Has anyone seen or heard of a trailer tire doing this?

[San_Diego_SeaRay]

About two months ago I came across a good deal to buy some good looking 16 in trailer tires + rims. I never really liked my generic looking galvanized rims so I thought I'd jump on this deal for some sexy aluminum rims w. tires.

So I dismounted my old rims and tires and propped them up on the side of my storage trailer at my boat yard. Come back a few months later and one of the tires has...well...delaminated? Sure, it's been in the sun. But so have the other tires. So have tens of thousands of other tires. So what the heck is going on here? Tires are Westlake ST225/75R15s. Not sure how old they are.

 

[jimmbo]

Better to have it delaminate there than on the Trailer going 110km/hr, like mine did

 

[dingbat]

Look dry rotted..,what is the date cold?

 

[racerone]

That does not happen from sitting in the sun.------Dishonest folks involved I think.

 

[Scott Danforth]

look at the date code. tires are probably over 10 years old.

 

[racerone]

I have a smooth road in front of my place.-----I can sit outside and say----" here comes that blue pick up with the delaminating tread "-----Seconds later it drives by.-----Many bad tires out there.

 

[Chris1956]

Likely run with low tire pressure. Dry rot does not happen to trailer tires, after a few years. I have actually never seen dry rot in a tire, and I have run some older ones that I had in storage for years.

My trailer tires are 25+ years old and are in fine shape. However, I only trailer the boat a few miles 2X a year. if I was a towing man, I would get new ones.

 

[Lou C]

Don’t buy cheap steel belted radials. If you want cheap tires for a trailer IMHO you’re better off with a bias ply tire. I’ve had 3 sets of Kenda Load Stars and not one failure in 17 years. As soon as I see cracks I change em like at 7 years or so. A steel radial when the steel belts delaminate causes way more damage than a bias ply blow out.

 

[San_Diego_SeaRay]

Better to have it delaminate there than on the Trailer going 110km/hr, like mine did

Yikes.

I'll try to look at the date code this weekend.

To be clear, these are not the tires I just bought (although ironically they are the same brand and specs of the tires that I did just buy). So nobody was dishonest. I bought this boat and trailer used back in 2018, so these tires are at least that old. Also, this boat has seen VERY little use/movement since that time. That might have something to do with this as well. Lots of sun beating down on the same places every day w/o any change.

 

[Scott Danforth]

FWIW..... I have an old set of westlakes on similar vintage galvanized trailer wheels that elso did the exact same thing. They have a date code of 1996 and 1997 I had Goodyears also fail by pealing the cap back in 2010 (2001 date code)

 

[Grub54891]

I did not know this before, but a friend saw my boat sitting out back and said you have to put boards under the tires when stored, if you don't, they will crack at the ground surface. He stores all his equipment at his farm on wood and does not have that issue. I do know when they sit and get low on air they do crack on the sidewalls/bottoms where they contact the ground. I'm switching to his method this year. I did a count of my tires, 32 tires is a lot to replace from lack of proper storage. ugh....

 

[matt167]

Old tire. Yup see it all the time. sometimes when farmers use old tire casings for implements, they will run them until they look like that and keep going till they are completely deformed because they are usually tubed

 

[dingbat]

Old tire. Yup see it all the time. sometimes when farmers use old tire casings for implements, they will run them until they look like that and keep going till they are completely deformed because they are usually tubed

Yep….got a few of those myself…lol

 

[dingbat]

I did not know this before, but a friend saw my boat sitting out back and said you have to put boards under the tires when stored, if you don't, they will crack at the ground surface. He stores all his equipment at his farm on wood and does not have that issue. I do know when they sit and get low on air they do crack on the sidewalls/bottoms where they contact the ground.

I suspect this in an old wives tale….the truth to the matter is that UV and ozone are tire killers.

Easier to just keep fresh tires on the equipment and not worry about it..lol

 

[Lou C]

I think it may be more important to put the axle under jacks for long term storage so all the weight is not in one place. I got two divots in my asphalt driveway from the trailer always being parked in one spot! After realizing that those tires have about 2200 lbs on them, each, it made sense! In that case putting wood boards underneath makes sense not for the tires but for the asphalt driveway.
And a few times I noticed when the tires start cracking, they crack in the tread area that was in one spot all winter. I don't put it on jack stands but about once a month I jack it up and rotate the tires, like a half turn so the weight is not all in one spot.

 

[JimS123]

In the olden days I used to get thumping in the Spring with the first tow. So, I started putting jacks under the axle and it solved the problem.

In later years, it just was too much of a hassle so I quit jacking. The newer grade of tires don't thump for me any more.

I've had bias tires that lasted years and years. Even some with cracked sidewalls still performed on local slow speed streets.

The pictures above surely are old tires, but I've seen the same delamination with 4 year old chinabomb radials.

 

[Grub54891]

I suspect this in an old wives tale….the truth to the matter is that UV and ozone are tire killers.

Easier to just keep fresh tires on the equipment and not worry about it..lol

Maby He’s been doing it for years and says it works.

 

[San_Diego_SeaRay]

For the record, turns out this tire was made in 2010.

 

[JASinIL2006]

That explains it... 12 year old tires are well beyond their expected life. Glad you weren't on the road when they decided to fail!

 

[DeepCMark58A]

I was going thru a Dairy Queen drive thru and I was watching the tires to stay off the curb, I noticed a bulge in one of the tires. It was a nerve wracking slow drive on the back roads to get home.