Trailer Tires
 

I need to replace my tire on a 35' aluminum trailer. It is a tri axle trailer with 215-75-14 bias ply tires. I was wondering if any one has ran radial tires on a trailer, and what kind of luck did they have. I know radials hold up better to alot of travel but the side walls will flex giving a not so solid ride. My plan was to run load range E radial tires to get rid of the flex in the side wall. What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance,
Don

dgduck -

I am soooo not a tire expert, but:
The last time I was shopping for trailer tires, I was lead to believe that trailer tires mfgs were all going to radial type tires. If you can't find a bias ply replacement, you will probably need to replace all tires with radial since it is bad bad bad to mix bias ply with radial on the same trailer. Once you go all radial, you need not worry about the flex in the sidewalls since that is what radials are designed to do. Even on a load range E, assuming you are able to find that size in an E, you will still get sidewall flex. Good luck.

Goodyear Marathon;)

Go with the radials, they are fine up here. down south the road temps get up there and will cause failure to the radials the tend to run hotter than the bias plys. I have Goodyear marathons LT225/75 R15 on my trailer that pulls the 357 and never have trouble with them. they are a lot more forgiving to poor roads than the nylons will be. just be sure you by trailer or light truck tires and not passanger tires the ply ratings in the side walls are totally different. Good luck, MFB

Check with Bill Brasher ..... Hi-Tech Marine ...He has some new Low profile Radials for trailers ..... Tell em I Sent ya .... :)

I used Goodyear Marathons also on last 2 trailers. Radial trailer tires. Ride, pull and wear nice.

Go with the Goodyears.

I'm switching to bias ply from radials this year because of blowout problems. We believe there was a bad run of trailer radials 3 - 4 years ago with a particular manufacturer. I don't think you will find anything higher than a C rating in the tire size you want. There are a couple of threads on the other board that talk about bias ply and radials along with a poll on what type of tires have had the most problems.

One of the tire manufacturers told me that radials are a good choice if you are not running near their load capacity. If you are running near load capacity, he said the bias ply is better. He didn't say what 'near' was though.

I was lucky with my blowouts because the steel belts did not tear up the trailer or the side of the boat. I agree with US1 Fountain, the Goodyear Marathons seem to have one of the best trailer radials.

By the way, I had radials on a previous trailer for 5 years with no problems.

I say Goodyear Marathon's. I hit a curb on the way home, took a big chunk out of the sidewall of 2 tires and still drove 6 hours on them. Bought new ones when I got home.

Check for Carlisle brand, just put 4 E, s on my trailer. These came in 10 ply which Goodyear did not. I have run the Marathons with success, but a big dealer who sells thousands of trailers in a year goes with the Carlisle brand because of their reliability.

I run GoodYear Marathons too. So far I am pleased. My trailer came with Carlisle non-radials and they wore very quickly and unevenly. I don't think the problem is with the trailer either.

Check tire warrenties too. I got a year on mine, whitch is all I seem to get out of them. Just another thing to compare:) .

My Myco came with GoodYear Marathons and that says a lot to me. Triple axle and almost 20,000 miles going into my third season and they look brand new.

I watch the tire temperature like a hawk.

Buy your self a laser thermometer and you can keep a real close check on tires and hub temps very easy.

Just point pull the trigger and get an instant temperature reading.

When we are towing I shoot all six tires and hubs every rest stop we make. You are not looking for a certain temperature, but consistency between all the tires on one side. I say on one side because the sun will usually be shining on one side more than the other and you will see around five degrees more then the shaded side.

In 30 degree weather you will probably only see 50-60 degree temps. In 80 to 90 degree weather out on an interstate highway I have seen 110 to 115 degrees on the side with the sun. If all your tires and hubs are within a few degrees of each other you are okay. My front tires always run 2-3 degrees more than the rear tires. They also have brakes on them which will make a slight difference.

If you see a tire running 10 to 15 degrees greater than the others, pull it off and replace it before it blows!

Good Luck

Unless Carlisles have improved...there was a thread a while back with MANY MANY Carlisle blow outs:(

Last summer I had 2 blow outs with Carlisles within about 100 miles of each other. Yes, I checked the pressure before getting on the interstate. They suck. Get the Goodyear's. my $.02

Cute:(

Yea, well, wake up. They use the Carlisle because they are cheap and they give good quantity discounts. Be carefull, there have been many documented problems with them.

Thanks Mike.

DGDUCK, is that a 31 Formula? If so, we use 225/14's. Looks like a 10K coupler on the trailer.

Post 8 is correct from what our supplier has been telling us and an article a couple of yrs ago in Boat US trailer club indicated the same. Radial tires have typically been excellent in the RV community due to the fact these tires are typically below 70% of the rated load in use. Boat trailers, on the other hand, are typically loaded to at or near the GVWR of the trailer. Hot highway temps and extended towing over 70% of the tire capacity, with radials, have in many cases exhibited failure to take the stress/heat.

While there is a great history with the Marathons, especially in the RV Section, we have experienced failures on these tires close to maximum GVWR. We have been using Towmaster for several years now (14" & 15" @ 200+ tires a month) and have experienced only one tire warranty issue. the manuf. sent the customer a complete set of six replacement tires directly. We were impressed.

Yes, we have gotten in a new set of radial tires, new to the market, and these are simply impressive. They have a sports car type tread, trailer service, wider tread and section width while incorporatng a higher rating. We now have many sets on the road on our "Allison" trailers and they are now standard equipment. Reports are positive to date. I have pulled a trailer with these tires 900+ miles loaded with no heating to the levels I have seen on other tires. I will state that heating is very subjective to so many factors this statement may have no signifigance without a side by side comparison in identical conditions.

To compliment the use of these new tires we are also in development of a new high performance brake of Aluminum & Stainless. These brakes have been proven by NASCAR (high heat) and dirt track race cars.

My recommendation would be to get the Goodyear Marathons. I have put 30,000 plus miles on these tires with only one blow out. That was caused when we ran over something in the road (we did not know it) and the tire deflated while we were moving and blew. We saw the smoke and pulled it over just as she went. The screw that caused the deflation was still in the tire.

We replaced the Goodyear with the only thing available (not Goodyear) and it blew in the first 1,000 miles. Got a replacement from the manufacturer, same thing happened. These tires ran noticeably hotter than the Goodyear's. I check the temps at each stop (tire and bearing) as mentioned above.

From my experience (which is not all inclusive), I would chose nothing but the Goodyear Marathon.

Hey Don,, I'll give you the prespective from someone that is in the Tire Business,,, Start by looking at the Miles you put on a year towing,, I mean if you are using your Trl. once a month,, for 100 miles,, Bias will probably work fine for you,, But if your Towing every weekend somewhere, putting on a lot of Miles in a years time,, you need to go with a Radial ,, FOR SURE ,, They Wear better , and last longer,, in fact I tell Cust. that the only reason to buy a Bias Tire,, is because you cant afford a Radial!!
We sell the Goodyear and the Towmaster, the Light Truck Firestone R4S makes a great Trl. Tire!!

I think its close to 90% of Trl. Tire Failure, result from improper inflation causing excessive Heat Build-up!! Then KA-BOOM!! :D :D

Hope this helps!!

Bill at High-Tech,, We have great Dealer Pricing!!!!! :D :D hint hint hint

You DO!!!! <grin> Send me a PM

Have you seen the new towmaster Radials?

We are currently buying from GBC - truck load per week.

To add to 'Mama Tryed" comments here. Make sure you have the capacity in the tire rating. go with the largest trailer service tire in a 14 your local supplier can get you when replacing.