Horrible trailer weekend....anyone have any good trailer knowledge?
 

Ok so the first season I bought the boat I had a bad trailer weekend. Boat is a 31 sonic and trailer is an aluminum tri axle loadmaster. 2 seasons ago I replaced every bearing and hub on the entire boat and all the tires. The next season I reaplaced 4 tires through out the season due to blow outs. I have always run Goodyear Marathons.

This weekend headed to Kentucky Lake on the way down I blew one tire out. turned out the brake was locked up so I took it off and just ran that side without brakes. On the way back home I had another tiire come apart and went to a walmart to have it replaced. Tire still head decent amount of tread so it didnt make sense. Then while leaving walmart a car runs a light I lock up my brakes while turning left and the back tires hit the curb and blow 2 damn tires out. The car took off and we never got a plate number.

I am running 14in wheels and tires that came on it and we run all over the country. I wonder if maybe we need to upgrade wheel sizes or any other things we might look into.

Sounds like your tires are on the small size for your load.
My trailer has 225/75-15's that are a D load rating. I had a few blowouts last year, but the tires were getting old and now they have all been replaced.

I have a freind that is a regional manager for Big O tires and he told me you should change trailer tires every 3 years no matter what. He said the tires start to weather cracking between the tread but may still look great with lots of tread on them. There is also a DOT tire date on the side wall so you can see when your tire was manufactured.

Good thread read
 

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...hat-tires.html

Good info here.

Hey fuelin..we had a blow out too on the way to KY lake this weekend..your boat looked good sitting in the slip...I had the teal and white baja in the first slip next to the sunsation. I am always worried about blowing tires here lately..seems everytime we trailer, we blow a tire. I bring two spares now..I wish I would have upgraded to 15s when I bought new tires..

That's the problem, you never were out trailer tires. They have a date code on them, make sure you check that so you know when to replace.

Your right, I got a blow out last Nov coming back from Havasu and when we checked the tire date codes the tires were 5 years old. They were the same tires the trailer was bought with and they still looked great.

I could see 1 blowout do to the tires age, but when you have sevaral as you did, I'd be leaning more of them being overloaded.

What are the ratings on the tires and also of the axles?


My tires are original from '03. Trailer gets towed once a yr, (zero last 2 yrs) I ain't changing tires every 3 yrs. :)

You need to upgrade to 16" wheels and 16" LT truck tires. It's a much better setup, and what comes on the big trailers. You can't have too much trailer tire. E-rated is the way to go. The bigger the wheel and the bigger the tire, the cooler they run. Air pressure is KEY.

Invest in a Laser Temp Gun. Inspect/compare your brakes/bearings/tires every fuel stop, and/or every 1-2 hours of towing. Anything that is an anomoly from the rest of the like components is about to be a problem.

Like I said none of the tires were over a year old and maybe 5-700 miles on them. They are load rated c which is what was on there when I bought it. 205/75/14's.