Mine are 225-75R-15 E rated 

Check out the archives.  There have been a lot of discussion about tires over the last several years.

We have used Goodyear Endurance on our 179 for the past 3-4 seasons.  Love them-they don't leak down, they are stiffer and bounce less, the ride seems stable.  I will buy them again when these age out

Travel often and safe

Vann

And no mounting fees, I put them on myself for free. Then I sold my old 14 inch tires and wheels on Craigslist, came out less overall  that what just new mounted tires alone would have cost. Mounted used trailer tires are easy to sell for someone who needs a set to put on an old boat or utility trailer. Unmounted used tires are worthless because of the remounting fees.

Though there are certainly exceptions, generally buying a well established brand name improves your odds of getting a better quality product.  A knockoff fake Makita drill motor, though it looks almost identical to the real one, doesn't last as long.  I am a fan of Harbor Freight for many tools, but there is a discernible difference in quality especially in some of their electric tools as compared to DeWalt or Bosch.  My Tacklife laser measuring tool was 1/3rd the price of the Bosch I ended up replacing it with.  The Tacklife couldn't measure consistently, and was garbage.  Though there are bargains to be had, generally you pay for what you get.

The only problem I've had with our Carlisle tires is I picked up a small nail right on the edge of the tread at the sidewall and the hole was not repairable due to the location.  Thankfully, I discovered the problem while getting ready for a trip.  I ordered a replacement tire.  When I was getting ready to take it to a tire store for mounting, I started to mount the spare temporarily, but found the spare had a giant bubble in the side wall and tread.  I ended up buying two more Carlisles.

Originally posted by offgrid BTW  I don't subscribe to the "China bomb" theory or feel the need to buy "name brand" tires. Others may differ, not starting a debate here  just my semi-educated opinion. By all means spend the money and get name brand tires if it makes you feel better. Just know there's more to selecting the proper tire for your application than just the brand.  I think the China bomb reputation has resulted from FR and the other lower end trailer manufacturers' practice of using  the absolute minimum load rated tires (1750 lbs on the 179) they could get away with. Running marginal tires, especially at less than recommended tire pressures, is a recipe for blowouts regardless of the tire brand.

+1  Our first two sets of tires were "C" load range, the first were Tire Kings, the second Hartlands.  The only issue with the original Tire Kings was that when thinking about replacing the tires in the future (after owing the 177 for 4 years) it was noted that FR installed tires that were already 2 years old when I picked up the brand new 177 in March of 2011.  So the originals went 6+ years w/o issue which was good.

OTOH, friends had purchased the all too publicized goodyear endurance only to have one blow out after 6 months and kindly removed the fender as well.  So even those expensive tires can have problems. 

Check the

 https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/tires

West Lake has several "bad" tires.  The one on the R-Pods are not on the list.

If you're aware of a better source for the Westlakes I'd appreciate it but I'm planning to pull the trigger on the Goodyears in a week or two.

Buying pre-mounted tires makes sense, provided there is a price and quality advantage over buying individual tires and time and expense of having them mounted.  I checked the price at the place you suggested for the tire in this thread and an aluminum rim that would be similar to the ones I have.  It's $228 for a bias ply tire and rim, plus $55 for UPS shipping or $50 for FedEx.  When I replaced he defective Westlake tire and the punctured Carlisle, I paid $110 each for the tires and about $15 for mounting and balancing each.  So, the total cost, not counting the time driving to and from the tire shop, was $158 cheaper per tire for a radial tire of a relatively known  quality vs. a bias ply tire of on uncertain quality.  There can be an additional complication if you only need one tire; you'd likely end up with different rims and tires on each side of the trailer.  

The idea of selling stuff on Craigs list can be good, provided you don't get inundated with scammers trying to get your personal information or trying to do a phony purchase for the asking price that turns out to be a grift.  Oh, and then the people who call to schedule a time to see the tires, then don't show up.....  Selling stuff with Craigslist ads can be a really good deal, but it is filled with time wasters and risks too.  

Sophistry??? I'm not the one who said: "My recommendation is to forget the brand. Ive taken a couple graduate level marketing courses. Buying anything by brand is a shortcut consumers afraid of making a mistake take when they don't have enough actual information to make an informed decision. Companies know that very well and play on those fears."  "Anything" is a pretty broad brush to denounce the idea of the possibility that some brands have higher quality than others.  It may actually be possible that some companies value their reputation in the marketplace and pay attention to high quality.  

I'll do it for you.

If the trailer was purchased new from a dealer and if you maintained proper pressure and balance, you may want to check the tire warranty to see if there is some form assistance that may be available for prematurely worn tires, provided they are the OEM tires. The wear pattern in the tire tread should tell the story about inflation and balance.  Same for sidewall condition, insofar as impacts with curbs and such are concerned.  If the dealer swapped out the original OEM Westlakes for used Goodyears, that is something that you may want to take up with the local consumer fraud detail in your county if the dealer doesn't want to make it right.

I also have two pending recalls on the pod but chose to have a local dealer to do that to save driving nearly two hundred miles and possibly having to stay overnight away. However, the local dealer seems to have an attitude about doing it. I am awaiting spring before I take it there for the warranty work to be done. 

I will look into the tire warranty and see if I can pursue that. 

Thanks again for your comments!

It’s going to be interesting if my tires are not those that were installed at the factory. 

Thank you for your response and informative suggestions. 

Also, please note that I had indeed, inflated to the max per sidewall data, not my five lbs under max as I had stated. 

The trailer is in storage but possibly I can go over there tomorrow and look and see if I can find it. 

Bill

First, indeed we do and thanks for that contact information. 

As my Rpod is a 192 with Murphy bed I do not think it was manufactured on the west cost but I’m not sure about that. 

The big issue as I see it, is I have no way to proved the miles I have used the trailer. It easily could become a pointing game. To lie about it is not in my DNA but I still have zero proof. I did take some photos with a plastic tread depth gage in the on ground tire and the spare but it is difficult to see. 

However, I will indeed call the lady and see what comes out of it. I thank you for the kind, helpful response you have provided me with. 

Bill

Here's an Indiana number for r-Pod:  574.825.7000.  My experience calling there was for parts, back in the days when they sold parts to their customers, but they were always very friendly and courteous.

We had a recall issue with our 172 when we bought it.  It was used and well out of warranty, but the recall was a safety issue concerning inadequate running lights.  We bought our trainer from a dealer in Los Baños, CA, despite the fact that we lived near Carson City, NV.  I called a local r-Pod dealer in Reno and was told that they would be able to get to it in about a year.  Non-selling dealers simply won't deal with warranty repairs voluntarily.  We took the trailer back to the selling dealer and they did the recall repair, but made a mistake with the wiring.  I worked it out with them to pay a local independent shop to fix their error.  They handled the situation with such integrity that we bought our Sonoma from them as well.  Unfortunately, in the RV world, especially with FR, there is very poor dealer control on the part of the manufacturer.  

Handled pot holes and frost heaves on the Alcan without any damage.  Happy with tires, except they were already two years old when purchased from Sam's Club.  Lesson learn is to exam tires before they install them.

Originally posted by James07   Happy with tires, except they were already two years old when purchased from Sam's Club.  Lesson learn is to exam tires before they install them.

Funny you should mention that as when I went to replace my original "Tire King" tires on a 177 at 5 years, it was noted that even though the build date was January 2011 the tires were manufactured during the summer of 2009, so even though they were china tires with 20,000+ miles at the time, no issues were encountered and the tires looked great, even after 7 years.  2016-2020 had Hartland "C" tires - no issues and since then Carlisle Radial Trail "D" tires - a great tire!

Originally posted by lostagain  On the other hand, there may be some very good deals on aging out tires when purchased by the thousands and the opportunity to reduce material costs is just too tempting for Mr. Buffet and others.

This seems like a very plausible answer as when our 177 was built, January 2011, supply chain issues or the like which is experienced today wasn't a factor or even spoken about as they are today.

My understanding, at least from the small manufacturer that made our current trailer, is that the manufacturer purchases the axle, wheel/tires and in our case, even the frame as a unit from a third party supplier. In the case of our Escape, the frame, tires, wheels, and axles come from Dexter. I think the last thing a manufacturer wants is inventory like tires and wheels laying around consuming valuable production space. 

From my personal experience, when I've purchased new Carlisle tires for ourPod and our Sonoma, the new tires have never been more than 6 months old, per the sidewall dates.  If I purchased a "new" tire that was over a year old I think I'd either return it or demand a prorated discount from the price.   

After learning about tire date codes, I've made it an informal practice to check, and the tires have always been relatively "fresh" in the neighborhood of 3-6 months.

I would think that with the high demand for RVs in general plus the supply chain issues that it would be hard to find tires that are more than a few months old. That is not based on fact so much as noodling here in my chair.