The car trailer thread

[squirrel]

I had a non-trailer type tire on my trailer blow near the beginning of the DW 2013 trip, replaced a pair with trailer tires, worked fine for the rest of the trip. after I got home I replaced the other two with trailer tires. I think they're 205 75R15. They are chinese, two different brands...Duro and Hercules? they seem to be doing fine, no problems on DW14.

[Damon23]

I had one. This one, a nice 18ft, removable fender, brakes on both axles and it was a brand new Lawrimore. Some jackass stole it. If anyone sees a trailer running around with a WRL (where racing lives), magnaflow mufflers and a round '13 power tour sticker on the fenders of one let me know. I'd buy another one but I have nowhere to put it and I won't use a storage place again. Most people tell me it was a inside job for a trailer to go thru the only way in and only way out and not show up on the cameras. I miss it for sure. My friend has a older 16ft one I've used to take to Daytona or I rent one. I had that trailer for a whopping 4 months.

[milner351]

WOW - Holy conflicting experiences with trailer tires.... crazy.

[squirrel]

Might be that you have to pay attention to the load rating and inflation, too.

[milner351]

Yes - I tend to er on the conservative side for load rating, and put the inflation at the max on the sidewall (80 psi for LRE)

[Thumpin455]

I go max pressure on the sidewall as well, it increases the load rating. Tire pressure is critical when working with heavy stuff, like USAF cargo equipment.

[yellomalibu]

maximizing the tire pressure also reduces rolling resistance, which improves gas mileage.

On your car or truck, this is also true, but it may cause the tires to wear more in the center, rather than flat across, decreasing the amount of miles or life you get out of a set of tires.

[Deaf Bob]

But the load flattens the tread, thus they wear evenly

[greenjunk]

squirrel those tires may be fine for a year or so, but if you're towing any weight, they WILL leave you stranded. 3 lasted a year, one blew out, then another one rolled the belt and balooned in the middle, they're freakin junk. those were the most expensive E load trailer tire you can buy for a 15" rim. Michelin e load ltx m+s is the way to go. spend the money once, years of value. Reading through pretty much everyone is saying the same thing. the e-load suv tire works better then chinese trailer tires.

[Beagle]

I noticed one of the trailer tires I was looking at yesterday had a 55 mh speed rating - on a ST205-14. Wonder if that has anything to do with them crapping out? I tend to not pull my trailer very fast any more but I can see where that would have been a problem in one of my previous lifes.

For your amusement, this still holds air and pulled "free" boat 35 miles to my house. Sorry for the crapppy cell phone pic but you get the idea of what not to use for a trailer tire. This tire amused me because it's a P-metric but a B (belted) construction:


Note the lovely gash at 12:00... the sidewall crumbles off if you drag your fingernail across it.

the Yokohoma in the upper right was it's partner in donkey duty... interesting also because it's marked "Made in USA"

[milner351]

Is there a "tire dressing" that actually works to block out UV damage? instead of just making the tire shiny?

A friend used to use good old fashioned floor wax, the tires on his bass boat trailer lasted forever,
but they were also old and good quality to start with which is more than we can say for the chinese / taiwanese / korean / indian round black things we get now

[Loren]

Dad always put a piece of plywood in front of the trailer tires when stored, on the side where the sun hit. Of-course he was less lazy than I am.

I nearly bought a set of Hercules tires a year ago for the truck, cheap-cheap and U.S.-made, but backed off after reading the reviews...good ones sounded fishy, bad ones were some bitter stuff. But...it's like, unless you were there watching when the tire was made, who knows? My 16" exploding trailer tires were P-rated Dunlop Grand Treks, probably 5 years old and certainly run at the right pressure and well under weight limit, but tires I had on there for dang-near 20 years (after buying them used) before they started to let loose were also Dunlop Grand Trek P's, 15". And, those tires I seriously overloaded a time-or-two! The truck (which we don't or are not supposed to use enough to want to buy brand-new good tires for) got good used Bridgestones, E rated. It seems there's a tire distributor up in Riverside CA who takes the best used stuff he comes across and stacks them in a room for people to pick from, that's where we're starting to go for that sort-of thing. Probably the best basic thing to do on such a tire, is just to choose 10-ply, whatever you get.

If you're starting to wonder if we ever buy new tires...yes, hot-rods and daily drivers get good new tires when it's time. It's just that for other stuff, I have other things I'd rather spend money on.

[milner351]

Loren, I'm with you. Tires are expensive, chose wisely, there's a local junkyard that takes tires off and re sells for reasonable prices, and will mount and balance reasonable too especially if you bring in the wheels instead of making them take them off the car first.
They usually have decent tires stored indoors with DOT codes inside the 7 year limit for resale (not sure they limit that for used tires, but it's a reference)

I may have to look into this UV tire protectant subject a bit more - I just spent $500 on new michelins for the 91 F150 I'm driving back from denver in mid february, I'd like to see them last more than a few years before they start getting weather checked. I won't always be able to park that truck inside.
The trailer will almost never be inside.

I'm thinking about sheet metal and strong magnets for tire shades on the trailer. I had fabric ones, they rotted in a couple years.

[Deaf Bob]

90 Suburban had a real nice spare, picked up a mate at the wrecking yard the Suburban didn't have the tire cover.. After driving less than 500 miles, it went to the sky and all over the road.. Looking at it, the part in the spare well is still good (whatever that means) while the part in the light just flapped off, I never went over 60-65 with that either!

[Grumpy]

Here's what I know, on the 40' and 45' Bus Conversions if the tire is 7 years old or older and you continue running them because they still have 80% tread it's more then likely going to cost you because a blow out on one of those Turkeys is far more expensive then new tires. I'm talking about the large 315/80R22.5 tires and it doesn't matter what brand or if the bus has been sitting in a climate controlled garage or out in the Sun, my car trailers have 205/75R15 and 225/75R16 Bridgestones and I've always had good luck with those.