, balance for either set.

chunker · 06-08-2019, 06:58 AM

I know nothing about Mirage tires but you get what you pay for. When my GF bought a used 5th wheel in the fall of 17, the first thing I did after getting it home was replace the cheap mixed china tires with new GY Endurance. Second thing was inspect and replace all the wheel bearing with good US manufacturer.

The cost difference between the cheap and better tires immediately gets erased after the first blowout with collateral damages to body, wiring and plumbing. With any tire, cheap and good, the primary consideration is proper inflation.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-08-2019, 11:07 AM

I'll say this: When GY (or Michelin or whoever) has a tire made in a China factory, they specify the process, the rubber compounds and the tread pattern and enforce their quality control standards. When Yu-lin's Fine Tires has a tire made in the same factory, maybe thing are a bit different.

Greenball is somewhere in-between those two. They are a fairly large private label distributor who contracts with factories to build tires to their specs, but they don't have a reputation to protect like Goodyear or Michelin, nor do they have the profit margin to absorb losses if a batch of tires is less than perfect. You will probably get a decent tire from Greenball, but it's a more risky proposition than with a major brand. However, quite a few people have used Greenball/Towmaster and been satisfied. The lower price reflects the risk, so you decide.

Dropthejacks · 06-08-2019, 08:57 PM

I've got a good amount of money tied up in that TT I'm dragging up and down the road miles from home, I want a well made, quality tire separating it from the highway. Decent quality costs decent money, get the Endurance tire and move on.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-09-2019, 08:27 AM

LOL! Everybody wants top quality but as soon as they hear of something cheaper they forget all about it and want the bargain model.

vandelhearts · 06-10-2019, 06:00 AM

Hey Guys.. Thank-You for the input... I did end up going with the GY Endurance tires... my only thought was that IF.. IF the Mirage tires from Greenball had the same specs, at half the price... would the quality be the same as well. So for as an example, both GY and Greenball are 8 ply, BUT are the 8 plys equal in both? Are the sidewalls equal in both with both having same specs? I was afraid to test those.. so went with the GY's.

Tireman9 · 06-11-2019, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vandelhearts

HELLO! Hey Folks.. I hear good things about the Goodyear Endurance st trailer tires... BUT, has anyone used or had, or heard of these tires, MIRAGE made by GREENBALL? My TT uses st205/75r/14's. I have been comparing the Goodyears to the Geenball tires. Both are load range D, Speed rating N and both are 8 ply.
The Endurance are USA Goodyears, not all Goodyears are USA tires but the Endurance ones are. The Mirage are china. So even being from China, Would they be any good? They have a max psi of 65. My original trailer kings are only 50 max psi. Both the Endurance and the Mirage tires have same D load and both have 87 mph speed rating.. any thoughts? Thanks Guys!

Since your original tires were 50 psi, that means they were LR-C. When comparing tires be sure you are making Apples to Apples comparison.

Also if you read the tire sidewall you will probably see that your LR-D say 1 ply sidewall and 3 ply tread. I think the GY would say 1 ply sidewall and 4 ply tread.
"Ply Rating" is left oferrating from the '60s.

If you are upgrading to LR-D don't forget you will not get an improvement in load capacity if you do not increase the PSI as it is the air pressure that carries the load, not the tire.

Not sure how you put a dollar value on having tires from a major company like Goodyear who has dealers all over the place with an import private brand tire. They might be of equal quality but certainly, you can't stop at your local "Greenball" tire store for an inspection which you should be able to get from any Goodyear dealer.

Gary RVRoamer · 06-12-2019, 09:03 AM

Quote:

So for as an example, both GY and Greenball are 8 ply, BUT are the 8 plys equal in both? Are the sidewalls equal in both with both having same specs? I was afraid to test those.. so went with the GY's.

A good question and hard to know for sure. However, the US Rubber Manufacturers Association maintains standards for tires that in effect make sure that tires with the same specs are pretty much equal in design. I'm less confident that the production process at each company is the same quality, so off-brands may have a higher rate of random failures. I have no idea how or if that applies to Greenball.

There certainly will be differences, e.g. a tire can be designed to give high mileage or better traction or longer sunlight resistance.

"Plies" are no longer relevant except as a load capacity rating - the tires themselves are all single ply sidewalls these days and a couple of layers (plies) in the tread area (see Tireman9 reply). Load range D and 8-ply rating mean exactly the same thing.

gazingm42 · 06-20-2019, 11:04 PM

We purchased the endurance tires 2 years ago. So far they have performed well.

vandelhearts · 06-22-2019, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gazingm42

We purchased the endurance tires 2 years ago. So far they have performed well.

Hi.. do you set PSI at the max 65 air pressure?
Thanks!
I just had a set of them installed yesterday. The tire guy says to set psi a bit under the max of 65psi to 60psi.. what do you think? These guys in business for years and do big rigs.

Tireman9 · 06-23-2019, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vandelhearts

Hi.. do you set PSI at the max 65 air pressure?
Thanks!
I just had a set of them installed yesterday. The tire guy says to set psi a bit under the max of 65psi to 60psi.. what do you think? These guys in business for years and do big rigs.

People set the pressure to the desired pressure when the tires are "Cold" that means not driven on or in direct sun for the previous 2 to 3 hours.
If you have to drive to get air then you can do the following:

1. When cold and not warmed by the sun measure the pressure using your digital gauge. Write down the number of psi needed to get to 65 psi for each tire.

2. Drive to location with air.

3. Measure the "warm" tire and add the number of psi needed in step 1. Plus 1 psi if you want to be as accurate as possible.

4. Next morning check the cold inflation. You should be Goal psi +/- 1 psi.

Places that set the pressure low are not doing it correctly. They are planning on pressure to increase when you drive to get to the goal pressure. THIS IS NOT CORRECT.

In 40 years as a tire engineer and even when racing and setting tire pressure to 1 psi steps I NEVER set the pressure lower than my goal.

CamJam1 · 06-23-2019, 11:19 PM

Good call on the Endurance. I've had them on my car hauler for 2 years with no problems. They have two cross country trips and several regional ones on them now.

redhooker · 06-24-2019, 05:21 AM

I pull fivers and TTs for people a couple times a week. I check air before every tow as part of my pre-check. On the last 10 trailers (and most overall) I pulled absolutely ZERO had their tires even close to max pressure. Even 2019 brand new came off the lot with 65psi in tires rated for 100. Many of the owners seemed like conscientious people that take care of their stuff but none took the time to read the info on the sidewall.

It is easy to recognize that inflating to max pressure is NOT the norm. When picking up coaches from service departments I always insist tires checked and inflated to max. The stumbling and bumbling this causes most technicians tells me it is not something they do with any regularity.

It is my opinion that most of the “failures” are completely preventable, and while I acknowledge Michelin or GY are better manufacturers there is likely nothing wrong with many other brands if you maintain your tires properly. Trailer tires are to be inflated to max pressure under all circumstances.