Tire Age

phillyg

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
209
I read somewhere that ST tires couldn't be expected to last more than three years. Trailer tires are a hot topic on RV websites and almost universally people owning trailers swear they rarely last longer than three years regardless of use or care., And Chinese tires seem to get most of the blame. Most folks recommend Maxxis tires, if they can be found in the size needed. On the other hand, you'll hear from folks with 6 plus years on their STs with no complaints. I don't get it.
 
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
22
my dad bought his 1448 big jon new in 1988, at the same time he bough a welded sealion tilt trailer with 10" wheels. We just replaced the tires two years ago for the first time! The boat is kept in his garage year round, tires are always kept at max PSI and my dad applies ArmorAll like a lot I mean WAY too much. Boat is plain no boat blind etc and is only used for hunting and the ramp to our meadow is under six miles away on back roads under 40mph
 

CatTwentyTwo

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
424
Inspected my tires last month and found a bulge on 2 out of 4 tires, scared me half to death. Trailer is kept in the garage and up on jack stands when not in use, 50 psi is max on the sidewall but I run them at about 45. The tires are 11 year old Goodyear Marathons and have been trouble free until now so I replaced them with the same and expect the new tires to be good for at least 8 to 9 years.

Here's a picture of one of the tires.

P8160001_zps23be1299.jpg
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,906
If you want to kill a tire quickly just leave it out in the Florida sun.
Tire pressure is set to what the manufacture has calculated for a given weight. The idea is at x amount of psi carrying x amount of weight the tire tread will be flat on the ground. If you set it to the tires max psi and only add half the max weight the tire will be proud in the center of the tread which will lead to tire wear and poor grip. If you set the psi to low then the tire will be squashed resulting in the outsides of the tread to be worn (also adds extra heat during towing). Best case is to have the tire off the floor when stored and covered to avoid UV light.
 
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Captain Ollie West

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 1, 2014
Messages
156
If you have a tandem trailer and one fails you are probably okay besides the damage to the fender etc. If you have a single axel trailer and one fails ...

That being said, If I had 4 year old tires that appear perfect, I would continue to use them.
 

Saline Marina

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 9, 2014
Messages
162
So my thoughts are if there is any way to upgrade to an "LT" light truck tire you are going to be a thousand miles ahead. A "ST" special trailer tire is a lower grade lower cost tire that's not designed to support the forces put on a tire by vehicle cornering, burnouts, hard braking, skidpad, etc. It just rolls with a load under very little side pressure and does some light braking if you have that but that's just an assist, the tow vehicle does most of the stopping. Obviously the common hub sizes and commonly available trailer wheels and fenders aren't condusive to a LT-sized tire. Also a LT tire is likely a $250 tire instead of a $100 tire (like an ST). But just saying here, the trailer tires are not up to the same standard and are denoted as such. Personally I prefer radials. I lower the tire pressure to around 25 psi when removing and then storing for months at a time to reduce oxygen pressure on the inside of the tire. I think under load the sidewall flexing builds heat in the tire as does high speeds or higher loads (closer to the max printed load). Tire pressure helps with sidewall flexing but also puts the case of the tire under greater hoop stress in two directions where its more prone to a catastrophic blowout, especially if that's catalyzed by a sharp edge of an object or some road feature struck at speed. As far as brands, I have always laid my money on Michelins and had excellent results in around 6 different vehicles. That said, Michelin doesn't make a boat trailer tire in my size so I elected to go with Carlisle Radials and not enough miles or years to make any kind of judgement whatsoever. I believe in general you get what you pay for although sharp objects can kill any price point tire. I keep speeds down to 65mph when interstate towing and allow time to get where I'm going. Spares are almost worth their weight in gold as is hub maintenance. There are tradeoffs on everything and no hard and fast rules but there are some trends you can understand and follow.
 
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rallyart

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
1,175
Apparently there is not one. You either leave them for many years, until they turn bad, or change them every three because they might go bad.
 

H20Rat

Vice Admiral
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
5,199
resisting the urge to jump in the inflation debate... ;) My only comment on that... The tire was designed to have a specific angle of sidewall deflection, and a specific contact patch size. A max inflated tire running at 1/2 of the rated load is well OUTSIDE of its design envelope...


Anyway, with that out of the way, if you want to preserve a tire, its easy! You don't need to jack up the trailer, you are just exposing more of the tire to O3. The easiest thing to do is just cover them... I have a trailer that sat 1 year without moving with uncovered tires. The north side tire is also shaded by some bushes, and shows zero issues. The south side tire has no protection, and I wouldn't trust it to leave town. Lots of deep weather checking on the sidewall.
 

bigdee

Commander
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
2,665
resisting the urge to jump in the inflation debate... ;) My only comment on that... The tire was designed to have a specific angle of sidewall deflection, and a specific contact patch size. A max inflated tire running at 1/2 of the rated load is well OUTSIDE of its design envelope...
I couldn't resist....A trailer does not give a rats azz about contact patch size
 
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