Nexen tire bombs

[Wtgjr1]

I bought a new 2017 Laramie Longhorn 3500 DRW in Jan 2018 to pull our new 5th wheel. I did not check the brand of tires during the purchase but while looking over the truck at home I saw it had Nexen, Korean made tires, installed. I had never heard of Nexen but I had no choice at that point. Last week while heading out on a trip with the 5th wheel, we experienced a tire tread separation and total sidewall blowout on the front left tire. Only 3452 miles on the truck. We did get stopped safely but in was interesting for a few seconds. Upon examination of the tire, I could see places with no evidence of the tread ever being “glued” to the carcass and the same with some of the tread that did not separate during failure. I have filed a warranty complaint with Nexen. I also went on the NHTSA website to post a safety report about the tire failure and found numerous other complaints about tread separation with Nexen tires. I am now afraid of the tires and am replacing all 6 tires at a cost of several hundred dollars I had not planned on spending. I want to do all I can to convince Fiat-Chrysler to get these bombs off future trucks so others will not have to experience what I have. I am asking your help in that if you have had problems with your Nexen tires, please post about your experience and also consider filing a formal safety report on the NHTSA website. Thank you.

 

[mohemipar]

Wow. That sucks. Good thing you got stopped without drama. Ram should be equipping those 3500’s with a more quality tire. My 2500 came with Transforce AT’s which have a good rep and seem like a very solid tire.

 

[spoon059]

At 3400 miles, you clearly either had a manufacturing defect or a catastrophic road hazard failure. I don't know enough about tire design and manufacturing to make an educated guess as to which exactly occurred, but I agree it looks like a piece of the tread completely separated.

I know several people with newer Ram duallies, all of which come stock with Nexen tires, and they have more miles than you with zero issues. They've sold 2 million HD trucks since 2014, which I believe is the first year for Nexen's. If even 20% of those sales were duallies, that's 400,000 duallies, or 2.4 million Nexen tires on Ram 3500's. Some of those tires are bound to fail. Sorry that you got one of the failures, glad you didn't wreck and I hope you didn't suffer any other damage... but your experience does not classify these tires as "bombs"...

 

[spoon059]

My 2500 came with Transforce AT’s which have a good rep and seem like a very solid tire.

FYI, I hated my Transforce tires. They wore down to the bars under 35,000 miles. I have a friend that had a 2014 Ram 2500 and another with a 2015 2500 that had the same tires and same poor treadlife. That is unacceptable to me.

My father in law has a Chevy 2500 with a contractor style cap and carries thousands of lbs in the bed all the time and tows a similar size/weight travel trailer as I do. His stock Goodyear tires lasted 63,000 miles under more severe driving conditions. The Transforce that come OEM are very soft and fast wearing. It was really annoying to have to spend $1000 on tires on a 2.5 year old truck...

 

[MasonD21]

His stock Goodyear tires lasted 63,000 miles under more severe driving conditions.

These HD trucks occasionally wear tires faster with an unloaded truck. Example of that is the rear end combined with the LSD. Both of my ram trucks have gone through tires quickly unless I had weight in them to prevent the rear axle from basically spinning under acceleration or the inside rear tires chattering turning left or right with normal acceleration.

And yes. Nexen tires are the crappiest black-and-rounds you can put on any vehicle. Pretty surprising RAM decided to put them on a HD truck...

 

[Black W900]

Korean, Chinese and most other "import" tires are junk.
If I was looking at a new truck and it had them on it I would insist on different tires or "no deal".

 

[68PowerWagon]

FYI, I hated my Transforce tires. They wore down to the bars under 35,000 miles. I have a friend that had a 2014 Ram 2500 and another with a 2015 2500 that had the same tires and same poor treadlife. That is unacceptable to me.

My father in law has a Chevy 2500 with a contractor style cap and carries thousands of lbs in the bed all the time and tows a similar size/weight travel trailer as I do. His stock Goodyear tires lasted 63,000 miles under more severe driving conditions. The Transforce that come OEM are very soft and fast wearing. It was really annoying to have to spend $1000 on tires on a 2.5 year old truck...

I agree! For the price of these trucks the tires FCA puts on them should last a minimum of 50,000mi. Odd thing is I have seen several reviews on these tires & people who buy them say they get good traction & wear out of them. Almost like they use a different compound for the ones for FCA... probably cheaper. You would think this would be a perfect time for a tire manufacturer to show off their tire performance for future sales.
To the OP, really glad you got er' off the road safely. I had a similar blow out with a front tire & it was a wild ride to get it to the shoulder. It was a Goodyear that had 15-20,000 on it so I don't really blame the manufacturer. Just a fluke, but yours sounds more like a manufacturer issue. Stick to your guns on this!

 

[smiley]

Good-year tires suck and they come on many things. They want to keep cost down so they put crap tires on these trucks. Never had a blow out with a Michelin product which includes Uniroyal and BF Goodrich they cost a little more most of the time but are usually made in the USA and don’t have issues. Sorry you had this happen if it were me I would go replace all of them if you have not already with something else. I love Michelin and their brands but may try some Tread Wright’s this next go around.

 

[GsRAM]

I like the stock transforce at tires. Don't let the stock tire wear scare you. If your concern is traction issues, that's one thing.

OEMs in general put out bids for tires to many manufacturers. The winning tire manufacturer uses cheaper rubber compounds than their off the shelf equivalent tire to keep costs down for the contract bid tires.

Most oem tires will not provide very good mileage, At least in my experience

The only 2 American owned tire companies anymore are Goodyear and Cooper

 

[Jimmy07]

The winning tire manufacturer uses cheaper rubber compounds than their off the shelf equivalent tire to keep costs down for the contract bid

What is your source for this information.

 

[Wtgjr1]

At 3400 miles, you clearly either had a manufacturing defect or a catastrophic road hazard failure. I don't know enough about tire design and manufacturing to make an educated guess as to which exactly occurred, but I agree it looks like a piece of the tread completely separated.

I know several people with newer Ram duallies, all of which come stock with Nexen tires, and they have more miles than you with zero issues. They've sold 2 million HD trucks since 2014, which I believe is the first year for Nexen's. If even 20% of those sales were duallies, that's 400,000 duallies, or 2.4 million Nexen tires on Ram 3500's. Some of those tires are bound to fail. Sorry that you got one of the failures, glad you didn't wreck and I hope you didn't suffer any other damage... but your experience does not classify these tires as "bombs"...

 

[Wtgjr1]

Everyone has opinions but mine is they are dangerous tires.

 

[barr0208]

I'm using cooper atws on my truck the tires are really good 2 years and lots of tread left a good load rating and very good in the winter.

 

[barr0208]

pic

 

[GsRAM]

What is your source for this information.

I can't honestly rememer if it was the dealer at the time or my local tire shop, both of which are knowledgeale and reputable. Makes sense though and has been my experience several times now with several different new vehicles and different oem tires the vehicles came with

I had transforce at tires, load range e installed on a 2000 expedition Eddie Bauer and had them on 3 years and they showed very little wear, a few 32s., it was minimal

I didn't know till recently that firestone is now owned by a foreign company, so I won't be buying them anymore. You really have to look at the tires directly now to find ones that are made in the USA. Some good yar still are, not sure about Cooper.

 

[GsRAM]

pic

View attachment 123703

That's a good looking tire! I like it!

 

[smiley]

I can't honestly rememer if it was the dealer at the time or my local tire shop, both of which are knowledgeale and reputable. Makes sense though and has been my experience several times now with several different new vehicles and different oem tires the vehicles came with

I had transforce at tires, load range e installed on a 2000 expedition Eddie Bauer and had them on 3 years and they showed very little wear, a few 32s., it was minimal

I didn't know till recently that firestone is now owned by a foreign company, so I won't be buying them anymore. You really have to look at the tires directly now to find ones that are made in the USA. Some good yar still are, not sure about Cooper.

Firestone has been foreign owned (Bridgestone) for around 30 years. They have had issues for many of those years as well.

 

[GsRAM]

Firestone has been foreign owned (Bridgestone) for around 30 years. They have had issues for many of those years as well.

Thanks smiley. I wasn't aware of that. Good info

 

[wgreggking]

Here's a list of American owned and made., followed by foreign owned, manufactured plants in USA, an ID # of said plants. BTW Cooper and their sub brands are good. The AT3 from Cooper had 50K on my last truck, still had another 15K to go.
https://www.utires.com/articles/tires-made-usa-american-foreign-brands/

 

[patyacht]

What is your source for this information.

https://www.utires.com/articles/tires-made-usa-american-foreign-brands/