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.

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.   

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. 

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.

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!

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.

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.  

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

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

Bill

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. 

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!

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'll do it for you.

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.  

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.