tires

[JP Heintzman]

The guy at the local trailer place told me I could use a car tire on my trailer, as long as the weight rating was good to go? I always thought we were supposed to use tires specifically made for trailers? I have a 95' Nitro 170TF w/single axle trailer. Any words of wisdom...



Jim

 

[Larry Harp]

Our old departed but not forgotten friend Staci was a commercial tire salesperson in her previous career. She taught me and I have confirmed this with an old tire expert at Sam's that trailers bounce around and flex the sidewall too much for regular car tires to stand up to it. Trailer tires have a stronger sidewall to withstand the constant bouncing and flexing. If you put trailer tires on a car they would probably ride rougher than a day in a Mexican jail. I bought my Goodyear Marathons at Wal-Mart. They had to order them but it only took a few days to get them in. They had the best price including the mail order places and I got the life of the tire road hazard warranty which I have already taken advantage of.



Harpo

 

[Travis Smith]

I would never use a car tire on any trailer the reason is because trailer tires are a specially made tire that have Bias Ply's making the sidewall's stronger, care tires on the other hand have sidewalls that tend to bulge quite a bit when you hit bumps and this is to absorb the bumps. Also Bias ply tires tend to dissipate heat better than a car tire would on a trailer due to all of the bumps.





Basically what I am saying is that with a real trailer tire you will have less of a chance of having your sidewalls blow out than that of having a car tire on your trailer.









Travis

 

[Marty Klein]

I might believe that sidewell flex is a trailer tire issue, but are you telling me that a trailer tire needs to dissipate more heat than a tire on the tow vehicle?



I have found that my Cooper "non-trailer" tires don't flex that much properly inflated and get better tire wear than the original trailer tires.

 

[Dewey Storie]

Just make sure they are the same Class of tire C or D ... I just went throught this with a tire place they put Class C on the Toon trailer when Class D's are what came off it.

 

[Jim B]

Personally i would run only a trailer tire for the simple reason that they are designed for trailer use. In my opinion its really a no brainer. For what little the difference is in cost i would risk not putting a tire on my trailer that may or may not be up to the task. I nmy opinion thats just not a risk worth taking.



As far as what i run on my trailer. I run Good Year Marathon radials, they are as good as it gets in a trailer tire. I have logged over 50k i-on my current set and they still have plenty of life and are wearing quite nicely( on my last boat trailer they laster much longer).

 

[Edward Lea.]

ride rougher than a day in a Mexican jail

Harpo that sounds like a very interesting comparison, want to expand on that!!!

 

[JP Heintzman]

Cool, thanks fellas, Goodyear Marathons it will be. Headed to Clark's Hill on Friday and the fall fishing is supposed to be picking up. Buddy went there on Saturday and caught 20 by himself, best fish about 4 1/2 lbs. He was catching them on small white crankbaits and texas rigged watermelon/red trick worms. Will let you know how it goes, ya'll be good.



Jim

 

[Jason L]

Ya, Get the Goodyear Marathons at Wal-Mart. Cheap and good.

 

[Marty Klein]

Spurred by this discussion I scoured the Internet [bless Al Gore] and found the following: Comments made by several folks who said that only trailer tires [ST] should be placed on trailers came from your average Joe. However, tire experts [read that manufacturers] stated over and over again that light truck tires [LT] and trailer tires [ST] are both fully rated for trailer use. LT can be used for trailer applications, but ST can't be used for light truck applications. ST tires were recommended where tires receive a lot of stress [read that construction sites, off road terrain, etc] because of their tougher sidewalls. The tire experts also said that while passenger tires could be put on trailers the load rating should be reduced by 10%; they also mentioned that tire sway could be a problem.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Sounds fair enough.



TOXIC