I run exactly what the trailer mfg recommends. You have a blowout, kill innocents on the highway, you better believe DPS will look at all aspects when performing accident investigation.


Sorry oldrabbit--meant as general statement not directed at your particular post!

The inaccurate info placed here by some is scary. I do not believe there is ever a case where a specialty tire manufacturer will recommend running less than rated pressure as I've seen suggested in a prior post.

The sidewalls of trailer tires take a beating - especially on trailers without shock absorbers, which is most of them. Trailer sidewalls flex more to absorb the additional energy (bounce), which is why they are designed with more strength in the sidewalls than passenger tires. Under-inflation allows that flex to become excessive; excessive flex generates excessive heat, which is a major culprit in tire carcass deterioration and failure.

Trailer tires have an often little-noticed speed specification. This is all about how fast the tire is flexing as it rotates, thereby determining how much heat is generated. Many brands are not forth-coming on this and actually rate tires at less than the speeds we typically tow our rigs. Heat is THE big thing for trailer tires just after the all-important weight load rating mentioned by others.

So, if you want to get the most reliability and service life out of your tires, always run at the pressure indicated on the tire bead. They will run cooler and last longer.

Ditto to other posters on that stinkin' 3-5 year service life, regardless of mileage. Sad but true.

Not an expert, but tried running regular tires once.and my trailer tended to not want to corner as well with non trailer tires as it does with trailer tires, not that much difference in prices, I just figure the folks that make them must have some reason for making them different.

What happen to American tires??

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=Radial+857
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Now I find out these are made either in Vietnam or China for 205R/14C, not Korea and of course the Marathon is made in China. Not sure where the Carlisle is made. I had great experience with my Marathons and have several thousand miles on the tires.

Guess I will just go with Discount tire recommendation as I have great experience with them in many states.

I like my 255/40/24 low pro z rated tires

Flipping Out hit it on the money. In my 30 years of experience I have found that a huge percentage of trailer tires are under inflated on customers boats. The main reason? Tires loose pressure, as much as 3 to 5 psi per month normally. Check them often, keep them at Max pressure cold. Don't use the cheap ones, it's just not worth it in the long run.

And make dang sure, even if it is a small 13 inch tire on a pontoon that it is balanced. Had the experience of finding out they did not balance my new pontoon tires and first lost bearing dust caps before I figured out what the problem was. They said they didn't usually balance trailer tires. Won't say what tire company but I got them straight.

Yes! LT tires all the way!!! I have never had any problems with running LT tires on trailers

ST tires are made with stronger sidewalls for better load bearing, but they are only rated for 65 MPH. On a boat trailer, the capacity rating is probably not a big deal. All ST tires except Maxxis are made in China, Maxxis is made in one of the Asian countries, I think the Philippines. Maxxis makes a 10 ply ST tire that is pretty popular with the RV people.

LT tires would be the tire of choice, but they can be hard to find in the smaller sizes. I've already been through that. Regardless of which tires you run, you'll get better longevity out of them by running them at max pressure.

Bad move to replace 215 75 14s with 205 75 14s?

What do you run if the tires that came on the trailer new were not quality tires? Do you still use cheap tires or do you upgrade to a quality tire?

I have horse trailers and a dump trailer. We have been plagued with blow outs. We changed to LT tires. Blow out problems are gone. Most of the post here have touched on the reasons. St tires are foreign made, have a speed rating of 65 mph. If you strictly adhere to less than 65 mph you will have a longer tire life. I have had spare tires that were st tires break the steel belts in the spare tire rack.
My experience tells me to purchase LT tires. I avoid st tires at all cost. I would try passenger tires for smaller tires if I couldn't find Lt tires.

Yeah we will, DOT is what we look at when we are looking and the age of the tire. Usually most are older than 10 years old which is illegal to run on the highway DOT standards.

I use 4 Marathons 4 years old. I keep the tire pressure at 60 psi in accordance with Goodyears trailer tire addendum. Check out the updated one.

https://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/goodyear/Marathon_Special_Trailer_Applications.pdf

I probably had 7 blowouts before running into the guy at the trailer parts store. He said he keeps his at 65 psi, I just go with 60 psi.

https://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/goodyear/Marathon_Special_Trailer_Applications.pdf

I've had problems with Marathons, until a guy at the trailer shop turned me on to this. For the last 5 years I haven't even run over a nail. I've had 60-65 lbs of pressure in all four tires ever since.

Read the whole thing. This has worked great for me. Think it'll work for your too.