Swap 5th wheel tires to truck?

[JAndrus]

I have four Michelin LTX/MS 235 85 R16 tires on my trailer with Lots of tread left but are 5 years old and cracking on the sides. I know these were expensive tires 5 years ago and have lots of tread left. Can I swap them to the rear 4 tires on my dualie and buy new front tires and new trailer tires to use them up?

 

[mberry]

In short, yes you can. I would just keep in mind their condition and keep an eye on them.

 

[jelag]

Remember that tires with weather checks are not a problem as long as there isn't cord material showing in the crack... if you can pry the crack open and see cord material than the tires are bad and need to be removed.....

The sidewall rubber has no strength but is there to keep the weather out of the cord material which can fail with exposure to water and UV light... .

My OEM Goodyears on my 04 weren't an issue until at something like 25K miles and 8 months you could see the cord material and the nice gents at Goodyear replaced them free...

I run LT tires on my 5er and am now working on installing shocks on the axles. . its my belief that part of the problems we see with damage to the inside is from the pounding these axles take without shocks... .

But that's my 2 cents worth...

 

[HBarlow]

Yes, you can use them on your truck if they are LT light truck tires not ST special trailer tires.

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

In a previous life, I was responsible for a fleet of ~150 semitrailers (as well as other vehicles). Our trailers did not get a lot of miles, so I had many, many 8- to 12-year-old tires on the road. In one 2-day period of running 20 or so containers from our facility in FL to port of Savannah and back, I bought EVERY AVAILABLE tire in my size on the I-95 corridor in south Georgia / north Florida due to blowouts!



At that point, I began a preventive tire replacement program. Reliability did not significantly improve until I had no tires older than 6 years.



My point is, you're close to that 6-year mark, and a blowout that tears up a dually fender will cost you a lot more than a set of tires. Put the tires on Craigslist and make them someone else's problem. Oh, and as mentioned above, if they're ST-, not LT-rated tires, don't run them on your truck at all.



My $0. 02...



kevin

 

[JAndrus]

Thank you gentlemen for your thoughts. I double checked and yes they are LT tires. Michelins are darn expensive ($180) and I was ready to put a set of Hankook tires on ($110). The cracks are really small like a lace pattern.
I overload the 5th wheel toy box a little and would hate to have a blow out with a 39 foot trailer with flipped axles going 65 mph.
The tongue weight on the truck is not that heavy for dual rear tires, so they will have less load. Worse case scenario... 10 new Michelins... ouch!

 

[HBarlow]

Yep, ten new Michelins would cost you at least $1800 but if one of those old tires off the trailer blows out on the highway while on your Ram a dually fender will cost around $1000 plus paint and labor to install which will be pretty close to $1500.