trailer tires

[pgleavitt]

Thats exactly what I am going to do. I have a 3 axle 5th wheel and 3 out of 6 tires have cracks(dry rot) on the side wall. The tread looks like new with only about 12,000 miles of use. I kept them covered and lubed up with tire dressing. Bought the trailer in 1999. Glad I got a dually.

 

[MMeilicke]

Take a look at the Goodyear ST tires. They may come in 15 inch. Don't know. I have 16 inch on my Alpenlite 33 footers and they are D loads but they are are rated at 3000 lbs. I have around 30K miles on them and they work great. I had a good conversation with a Goodyear engineer about these tires and came any quite impressed with them. And yes the ST tires are rated at 65 miles per hour. But before you get hung up on D or E load tires, check out the weight rating. That is were the rubber mets the road.

 

[clem]

You did not say what kind of trailer you have,but load,speed and tire pressure always have been the cause of tires coming apart.

 

[Bug Out]

Stay Away From Transmaster Tires!!!!!!

My 5th had "Transmaster " tires, load range "E" on it when I bought it new. The rating said 3500# max. Hmmm. never seen a "E" with 3500# rating.



I found out why. one blew out and did $3000-4000 damage to my Sandpiper sport toy hauler.



The unit has a 15,590 GVW rating. Hitch is 2100 and 7000# axles. . They had every pound maxed.



I bought Goodyear G614's and have no problem. They are a "G" rating @ 3750 #per tire max.



Now I'm waitng for the "AL-KO" axles to break or give in. . LOL



Beware of those "made in Tiawan" tires. . Most are imported by the Greenball corporation in Longbeach,ca.



I'm still waiting to get my 5th fixed. . Its been 2 months now.

 

[WHazelwood]

Where did y'all find the 16" six bolt wheels? I just got back from a trip to Panama City, FL and blew 3 Carlisle tires on the trip. The sides are blowing out. One damaged the sheet metal of the slide out. That makes 4 in the last month. They are all the original tires on the 2002 Wildcat. I'm running 65 psig in the tires and drive 60-65 mph. The trailer truck combo weighs 17600# with 8000# on the trailer axels. Right now I'm not a happy camper byt still plenty to be thankful for.

keep grinnin,

 

[RustyJC]

You did not say what kind of trailer you have,but load,speed and tire pressure always have been the cause of tires coming apart.

Actually, some tires (e. g. , the early 15" Goodyear Marathons) were defective from the git-go. One of ours on a previous 5th wheel failed 15 minutes after leaving the campground, and I did check tire pressures before we left. The ambient temperature was around 80 degF, and I was driving 65 MPH on I-10.



The tread separation resulted in $2500 damage to the 5th wheel, which Goodyear paid in addition to replacing all 4 tires (the other 3 were in the early stages of tread separation). Many other RVers experienced the same type of failure with this tire, and Goodyear introduced a replacement (the circle S Marathon) with an extra tread ply in an attempt to correct the problem.



Rusty

 

[DaveK98]

Makes me feel pretty lucky.



I had goodyear 225 16inch tires and they were about 5 years old with about 80% of the tread left. Had a tread seperation but did very little damage.



Went with some Firestone tires also E load rating. Bought them at a good year shop that was a large shop. Shop forman talked me into them versus more goodyear tires.



Went another 1600 miles with them over the next 4 days, just got back and they worked perfect at 65mph.



Dave

 

[JHofmann]

Here is where I found 16" 6 lug rims.

http://shop.easternmarine.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=catalog.prodInfo&productID=6261&categoryID=162

not a bad price I guess.

 

[J&LRam]

Hazelwood

found my 16" trailer wheels at etrailer.com and B F Goodrich Commericial LTs at Sams... ..... JIM

 

[WHazelwood]

Thanks for the info, I'm going shopping this weekend.

Keep grinnin,

 

[CoastyAV8R]

I blew out 3 Carlisle tires on my toyhauler within 100 miles of each other outside of Pueblo in July. The trailer was well under it's max weight and I was only going 65 mph. I am paranoid about tire pressures so everything was checked. We made the 1300 mile drive up to Gunnison with the exact same load configuration with no problems. We did drive down what I consider to be the worst gravel road I have ever been on, it was 10 miles of hell each way and I'm really wondering if that was a major factor in the tire failures. I am considering put on LT tires next time as I had no problems with the truck tires from this adventure. Luckily our trailer has steel inner fender wells so there was no additional damage.

 

[JRhinehart]

I have run Chapparal brand tires for the last couple of years with great success. I bought them from the local tire store, so I don't know who sells them as a regular brand.

 

[Underwood Tire]

bias

i have had good luck with the 700 15 8ply when it come to durability.

the 15 inch axel is commenly a 3000-3500 lbs axel the tire will hold well over 2000 lbs when inflated correctly that means the tire will hold over 4000 lbs per axel. more commen than not i find that people are overloading the trailer. i can see how the stringer are bent ect.

 

[PatrickCampbell]

I am not sure I am ready to drop $200 per tire for the XPS ribs, so...



Is it perfectly fine to put LT tires on a trailer?



If so discount tire direct has free shipping at the moment. I can get LR E 215 or 235 85 R16 Hankook's for 87 or 91 each respectively and have them mounted/balanced for a price of about $100 each total.



Do you all balance your trailer tires?



EDIT: Hankook seems to make a LR G tire for about 100 bucks. I will have to see if Discount Tire will sell that one even though it's not on their website. If so that'll probably be the tire for me.



#ad

 

[Kirwin]

Tires for trailers

Look at the Good Year G614 RSTs. They are load range G and available in 235-85R-16 size. They are an all steel tire like the Michelin XPS. Ken irwin

 

[PatrickCampbell]

Those are nice but they are $220 each! I wonder how long they would last...



These would also require new wheels in theory... to handle 110 psi.



The difference in price however between the XPS Rib and the Goodyears is so small I would say it must be better to go with the Goodyears for a 700 POUND increase in rating PER tire!

 

[MMeilicke]

I don't know if these tires are any good but Kenda make the Karrier Loadstar ST235/80/R16 E load with 3500 lb rating. They are made in China. Forest River puts them on the Cardinals. Good luck. I think I will go to the Goodyear G614. Expensive but I guess they are a good tire for a 16" wheel.

 

[JayWm]

I absolutly hate trailer tires, IMO they use early 70's technology, radial tires are the way to go. I have a double axle trailer I pull everyday not real heavy but it wieghts in around 5500#'s. I found specific trailer tires where gone in less than a year and if they got a little low they would blow out. So I just go to walmart and for $33/tire I can get no name 225/75/15's and they have been on nearly 2 years and work great, they are more stable and track the road better and smoother. they are prolly not very good for heavy loads but work great on a lighter trailer. IMO use anything but a specific trailer tire

Load that thing up to max GVW and then see what happen's..... pop, pop, pop

and it'll handle very poorly. For what you're doing it'll work great as it has, but don't ever think about putting P rated car tires on a big, heavy RV trailer. I doubt you'll get a tire store that's worth its salt to do it anyway.



By the way TITAN=CARLISLE, Carlisle bought out Titan awhile back.



The best thing to do is what most of you have done is put 16" tires/wheels on your trailers. When using the Goodyear G614 LRG you need to upgrade to a properly rated wheel for load and air pressure. Standard wheels are not rated for this tire.



For those that wonder what basis I have for my statements, I own a tire store that services everything from hand carts to class 8 trucks, construction equipment, and small earthmover tires. I have had several customers who were blowing tires constantly, converted the trailers to 16" and not one failure since. It's the only way to play heavy.



Jay

 

[E2360]

Maxxis tires

My current and last trailer both had Maxxis radials, NO problems at all. Trailer sits much more than used but have never been a problem running or sitting. Last time I checked the pressure they were all at set pressure with no loss for 5 months... ... ... . Just my $0. 02



Smooth running also

 

[MMeilicke]

Yep, they say you should balance trailer tires. Good for the tires and it smooth out the ride the trailer experiences as you go down the road.