Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

[supersizeme]

Hi, where is the best place online/instore to buy trailer tires. I am having quite a hard time finding which place is best around me.

Should I order them online and get them mounted at the local tire shop or should I just bring them to a local tire shop like (belle tire or discount tire)

What should I be looking? I have a tandem axle trailer hauling a 211 Four Winns Liberator. I checked up on it today because it was super warm today and I found a flat tire. I bought the boat used, original owner so I don't know how old the tires are. Is there a date of manufacture on the tire? Should I just replace one tire or all of them?

 

[shuswap119]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Buy them where you buy your auto tires, assumming you buy them from a full service tire dealer. They will know what will work for your application.

Regards,

 

[Yellow Yota]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I agree. For the small amount you'll save by ordering online, you will be hard pressed to come out much ahead after you take them and pay for dismounts, mounts, and balancing. Figure in that you won't have free flat repairs and re-balancing, and I'd be surprised if you come out ahead at all.

I just replaced my tires a few weeks ago with Westlakes. Not sure about them yet, but they tow very well. I've always used Goodyear Marathons on my trailers with no trouble, but my long-time tire guy suggested I try a set of these. So here I am. They were about 30% less money than what I'm used to, so that was nice. Time will tell if they're a good buy!
All I can suggest is to not buy Carlisles. I've had a few of them and had nothing but bad luck. Wear fast, don't tow well, and just go to pot in a hurry. They are cheap for a reason. Hopefully the Westlakes aren't similar. I'm being assured that they are not.

Good luck.

 

[df909]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I have Marathons on my trailer and am happy with them. I went to several big name places (Pep-Boys, America's Tire, and Sears) and no one had what I needed. So, I called a little no-name mom & pop shop near me and they had exactly what I needed. Try a little shop and see what they say. Just be sure not to use passenger rated tires as they're built differently and don't have the sidewall strength. Good luck.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I have been running the Load Master tires from Northern Tool for years and get great service out of them.
You can buy the tires already mounted on new rims for what some of the local tire dealers get for just the tire and mounting.
Several thousand miles on my tandem trailer and they still look new.

 

[sc_shane]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I have to agree with these fellas. I've been pulling a trailer all my life and have been getting my setups from Northern. If you need someone to pop them on and\or just balance them, run it by discount tire. If you want to be completely hands off, just take it in to Discount and pay the extra bucks. Otherwise, head to Northern and get the tires already on the rims.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Ditto. Even with the small 12" tires, the shipping costs add up fast, and they still need to be mounted. I found the local discount tire center could mount brand name tires for less than online price, shipping, and local mounting.

Plus if there is a problem with a tire, you can bring it right to the local merchant for service/replacement. Can't do that with an online merchant.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

^^^ well said

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Don't completely discount online stores... I've bought my last two sets of car tires online, and even with shipping, I saved around $350 total on 4 tires. (found the tires I wanted for $130+$80 shipping, no tax. Cheapest local place wanted $220 a tire, plus tax, and that didn't include mounting/balancing, so I had that expense either way.

I try to support local merchants as much as possible, but in many cases they are committing legal highway robbery just because they know for some items very few people will shop online. Tires are one of those instances.

 

[woosterken]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

you dont say where you are or what size your looking for.
iboats sells tires

woosterken

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Don't completely discount online stores....

Sometimes it IS cheaper to go online. I have bought mounted tires online or mailorder in the past too. But I also went to the local tire store once for a pair. I had a sidewall balloon up, and both tires had some checking, and I wanted to get on the water. 2 tires mounted on my existing rims cost me the same as I could have bought tires on rims online. I got on the water and figure I didn't lose anything and I felt good buying local.

I fished so much in the last two seasons that I wore the tread completely off my trailer tires. Never did that before! Usually weather checking forced me to buy tires. I just bought two tires on galvanized rims through the local tackle shop (he had to order them in) for about the price of one tire alone here in town. I would just check around.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I buy all my car tires online, but they are all high performance size and ratings. So it pays to order online and have mounted/balanced local for those special sizes. But basic trailer tires, it's hard to beat the local price. Just grab the phone and yellow pages (remember yellow pages?) and call around.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I did a quick check and northern tool was WAY more expensive than trailertires.com for the sizes I checked

 

[sc_shane]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Wow - those prices on northertool.com are WAAAAY more expensive than they are in my store. The last set I bought were $59.99 each and they have them on sale online at $89.99 - either they went WAAAY up in price, or your local store is MUCH cheaper.

Also, when I looked up trailertires.com, it was $58.50 a tire\rim and another $75 to ship 4 of them to my zip. I guess the same old saying goes - it pays to shop around! if the $89 is correct at northern.com and you have to pay shipping, it would definitly be cheaper at the trailertires.com place.

 

[dockwrecker]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I went with Maxxis 8008 radials that I got from Discount tire. I got totally fed up with cheap bias plys and had absolutely no luck with Transmasters or Marathons. I have a tandem axle trailer and a heavy boat, about 6200lbs gassed and ready to go between the two. The Maxxis tow easier and cooler than anything I've tried before. A little spendy, but worth it to me. I ain't got time to fool with bad tires.

 

[timmyjoebob]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Just put on two tires on my single-axle trailer. $52 at one store and $62 at another (for the same tubeless, bias-ply tire).

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Northern must have went way up! The last set of four i bought was about 200 bucks.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

Tire's around here are a crap shoot. Shopping around is the only way to go. Remember that "Best" and "Cheapest" are not necessarily going to go hand in hand. Never skimp on what is between your beloved boat and the unforgiving surfaces and surroundings you are driving on.

 

[woosterken]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

the only place i could find my size (20.5x8-10) loadstar. was here.......
easternmarine.com they were only $48.50 each and only $24.78 shiping ups for the 4 of them

woosterken

 

[ktmrider]

Re: Best/Cheapest Place to buy Trailer tires?

I went to Les Schawb and got 205/75-14 trailer tires for $59/each installed.