Cardinal RV Club

Mike, did you have the Kenda tires on your trailer?

It came with the load stars. When they took them off I could not believe how weak the sidewalls were compared to the Michelin's.

Interesting note is that Cooper Tire is going to become a marketer for Kenda tires.
http://www.kendatiresusa.com/us/en/cooperandKenda.asp
Don't know it they will do it here, but that type arrangement usually means that the marketer (Cooper in this case) will market some tires made by Kenda but under the marketer's (again Cooper) name.

Well I just replaced my tires with GOODYEAR G614RST TIRES. I got the same size and load rating but they are a much better tire. I also went with LT instead of ST. We are getting ready to go to So. Carolina and i didnt want any tire problems.

DH replaced all four of our trailer tires (Loadstar) last week with 4 tires from Les Schwab. I think after reading all the different posts (not just this site) it convinced him to change them. I was not that concerned UNTIL..we met up with another Cardinal at Les Schwab that had done the same thing..only they weren't so lucky there Kendra tires did some damage to their trailer..I seen it. This was our first encounter with another cardinal owner odd that it happened to be when we were getting the new tires. THEN.. 3 days later my son went to Les Schwab to repair a tire on his jeep when he seen a man with his Cardinal getting all new tires..He called me from his cell phone..so I asked him to ask the man why he was getting new tires..well turns out he had THREE blowouts with his Kendra's. DH can be more specific about the first couple that we met and their damage. Needless to say.. I was very supportive over my dh's decision to change the tires.

On another RV web site, there was some interesting tire information and how to determine where your tires were made. Some of the Kenda tires are made in China, some in Viet Nam. Go to the web site below, click on the first list, then sort by Plant to see the Kenda tires. Give it a few seconds. It takes a while to sort.

Want to know who manufacturers your tire? Check the DOT code.

Example from a tire: DOT MA L9 ABCD 036
DOT is Dept of Transportation,
MA is Mfg Plant Code Manufacturer (see http://www.harriger.com/exptire.htm),
L9 is a tire size code,
ABCD is optional manufacturer info,
036 is mfg date (in this case third week of unspecified year ending in 6, but not 2006)
The newer tires are using 4 digits, the first 2 = the week, and the last 2 = the year.
For example 4202 = 42nd week of 2002

Future Fulltimers wrote:I sent a letter to Kenda & Forest River after replacing all four tires (one blowout & one mysterious flat). Seemed like every time we went somewhere we had tire problems. I ask them for reimbursement even though they claim these tires are working well for them. We'll see what happens.

FINALLY after 5 months Kenda reimbursed me for the two failed tires. Now I'm happy.

My suggestion to anyone with Kenda tires is they replace them immediately. We check our tires faithfully. We had checked the tires before we left on our last trip home which was only 250 miles from home, they looked great and we had a conversation before we left about the many forums we had read and how bad the tires were suppose to be but how great the tires looked before we left the camp site. Needless to say we were eating our words about 80 miles into the trip after one tire blew out and ripped up the side of our slide out doing $1500 in damage and the other tire went flat 50 miles from home. We were lucky as most campers have been damaged much more severely than ours. We are still dealing with Kenda tires, Roger Ansel, to get reimbursement. This has been since July 06 and we have not seen any money yet.

Jodi&Larry wrote:My suggestion to anyone with Kenda tires is they replace them immediately. We check our tires faithfully. We had checked the tires before we left on our last trip home which was only 250 miles from home, they looked great and we had a conversation before we left about the many forums we had read and how bad the tires were suppose to be but how great the tires looked before we left the camp site. Needless to say we were eating our words about 80 miles into the trip after one tire blew out and ripped up the side of our slide out doing $1500 in damage and the other tire went flat 50 miles from home. We were lucky as most campers have been damaged much more severely than ours. We are still dealing with Kenda tires, Roger Ansel, to get reimbursement. This has been since July 06 and we have not seen any money yet.

It took me less time for Kenda to pay off than it did to get the $14,000 of repairs done. Hmmm.

Have you gotten your insurance company involved? My Progressive Adjuster was ready to tackle Kenda for me if they had not stepped up to the plate (and he has all of the Kenda posts from the Yahoo Group...)

Here is what happens at 11,276 miles of wear, 8 months old, at 62 MPH, & 85 degrees...

Hey Mike,
Mind me asking what you got and the cost. Kenda has said they will give me money based on tread depth. Thanks.

Michelin XPS Rib LT 235/85R16 Load Range E Seems like they were around 200.00 each

Tinner, Seeing you are in TX, I found the best deal on the Michelin XPS ribs at Discount Tire for my area.

Anyone know anything about Trailer King tires? All the Cardinals my dealer has gotten in came with Trailer Kings.

Wadcutter wrote:Anyone know anything about Trailer King tires? All the Cardinals my dealer has gotten in came with Trailer Kings.

I have about 6k miles on my Trailer King tires. I can't say that I've heard of any problems with the Trailer King tire though it's my understanding (I could be wrong) that they are made by the same company that makes Kenda tires. I know that some owners have replaced their Trailer King tire for some peace of mind. I'm keeping a eye on mine but at this time I don't plan on changing them.

Rob

Wadcutter wrote:Anyone know anything about Trailer King tires? All the Cardinals my dealer has gotten in came with Trailer Kings.

I can't find them ANYWHERE on the web - probably another joke of a tire...