LT Trailer Tires

[HBarlow]

Here is a pic of my new 16" wheels and tires on our 2004 Sunny brook. Overall height only about an inch taller, still have 4" between the tires and plenty of clearance. View attachment 85807

You did well. You can now tow that trailer all over the North American continent at any speed you choose and over any road surface without fear of blow outs or treads slung off. No tire is safe from an ordinary old nail but you will not experience tire failures due to heat build up or poor tire design.

 

[Cummins12V98]

Here is a pic of my new 16" wheels and tires on our 2004 Sunny brook. Overall height only about an inch taller, still have 4" between the tires and plenty of clearance. View attachment 85807

I can see you were so excited you took the picture before the lug nuts were all installed. I assume you completed your task.



It's nice to have good quality tires.

 

[brods]

This is another one of those topics where cold hard documented facts are hard to come by. In addition to all the good advice in threads like this one, another factor to consider is the fact that ST tires are exempt from the newer and more demanding FMVSS 139 tire regulations. 139 came about because of the Firestone/Ford Explorer rollovers in the 1990s. Not only does 139 have higher speeds in its tests, it adds a brutal low inflation test of 90 minutes at 75 mph with 100% load and with the tire severely under-inflated (load range E at 46 psi instead of 80 for example). Tires meeting 139 standards will give more peace of mind compared to ones meeting the lesser 109 standards, imo anyway.





http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=571.139

S2 Application. This standard [FMVSS 139] applies to new pneumatic radial tires for use on motor vehicles (other than motorcycles and low speed vehicles) that have a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 10,000 pounds or less and that were manufactured after 1975. This standard does not apply to special tires (ST) for trailers in highway service, tires for use on farm implements (FI) in agricultural service with intermittent highway use, tires with rim diameters of 8 inches and below, or T-type temporary use spare tires with radial construction.

This is a one page cliff notes to the FMVSS 139 standard: http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/csaba-csere-how-fast-can-your-tires-go-column



We'll be making the switch to 16" LT tires for our car hauler thanks to the great advice in threads like this one!

 

[Hummin Cummins]

This is a great thread, interesting reading. I dont want to come off sounding like a naysayer, but has there seriously been that many catastrophic tire failures on rv's? I'm knocking on wood as I type this, but in 15 years of towing our rv all around, longest trip being 960 miles one way in summer heat at 65-70 mph with the only stops being for fuel, I have yet to have a tire blow. (still knocking on above mentioned wood). I've seen plenty of rv's along the highway with various tire / bearing problems though. Does alot of the tire failures fall back to poor or lack of maintenance and low air pressures, running dry rotted tires, overloading?



Not knocking anyone who spends the money to upgrade their tires, but for part time rv'ers I think the tires would dry rot long before they wear out. Maybe I'll put up a poll.

 

[DFark]

This is a great thread, interesting reading. I dont want to come off sounding like a naysayer, but has there seriously been that many catastrophic tire failures on rv's? I'm knocking on wood as I type this, but in 15 years of towing our rv all around, longest trip being 960 miles one way in summer heat at 65-70 mph with the only stops being for fuel, I have yet to have a tire blow. (still knocking on above mentioned wood). I've seen plenty of rv's along the highway with various tire / bearing problems though. Does alot of the tire failures fall back to poor or lack of maintenance and low air pressures, running dry rotted tires, overloading?

Not knocking anyone who spends the money to upgrade their tires, but for part time rv'ers I think the tires would dry rot long before they wear out. Maybe I'll put up a poll.

I don't disagree with you, but I had to buy tires anyway so I thought it was a good time to upgrade

 

[DFark]

I can see you were so excited you took the picture before the lug nuts were all installed. I assume you completed your task.

It's nice to have good quality tires.

LOL yeah it was just a trial fit I pulled them back off to check the brakes.

 

[brods]

... Does alot of the tire failures fall back to poor or lack of maintenance and low air pressures, running dry rotted tires, overloading?

Yes, yes, yes and yes.



Imo ST tires are built just strong enough for the task so if anything is out of spec (inflation, load, top speed) the tire is at risk. The other thing to keep in mind is trailers are usually fitted with tires and rims just barely strong enough for the trailer's GVWR. Look at our trucks and you'll see a much greater tire/rim/axle capacity compared to the trucks GVWR. For example 3/4 ton ram GVWR 9000 lbs tires good to 12,780 lbs, which works out to 42% extra capacity. The Kaffman trailer we have GVWR 9,900 tires 10,160 lbs which is less than 3% extra capacity. So if one runs their trailer near its GVWR then upgrading tires is cheap insurance.

 

[NIsaacs]

So if one runs their trailer near its GVWR then upgrading tires is cheap insurance.

With 14,000# GVW trailers, thats easier said than done and is not cheap. With 7,000# axles, tire capacity in 16" tires is mostly marginal at best. The only real upgrade is to move to the Commercial grade 17. 5 tires and wheels. I did the switch on my 25' gooseneck and need to do it on my 14k dump and 14k bumper pull equipment trailer. I just made a trip to Montana with a lightly loaded trailer and still had trouble with 4 year old (70%) ST 235x80R16E. On the road the choices are limited so now I have 4 new junky trailer tires that I don't want:-laf



The $600. 00 I spent would go a long ways towards a good set of 17. 5 tires and wheels. I agree that upgrading tires is good insurance but not exactly cheap, however it is nessessary and I dropped the ball by not doing the upgrade sooner. When money don't grow on trees it is hard to bite the bullet but now the cost increased because of it.



Nick

 

[Cummins12V98]

LOL yeah it was just a trial fit I pulled them back off to check the brakes.

I forgot to fully tighten my lug nuts on my 240Z and picked up my girlfriend drove for a while and noticed a weird feeling and then went oh crap! She liked that I was so excited to pick her up and forgot to finish the task at hand.

 

[ewcmr2]

I'm knocking on wood as I type this, but in 15 years of towing our rv all around, longest trip being 960 miles one way in summer heat at 65-70 mph with the only stops being for fuel, I have yet to have a tire blow. I've seen plenty of rv's along the highway with various tire / bearing problems though. Does alot of the tire failures fall back to poor or lack of maintenance and low air pressures, running dry rotted tires, overloading?

Many of the RV/trailers on the side of the road are due to poor maintenance or running a tire too many years.



My new favorite trailer tire, http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Duravis+R250



Built like an XPS rib but heavier and $80 cheaper per tire. Put them on in the spring and have about 8k on them now, been great so far.



I LOL'ed the longest 960 mile trip, I drove 793 on Monday!

 

[timroberts]

Just wanted to give up date tires are doing great. We have gone about 1500 miles with no problems.

 

[Grizzly]

Thanks for the update. That's good to know.