'02 Titan tires failed-ready for dual axel

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

Sunday afternoon was 80 miles from home with another 80 to go.
the starboard Titan tire shredded.
it took the fender with it. fortunately, i had tools to remove the nuts that hold the fender.
rim was destroyed.
fortunately I had a good spare.
unfortunately, i didn't have a good jack. so i had to call AAA.
an hour later...i drove another 80 miles with one bad Titan and no spare.
"limped" to my destination.
the final 20 miles i had to do side streets to the marina as the bad Titan was separating and bulging.

since i'm now 160 miles from home, i went to a tire store this morning.
two galvanized rims and Goodyear Marathons (215-75r-14) $260.

even though it was the Titans...i'm now ready for the "dual axel" mod...

Bob T.
"DaBob"
'02X w/ '04 90-TLDI & '06 2.5-Suzuki

[Frank C]

FWIW, when I still had the 14" Titans I could not leave my hand on those tires after 10 freeway miles - hot enough to burn skin!

Yet my pair of 15" Marathon radials (at 50# pressure, 4300# capacity per pair) have less heat build-up than my truck tires after 30 miles on the freeway (from marina to home). I think 85% of the Mac 26X trailering problems were caused by those Titans - whether low pressure or just bias-ply construction? I'm absolutely satisfied with the 15" solution.

[Rich Walton]

Bobby,

I have an extra axel (springs and all) if you want it PM me and i give it to you! or you can call me and i will walk you thru the order that i placed for my bolt on project.

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

FWIW, when I still had the 14" Titans I could not leave my hand on those tires after 10 freeway miles - hot enough to burn skin!

Yet my pair of 15" Marathon radials (at 50# pressure, 4300# capacity per pair) have less heat build-up than my truck tires after 30 miles on the freeway (from marina to home). I think 85% of the Mac 26X trailering problems were caused by those Titans - whether low pressure or just bias-ply construction? I'm absolutely satisfied with the 15" solution.

good to know.
however, i didn't go to 15's since i'll probably do the dual myself with the Champion kit sometime this winter.

I have an extra axel (springs and all) if you want it PM me and i give it to you! or you can call me and i will walk you thru the order that i placed for my bolt on project.

thanks for the offer. i'll email you when i'm ready to order and you can give me your thoughts.
i take it that you have the extra axel because of your upgraded disk brakes???

[Night Sailor]

Yes, Ipve been very happy with the Marathon radials on my 5000lb travel trailer after 10K miles, so last week I replaced the X's 9 year old 205 bias trailer tires with the Marathon 215s. Radials just run cooler and ride smoother. The new larger size has more load capacity. Always a good thing.

[Catigale]

FWIW, when I still had the 14" Titans I could not leave my hand on those tires after 10 freeway miles - hot enough to burn skin!

Frank - Im still running the original 2002 tires on my

Titan ST 215/75D14

On edit - I dont have radials...the D above means they are Bias ply of course.....

I inflate them to 50 psi (max on side) and after 2 hours of 65 mph they warm but not hot to the touch. Hot pressure is 60 psi.

There is probably a 30 degree F difference between our measurements ...wonder why it is so big???

[Frank C]

FWIW, when I still had the 14" Titans I could not leave my hand on those tires after 10 freeway miles - hot enough to burn skin! ...

Stephen ... maybe I did exaggerate slightly.
The Titans probably wouldn't actually sear flesh, and maybe they wouldn't fry an egg ... but they were definitely too hot to leave your palm on them for long. Yes, I too kept them at 50 lbs. and I too found the hot pressure went up by ~ 10#.

Not sure about why yours aren't building as much heat, but maybe I had a brake dragging for longer than I realized. The right trailer tire always seemed hotter and that's the side that I eventually toasted. Even so, both tires were consistently hot after some freeway miles. I feel much safer with the Marathon 15s.

I still think you're at risk in two ways. First, the bias-ply tires will clearly generate more heat than radial tires. Second, the 14-inchers are clearly burdened to their maximum load capacity. Even Bobby's 14-inch radials are probably safer than the Titans.

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

after seeing what happened to my Titans, i would strongly recommend that an '02 trailer with Titans (which is now over 4 years old) be replaced with new non-Titan tires.
my first one blew, and the second one was separating/bubbled. destroyed a fender which cost another $125 to replace.
Marathon's were $90 each and galvanized rims are $35 each.
it was about a $500 day for me.