freeisforme
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2009
- Messages
- 184
After sitting and reading several recent posts about trailer tires and having had to replace a half dozen trailer tires again this season which probably had less then 50 miles total on them due to dry rot it really got me rethinking the whole deal.
Why is it that trailer tires are always the ones we hear about blowing out or failing?
I've got two utility trailers, both are cut off pickup truck beds running what ever tires were one them when they were built 20 years ago. I've never once had a tire concern running all over the place almost always overloaded.
Yet on my bass boat, if I run a 4 or 5 year old ST175-13 tire at any sort of speed it comes apart?
They dry rot faster, leak faster through the cracks, and seem to fly apart randomly at any sort of speed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its always just fine to run old rotten tires but I'd bet money on it that the 20+ year old F78-14 tires with thousands of miles on them, on my utility trailer will no doubt last another 10 years and never have a failure yet every year or two I have to replace my boat trailer tires because they're cracked so bad they won't hold air.
On several of my trailers I've switched to larger LT rated tires and the cause for concern on those is gone, its the trailers running the ST tires that always seem to be a problem.
I bought a 1965 travel trailer at auction last month about 200 miles away from here, its tires were no doubt whatever came on it in 1965. I pumped up the tires, hung a set of towing lights and off I went, 200 miles mostly at highway speeds with no problems. The tires look fine, have no cracks, but were badly flat spotted for the first 20 miles or so till they got some heat in them.
The tires are Goodyear Silverstreaks on two piece rims, there's a sticker in the compartment where the jack is stowed that reads "Check and/or replace tires every 8-10 years" "Maintain 32psi air pressure at all times", "Repack wheel bearings every 3 years or 10,000 miles".
While I will no doubt be tossing those tires in favor of something modern, I somehow doubt that any ST tire I put on to replace them will still be around in another 48 years.
On my boats, I rarely tow more than 20 miles in any direction, most of the time its less than 5 miles, my most used boat trailer may get 20 miles or so on its tires before they dry rot to the point they leak, usually every two or three years.
I highly doubt either I or my boat would ever be able to tell the difference between trailer tires or passenger tires other then the fact I'll no longer have to worry about ST rated tires dry rotting or falling apart. At 45 mph or so tops at no where's near any tires maximum weight capacity, I have little doubt that a passenger tire will do just fine. The drawback may be in that it may be tough to find a bias ply passenger tire these days or any tire other than a trailer tire in the 12" diameter sizes. On my trailers with 8" tires, I've given up on running any of them tubeless, they all seem to crack and leak within a year or two. At least with the tubes they don't go flat in the yard.
Why is it that trailer tires are always the ones we hear about blowing out or failing?
I've got two utility trailers, both are cut off pickup truck beds running what ever tires were one them when they were built 20 years ago. I've never once had a tire concern running all over the place almost always overloaded.
Yet on my bass boat, if I run a 4 or 5 year old ST175-13 tire at any sort of speed it comes apart?
They dry rot faster, leak faster through the cracks, and seem to fly apart randomly at any sort of speed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its always just fine to run old rotten tires but I'd bet money on it that the 20+ year old F78-14 tires with thousands of miles on them, on my utility trailer will no doubt last another 10 years and never have a failure yet every year or two I have to replace my boat trailer tires because they're cracked so bad they won't hold air.
On several of my trailers I've switched to larger LT rated tires and the cause for concern on those is gone, its the trailers running the ST tires that always seem to be a problem.
I bought a 1965 travel trailer at auction last month about 200 miles away from here, its tires were no doubt whatever came on it in 1965. I pumped up the tires, hung a set of towing lights and off I went, 200 miles mostly at highway speeds with no problems. The tires look fine, have no cracks, but were badly flat spotted for the first 20 miles or so till they got some heat in them.
The tires are Goodyear Silverstreaks on two piece rims, there's a sticker in the compartment where the jack is stowed that reads "Check and/or replace tires every 8-10 years" "Maintain 32psi air pressure at all times", "Repack wheel bearings every 3 years or 10,000 miles".
While I will no doubt be tossing those tires in favor of something modern, I somehow doubt that any ST tire I put on to replace them will still be around in another 48 years.
On my boats, I rarely tow more than 20 miles in any direction, most of the time its less than 5 miles, my most used boat trailer may get 20 miles or so on its tires before they dry rot to the point they leak, usually every two or three years.
I highly doubt either I or my boat would ever be able to tell the difference between trailer tires or passenger tires other then the fact I'll no longer have to worry about ST rated tires dry rotting or falling apart. At 45 mph or so tops at no where's near any tires maximum weight capacity, I have little doubt that a passenger tire will do just fine. The drawback may be in that it may be tough to find a bias ply passenger tire these days or any tire other than a trailer tire in the 12" diameter sizes. On my trailers with 8" tires, I've given up on running any of them tubeless, they all seem to crack and leak within a year or two. At least with the tubes they don't go flat in the yard.
