Trailer tire recommendation?

[Robbie Racer]

I have blown 5 or 6 of my C rated 14" tires because they aren't rated high enough for the weight of the boat and trailer. I would like to go with a D rated tire but ran into some potential problems.
1) I can't seem to find a D load rating in a 14" tire so I will probably have to replace the 14" wheels with 15" wheels. Now, it's getting pretty expensive.
2) Even if I go with 15" tires and wheels, the diameter of the tire seems to be greater and I will probably have to raise the fenders. The 14" tires have a 26" diameter and it looks like the most that I can go is maybe a 27" diameter before I have to raise the fenders.
3) If I raise the fenders, the boat may hit the fenders when I'm putting it on the trailer.
Any ideas???? Thanks, R/R

[Mandelon]

Have you looked at a local trailer place?? A lot of auto tire places are clueless when it comes to tires for trailers...You need a much stronger sidewall.

[Lightning]

Carslisle makes a D rated bias ply in 14".... here is a link (http://www.carlisletire.com/)
You can usually get their tires through local shops...Discount, America's Tire, Sears..
[ February 20, 2003, 06:44 PM: Message edited by: Lightning ]

[NashvilleBound]

First of all Carslisle (?) tires suck! I went through a bunch myself.....crap. RR, Do you have a tandum trailer? If you do then check your rocker between springs. If its straight you can go to a triangle rocker and gain about 1.5" enough to fit a 15" tire. I had so many problems with mine I took both axles off, bought 5200# (instead of the 3200) both with the new 12" disc breaks...bought all new 15" custom rims and 29" tires. I had just had it with those 14" tires AND was looking to raise the trailer by about 5" so I would stop scraping the drive going through dips. I have the Ultra 247 with the swim step so I cant trim up as much as I really need to. Everythings all better now, well kinda...I just noticed the boat has been hitting a cross member when loading or unloading. I would call Tom at Extreme but after he treated me so poorly, probably cuz he has short man syndrome, with the previous problems I think I will just take care of it myself. I was able to get everything at a real discount...If you want to do the same thing PM me and I will get you my contacts for the parts.
Good Luck, NB

[Seadog]

The Goodyear Marathon 205/75-14C are rated for 1760 lbs at 50 psi. 26.1" dia. If you go to the 215/75-14C it is rated at 1870 lbs, 26.7" dia, If you go to a 15" tire, you would be over 28" to get significant more strength. There is a 225/75-15D rated at 2540lbs @65psi.
[ February 20, 2003, 08:01 PM: Message edited by: Seadog ]

[Robbie Racer]

Mandelon, I do have a local trailer repair shop looking around for me but he can't find anything with a load rating of 2,000+ lbs. with a diameter of 27" or less (to fit within my trailer fenders).
Lightning, thanks for the link. I should have said in my first post that I needed a 2,000+ lb. load rating. You are right about the D rating on the 14" tire but that tire only has 120 lbs. more of a maximum load (1,880) than my current C rated (1,760) tire. I think that I would still have blow out problems with that particular tire. Their 15" D rated tires with 2540 lb load rating would be the ticket but a 2" greater diameter, I think they would hit the fenders.
NB, I do have a tandem trailer and I will check to see if it has a straight or triangle type of rocker. My trailer is also an Extreme tandem with 4 wheel disk brakes. I have had good luck with the trailer, but the tires are just too marginal for the weight I have and at the higher speeds that I tow. I will let you know if I don't find any other options.
Thanks guys, R/R

[B-rad502]

Whatever you do, don't buy Carlisle's, they SUCK!! They had a long run of bad tires go out to consumers. I've blown 2 of them and buddy blew 2 Carlisles on his new Sleekcraft trailer after only 1 month :( Spend the extra $$ and get the Goodyear Marathons.

[Robbie Racer]

Sea Dog, I like that Marathon 225/75-15D rated at 2540lbs @65psi but it has a 28.3" diameter which will hit my fenders.
B-Rad, I tend to agree with you about the Carlisle's since I did blow 5 or 6 of them but it might have been due to the fact that the load rating (1,760 lbs.) wasn't enough for my boat. I have about 7,000 lbs with full tanks (and trailer). If I divide that by 4, I get 1,750 lbs. of weight on each tire (if the load were distributed equally). I think that even a Marathon with a 1,760 and maybe even a 1,820 load rating still might be marginal and I will still have blowouts.
One tire dealer recommended a 14" Korean tire called a Woosung which he says has a 8 plys with a 2,095 lb. load rating and is only 26.25" diameter. That would fit in my fender well and I wouldn't even have to go to 15" wheels (if it is any good). Anybody ever hear of this tire? I haven't. Thanks again, R/R

[OC-PARTYCAT]

Isnt there a safety factor involved with the load ratings? I would think you could overload the tire (a little) and not have problems. Maybe you axles arent staight and its heating up the tire causing blow outs. :confused: :confused: Is it always the same tire? Or different each blow out?
[ February 21, 2003, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: OC-PARTYCAT ]

[Robbie Racer]

OC-PC, I have blown all of them in all 4 locations. Besides the load rating being so close to my actual load, another part of the problem is my fault. I live in Calif. and tow the trailer between 65-70 here and have only blown one tire on a 100 degree day going up the I-5 to Shasta. The other 4 blow outs occured while towing in AZ where the speed limit is 75 and I'm probably going 75-80 mph and the outside temps were in the 107 - 112 degree range. I'm sure the higher towing speeds caused a much higher tire temperature which probably caused the blow outs. When I changed the tires, the rims were so hot that I had to use gloves to remove the lug nuts. burningm

[B-rad502]

I had just had bad tires. I had the trailer checked, allignment was fine and the bearings looked brand new. The 2 new tires I blew were in different spots on the trailer.

[dkreuzen]

R/R Were the tires you blew raidal or bias-ply?
I know the the bias-ply get hot when loaded and the heat will kill them where the radials run much cooler. I have experenced this on my own trailer.
As others have said, get the Goodyear Marathon trailer tires, they are the best.

[Robbie Racer]

They were radial tires (Carlisle ST205-75, 14"). I think that I'm just too darn close to their max load rating of 1,760 lbs and when I put them into a hotter than normal environment, they just can't handle it. I could fit the 14" Marathon's under the fenders without modifying the trailer but with their 1,820 lb. load rating, I just don't know if they would handle the heat either. It might be worth a try though as the only other solution would seem to be to modify the trailer (raise the fenders) and put 15" taller D rated (2,540 lb.) tires on it. R/R

[Mohavekid]

I've had this problem on a single axle trailer in the past.
To make them live at high speeds and high loads, you've got to make sure the tires are inflated to the max presure rating on the tire sidewall. Most ST tires are rated to be inflated to 50 PSI cold. If they're not fully inflated, the sidewall flexing really builds up heat and will destroy the tire. Another problem I had was the surge brakes not fully releasing and adding a bunch of heat to the brake drum/wheel/tire.
Just like an auto transmision, excess heat will really shorten the life of the tire.
Good luck. :D
[ February 22, 2003, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: Mohavekid ]

[Mandelon]

Yup, heat is the enemy. I have a laser temp sensor. It was $39.00 out of some catalog, it reads the temp of whatever you point it at. My tires, run around 95 in normal weather but will run up to 110-115 degrees in the summer. It was a great way to check to see if one tire was out of wack........
My rims never get too hot to touch. Although now that I think about it, one time the old drum brakes on my last trailer dragged a little...that heated things way up. You might want to check that just in case.

[NashvilleBound]

If your going to stay with the 14" tires just make sure you keep the air pressure up to specs. I think that was my biggest mistake. Underinflation is the biggest killer of tires. I know Cooper is now making a "Trailer" tire that is rated at higher than 55 MPH. But we NEVER tow faster than that....right

[JetBoatRich]

Nobody tows faster than 55, it's against the law here in Cal. :D We would not want to break the law wink

[Robbie Racer]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Proper inflation is critical. One of my blowouts may have been related to that. One tire had a bubble on the sidewall before it blew. I should have changed it before it blew but I thought I could make it to the next town to change it there. NOT!!! :( I did find another tire later on with a sidewall bubble and I did get that one changed before it blew. The tire dealer sent it back to Carlsile but I wasn't ever able to get a response from them as to why it developed the bubble.
Mandelon, do you remember what catalog you ordered your "non-contact" temperature sensor? I have been looking all over the internet for one and the cheapest that I have been able to find is the Raytek MT-4 and it sells for $75. Thanks, R/R

[Mandelon]

I'll check tomorrow. It was out of a catalog from the shop. Its pretty darn cool. The big tires on the Suburban run a lot cooler. Almost 10 degrees. More air I guess.
[ February 23, 2003, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: Mandelon ]

[NashvilleBound]

JetBoatRich:
Nobody tows faster than 55, it's against the law here in Cal. :D We would not want to break the law wink Exactly, At least not that law....
NOT! devil

[jeffro]

i've got bridgestone "trailer use only" tires
205/75r14.
couldn't be happier with them. :D
laters
:cool:

[LUVNLIFE]

I just got new trailer tires last weekend. Checked with four places and decided on Nankong load range c, 1750 at 50psi.

[LUVNLIFE]

I forgot $330 out the door.