WASHINGTON — Triangle Tire USA is voluntarily recalling 288 Triangle TR643 trailer tires, size ST225/75R15, for possible air loss.
Distributors discovered the tires could not hold air after being inflated, Triangle told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Triangle investigated the problem and found that a curing mold had a protruding screw that caused a hole to be cured into the tires where the shoulder meets the sidewall, the U.S. subsidiary of China's Triangle Group Co. Ltd. The company already had quarantined a majority of the tires, either at their warehouse or as dealer inventory.
The tires to be recalled have the DOT codes 2VMC 0516 and 2VMC 0617, with mold code 13HM, Triangle said, indicating they were manufactured between Feb. 3 and Feb. 9, 2017, at Triangle's plant in Wehai, Shandong, China.
The tires were manufactured for specialty trailer applications only and weren't intended for motorized vehicles, Triangle said.
Tires with DOT numbers of 2VMC 1817 or later were not manufactured with Mold 13HM and are not part of the recall, Triangle said.
It is unclear at this point whether any of the tires were actually sold to customers, Triangle told NHTSA. If any tires were sold, Triangle will replace them for free.
Mold 13HM has been taken out of service, and it will be destroyed if it cannot be repaired, Triangle said.