I'm a believer!!!!

[Utah Willie]

Tire manufactuers have been telling us that tires on trailers should be replaced after five years of service regardless of tread condition. I'M A BELIEVER! Oo. A recent trip escorting some fire fighters riding bicycles cross country had me suffering three blowouts within a few hundred miles of each other. I had inflated all five tires on the Alfa to the 80# maximum and the treads were over 60%. Within 100 miles, I had a blowout which required purchase of a new LT 245 75R 16 LR E. A few hundred miles later, another blew and soon after, the spare that replaced it went. :{ I ended up buying four more new tires in Tucson. The fellow at Discount Tires assured me that the 6 year old tires I had been riding on had indeed lived out their expected life.



Bottom line... ... Believe it... tires should be replaced after five years for any highway travels.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

YEAH, but try to tell MANY guys here that, and you'll hear stories about their "Brand XXX" tires that lasted 15 years with no problems, and that replacing perfectly good tires every 5 years is only a SUGGESTED practice, and not really necessary...



You know, a lot like towing heavy...





(Ducking and running... )

 

[Bob Wagner]

were the old tires GoodYear? if so it could have been part of the silent recall



I have a 5 of my goodyears replaced under the silent. I paid nothing

 

[RTuvell]

Are you sure that your trailer tires did not blow from overloading? I had a situation similar to yours with a series of trailer tire blowouts. In my case the cause was overloading the trailer/tires, or if you prefer, my trailer tires were not rated to carry the load. I switched to a higher load rated tire and now my tires go way in excess of five years without any problems. Just to check you might want to weigh your trailer and compare it against the load rating of your tires.

 

[BKenny]

After i bought my truck i noticed my tires were dry rotting all the way around the side walls by the treads . They were 265 michlens my truck had 39,000 miles on it they had plenty of tread left but as heavy as these trucks are i did,nt want to take a chance and crash my new rig. I was,nt planing on spending $800. 00 plus dollars on tires right after i bought my truck it was worth it . Those 285s ATs made it look like another truck .

 

[Buffalo]

The older Goodyear Marathon tires had a combination of polyester/steel, in their belts. When this combination got hot, they had a tendency to explode. The newer Marathons have polyester/steel and an outside belt of nylon. The nylon is not supposed to expand when it gets hot and, therefore, acts like a "girdle" holding the other plys together. The newer style Marathons seem to be working. You don't hear of the tires blowing-up, nearly as often.

 

[Buffalo]

SORRY, this damn computer posted my reply, prematurely!

On another note, if you are using the Goodyear Marathons, you can get the same tire, relabeled as Towmaster (by Greenball). They are made by Goodyear on the same assembly line, using the same materials just a different name molded on the side of the tire.

Something else to consider is to try shopping at local tire warehouses. The Towmaster distributor in my area sells to the general public. MUCH CHEAPER!!! For example: My trailer has 225/75/15-D tires. Camping World has them on sale for $119. (Goodyear Marathon). I got the Towmasters for $62 at Dealers Tire Supply, here in Phoenix. Thats $57 less. Granted, Camping World includes mounting, balancing, valve stems and tire disposal fee, in their price. But, you can get them installed at Discount Tire for $10 or less. Still a substantial savings.

Check to see if you can put a larger tire on your trailer. Mine, originally, came with 205/75/15-C. I was, easily, able to put 225/75/15-D's on. Just slightly larger. But, much greater load carrying capacity. The trailer manufacturers seem to put the smallest, cheapest tire possible, on. You can upgrade.

Hope this helps. Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[Larry Willard]

Another thing to remember is that when you have a flat on one side you should replace both tires together as the one that didn't blow was overloaded carrying all the weight and is just waiting to blow out.

Larry

 

[Turbo Horseman]

I have never heard of there being a five year life span on tires. That really doesn't make sense given that they don't come with a best before date and no tire manufacturer brochure I've seen says anything about that or any tire guy I've talked to... is this an urban myth or some kind of auto manufacturer secret plan to create demand for new vehicles cause the old one's tires caused a collision?

 

[CumminsPower98]

Another thing to consider is if they were ever run while under inflated. It takes only one trip on an under inflated tire to compromise it. This summer we had tires dieing all over the place on our trailers because the drivers didn't keep them inflated properly the previous season.

 

[rweis]

You did NOT have Carlise tires did you?



I have an 04 Alfa (12061) and Carlise will replace ALL tires with your choice. All you have to do is send Carlise your old tires.



Read the Yahoo Alfa owners list. MANY Carlise tire problems and Carlise has replaced them all no questions.



Bob Weis

 

[Utah Willie]

The tires in question were Firestone Steelex Radial R4S. Tire pressures are checked on truck and trailer prior to any trip. The weight of the trailer is around 11k unloaded and I figure I usually have less that 1000 lbs of add-ons ( I carry only a small amount of water). The load range Es are >3000 Lbs each and with a + or - 2000 Lbs of tongue weight, I doubt the tires were overloaded. As to the R4S tires, I had them on the duals of my truck and got good service from them. The Coopers I had on the front wore with cups, dips and bumps. I replaced them all with Maxxis and they are wearing and riding just as they should..... smooth and even. The trailer now has 4 new Michelins on the ground and a new Bridgestone as spare. I figure I'm good to go for another 5 years!!

 

[tractorseller]

I bought a Maxxis load range E for a spare on one of my equipment trailers. I looked at it the other day and saw a big old "MADE IN CHINA" stamp on it .



Have to wonder about the quality of the rubber . Guess I'll learn the hard way if it blows up on me with a load of tractors on the trailer. I don't have any experience with them. Maybe they're fine.

 

[wcjp]

I asked a friend who works for a major tire dealer about this conversation. He mentioned the tires are barely adequate for the load from the factory. It's also not a bad idea to replace every five years because the tires sit for a long period of time. This helps promote dry rot.

 

[lizzyhermit]

after having experienced the same fate as "utah willie" in the past, every three years the round rubber things get replaced. period, no questions ! why 3 and not 5 years? desert heat and sunshine. it's cheap insurance for a pleasant excursion.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

The 15" D rated marathons seemed to give the msot trouble. I had 4 C's on my little Airstream, each rated about 2000 lb, on a 5000-5500 lb trailer. the D rated nankangs were around 2400 lb each and blew in a couple years. I now have Towmasters 225-75D because they gave "less" trouble than the others according to the distributor my tire dealer uses... radials seem to be the main trouble because I never had trouble with the bias ply tires on my car trailer, even though they carried close to their capacity (unlike the radials above). I agree with the other cautions above regarding overloading, underinflation and age. Also take gloves and run over the treads at each fuel stop to check for the beginning of a bulge from ply separation.

 

[damar]

Replacement Tires

TITAN TIRES (formerly Armstrong Tires) makes a ST225/75R15 "E" rated tire for those of us who need a little more capacity than the "D" rated tires. I have them on my 33FT travel trailer. The last time I weighted the trailer, it was 9100 LBS with any water. It's a Sunnybrook 33BWS (bay window slideout). I have had no problems and run the tires between 76 & 80 lbs pressure. Since I live at over 4300 feet elevation I usually start out at 80 lbs so when I go down to lower elevations it will usually level out at about 75 lbs. You can go to the Tital Web Site and for information on them. Go to www.titan-intl.com and click on the grizzley bear's head.

 

[tractorseller]

A friend of mine blew a tire on his GN trailer yesterday hauling a load of plywood at about 60 mph down the freeway. I looked at his tires, and they appear to be fine, with excellent tread, but they are over 5 years old. The tread separated and did some damage to the trailer (tore the mud flap and bracket).



I've seen the damage a blown tire can do to a travel trailer. Not pretty and expensive to fix. I won't be running any old tires on my fifth wheel.



Just one more old tire story to think about.

 

[RTuvell]

A friend of mine blew a tire on his GN trailer yesterday hauling a load of plywood at about 60 mph down the freeway. I looked at his tires, and they appear to be fine, with excellent tread, but they are over 5 years old. The tread separated and did some damage to the trailer (tore the mud flap and bracket).



I've seen the damage a blown tire can do to a travel trailer. Not pretty and expensive to fix. I won't be running any old tires on my fifth wheel.



Just one more old tire story to think about.

In my experience, thread separation is usually a sign that the tire failed due to overheating. The most common causes of overheating are underinflation and/or overloading.

 

[tractorseller]

It wasn't overloaded. The tires were properly inflated. And it was 70 degrees out. I was there looking at it.



Now - my brother blows trailer tires all the time - but he overloads his trailers and runs them 80 mph down the freeway in 100 degree+ summer heat :-laf - so I don't pay much attention to it when he blows tires.