# Stupid Duro's....looking At Kumho Tires



## battalionchief3 (Jun 27, 2006)

Ok so were almost home when it happened. Lost the Drivers side rear tire. As you can see I hit nothing and was doing about 50mph. We were almost home from the PA rv show. I changed it quickly as I have practiced it many times in my mind. Broke the lugs loose, pulled the good tire up on the orange blocks and swapped it out, 15 min flat.

So I figured that I have 11,000 miles ( I track all my trips ) on the Duro's and they are 3 years old ( found the stamp ) this month. Its time for new shoes.

Goodyears: Not found many good reviews
Maxxis: Lots of good reviews here
Kumho: Good reviews on the web 
Carlye: Not so good reviews 
Anyone use Kumho? I did find they are a "D" load range in the 14". The GY, CAR and MAX are "C" load range. The Kumho have a 2271 LB rating for the tires. They are also a radial insted of a Bias ply.

Any input on them????


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## Ridgway-Rangers (Apr 18, 2008)

I got rid of my Duro's this year also, before they blew out. I did the goodyear marathon. my dad and brother have had great luck with them and our local RV repair swears by them.


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## mmblantz (Jul 1, 2007)

Not sure about Kumho's but super happy with my Maxxis. I think it's time we talk you into getin rid of those white holey wheels and bumpin up to a 15" alluminum and going to an "E" rated tire. With an "E" the tires can handle the weight of the Outback even if one goes out. They sure do ride nice and it's only a couple hundred more while youre changing out your tires anyway. ---Mike


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## Collinsfam_WY (Nov 9, 2006)

No input on the Kumho's but we did get Maxxis. Either one is going to be a substantial upgrade over the Duro's. Good luck!

Btw how was the show - any cool new floorplans or anything?

-CC


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

battalionchief3 said:


> Goodyears: Not found many good reviews


There are quite a few of us here who are very happy with their Goodyear Marathons. Mine are 3 years old, 10,000 miles and still look near new. As you said there are also lots of good postings on the Maxxis.

There are bad experiences with all brands of trailer tires; plus there is a tendency to post bad experiences not good experiences. The number of bad experience postings is NOT normalized to account for the number of that brand of tire on the road vs. another brand. So, for example, if 90% of the market were brand-A and 10% were brand-B then brand-A would have an awful looking failure rate based on the number of bad postings, but as a percentage may have fewer bad experiences than brand-B. It is a fundamental problem with doing web-based research on product experience.

Example 1: Let's say that brand-A sells 1,000,000 tires; 1,000 fail (0.1%) and half of those are reported as a bad experience on the web (500 reports). Let's say that brand-B sells 100,000 tires; 1,000 fail (1.0%) and half of those are reported as a bad experience on the web (500 reports). Note that a search of the web would hint that brand-A and brand-b are equivalent in failure, but in fact brand-b is ten times worse.

Example 2: Brand-A sells 10,000,000 tires; 1,000 fail (0.01%), 500 are reported on the web. Brand-B sells 10,000 tires; 100 fail (1%), 50 get reported on the web. A search on the web would say WOW brand-A had way more failures than brand-B ... but note that the failure rate is 1% vs. 1-one-hundredth of a percent.

After much looking around both on this forum and others I've concluded that overloading and excess speed are probably the common factor that results in tire failure rather than the brand (excepting, of course, those pieces of crap that my trailer came with).

Ed

(Sorry I'm in a hurry feel free to PM me if I got the math wrong and I'll repost.)


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## battalionchief3 (Jun 27, 2006)

I agree with everybody...Most people overload or do not take care of their trailer tires. I always question reviews because no one posts good reviews, only bad.

I would love to go to 15 on an E tire but I have to flip the axles first then buy new rims and new tires....honestly I looked at that but I just cant swing all that cash right now. Thats over a 1000 bucks for flip kit, rims and tires. That may even be pushing 2G's.

I found the Kumho tires with the D rating and they are around the same price as all the others. I got a few weeks before we leave again so I will try to make up my mind. I just hate to make the wrong decision but from what everyone says here I really cant. Thats why I love medical protocols....they do this and we do that, it shows this, we shock with that. Simple huh. Thanks for the input.


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## VacaRick (Jul 23, 2009)

I asked the same question about Kuhmo's on 20August2009 in problems,solutions after market. I got a very positive reply from TDaniels on 26August. I would link you to it, however, my linking skills suck. I called the main office at Kuhmo and they had the west coast rep contact me about the availability of the Kuhmo 857. The guy was helpful and even discussed the recent strike at the Korean factory which was causing some delays. He also was willing to set the date code on the tires to less than 1yr. Our trailer is in hibernation now, but I will be buying the Kuhmo's in Feb to be ready for 2010.
Rick


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## TDaniels (May 18, 2007)

I have the Kumho 857's on my trailer. I did the same as you and read the reviews and so on. I couldn't justify the added expense of new aluminum wheels to go to 15" so I ordered up a set of Kumho's in April from my tire vendor at work and had the tires in hand in less than a week. The specs looked good and so did the tires. We put over 4k miles on them with a trip from Seattle to NE Iowa this summer and over many miles of torn up roads in SD and Minnesota, the tires held up great. The have no visible signs of wear and the temps stayed consistent over the whole trip. (At stops I aim an IR temp gun at the crown and at the bead area to check for any hot spots). I looked at the Maxxis but they were even harder to find locally.

Hope this helps,

Todd


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## Scoutr2 (Aug 21, 2006)

mmblantz said:


> Not sure about Kumho's but super happy with my Maxxis. I think it's time we talk you into getin rid of those white holey wheels and bumpin up to a 15" alluminum and going to an "E" rated tire. With an "E" the tires can handle the weight of the Outback even if one goes out. They sure do ride nice and it's only a couple hundred more while youre changing out your tires anyway. ---Mike


X2. I have had incredibly good luck with Duro tires over a 12 year period, with three different trailers (one set on my Coleman popup lasted 6 years and over 25000 miles!). But the tires that RV manufacturers put on their trailers are just able to carry the weight that's riding on them. If one of them blows, the other three immediately become severly overloaded.

So when it's time to replace tires, I'll upgrade to four new 15" radials, plus a spare. (And I have a "spare" spare, too, 'cause when you use your spare tire, you then have no spare tire. And finding replacement tires is not always easy.)

Mike (Scoutr2)


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## nynethead (Sep 23, 2005)

lost my duros last year coming back from disney, tread came off passenger side rear, but didn't go flat.
I went from "D" rated tires to "E" rated and went with the Carlye because my tire guy said they were USA made and 2 year warranty.


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## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

My duros are all separating where the tread meets the smooth side wall. Two have a gap all the way around, one just a visible line all the way around and one has a visible line 1/2 way around. Looking at the date they were made in Feb 05 so they are almost 5 years old which means they were almost 1 1/2 years old when I bought the TT. Should I replace the spare as well? It looks like it is in great shape but I'm concerned about the age. 
From the beginning the tires would have brown swirl marks on the side wall after each trip. The marks looked like curb rub but I hadn't scraped any curbs that I was aware of and the marks were on the driver side tires as well. Anyone have this issue and know what it is?



nynethead said:


> lost my duros last year coming back from disney, tread came off passenger side rear, but didn't go flat.
> I went from "D" rated tires to "E" rated and went with the Carlye because my tire guy said they were USA made and 2 year warranty.


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