Re: trailer tire replacement
I fully understand about not wanting to run on old tires and all that on the freeway but tires made in recent years don't last even sitting in the garage. I've had three or four pair now go bad just sitting under project boats. I don't trailer more than 125 miles per year, and all my trailering is at slow speeds, so I'm not too concerned with high speed blow outs but I've had newer tires blow apart just sitting in the garage. I've got a pair of Load Star tires now that are so cracked they won't hold air, I'd bet money on it if I took them all the way up to their rated 50psi they'd blow up in my face. Brand don't seem to matter much, they just don't seem to last long. Yet I've got older tires, over 15 years old that are fine, they sit outdoors most of the time and get abused weekly under a utility trailer, yet those tires still look new with no cracks.
My garage isn't heated, and I park the trailer up two wood planks with attached wheel stops, so its not a matter of ozone from a heater, UV light, or the concrete causing the issues. The tires that aren't rotted sat in the garage until I got my boat.
The rubber has changed. I've got an old snow mobile trailer from the the mid 60's with original tires on it that look fine and hold air fine yet the tires that came on my new trailer last spring are already showing dryrot cracks and their not two years old yet. (Date codes 1112).
There's even issues these days with tubes, years ago we used to have old trucks sitting in the barn that never seemed to have flat tires, no matter how long they sat, these days brand new tires loose air, even those you put tubes in. I have one trailer that only used once a year, I put new tires on it last year, I bought new tires and rims from a local dealer, $275 for the pair, made in USA Carlisle tires and they won't hold air over the course of the year. Yet if I sink them into a tire tank with 80psi in them they won't show any leaks.
A call to the tire dealer got the comment that tires naturally lose air, its normal.
Then why don't I ever have to add air to the 1966 Chevy farm truck with 40 year old tires on it?
Those old BF Goodrich Silvertown tires hold air forever, yet those I buy today lose air in a few months?
