D to E on stock wheel?

OP I now have another E tire that I will put on the same (back) axle with the other E tire. Tire guy said to run 70lbs on the E tires and 60lbs on the D tires on the front axle. Hi pres. stems. No worries on wheel strength. Thoughts??

When I had a lighter 5er it came with D rated tires on the 6 lug 15" rims. I went to E rated 15", inflated to 80 psi, and never had a bit of problem with either the tires or the rims. Ran them that way for 3-4 years over 10,000 miles a year with no problems.

There was advice in another recent tire thread that with tandem axle trailers, you get extra stress on the tires when turning called "shear" that makes the tread want to come off. To fight against that, the trailer mounted tire ( with tandem axles)should be fully inflated. This applies to both ST and LT tires.

The same tire on a bus, not tandem axle, does not get shear stress so much, so it would be ok at PSI according to those load charts, same as we do with the back tires of the truck depending on how much is in the box.

So, IMO based on that, and where the Ds already have margin for their load carrying, it would be better to inflate them fully even when the weight doesn't require that much PSI, instead of putting Es on and running them below full PSI.

I think that means, if you really feel the need for Es, you should also get wheels that can take the 80 lbs and run them at 80.

Also I don't see much point in having the weight margin Es give you, when your axles won't take that much weight. Normally, your tires are the "weak link" and GAWR is based on the tires, with the axle being able to do more.

If you have two Dexter 5200s with Ds, your GAWR is 10,160 and the axles are 10,400. What good would Es do you? To take advantage of the Es you would want 7,000 axles.

fla-gypsy wrote:
My 6 lug rims only give a weight rating of 2600 lbs, no psi rating. I upgraded to the E rated tire and run at 75 psi as others have suggested which gives me the full benefit of the wheel rating and considerable reserve on my tire rating over the trailer GVWR. IMO you are well served switching all to the E tire.

This is a good answer. There is no need to run the E tires at their max pressure of 80 lbs. That is only if you are putting max rated load on the tires. Coming from a D rated RV, that is not the case.
When I upgraded my D tires to Maxxis 8008 E rated, I just run them at 70 lbs and am still over the capacity of the D tires. Plus the fiver rides better than at 80 lbs.
Check out the load charts for Maxxis tires and you will see that tire pressure depends on the load. Also, D rated tires recommend an additional 10 lbs to exceed the 65 mph rated speed limit, so you could run them all at 70.

My 6 lug rims only give a weight rating of 2600 lbs, no psi rating. I upgraded to the E rated tire and run at 75 psi as others have suggested which gives me the full benefit of the wheel rating and considerable reserve on my tire rating over the trailer GVWR. IMO you are well served switching all to the E tire.

Thanks for the information. I bought mine last year and it has e rated on the 15" wheel. I couldn't find any stamp on the rim either.

The standard 15" 6 stud Dexstar wheels are good for 80 PSI. The 5 stud ones are only to 65.
Art.

My question is how to guarantee my stock wheels can handle the higher pressure? There is nothing stamped on the back of the wheel,

On some yes, but not all with words to the effect "not to exceed XXXX"

And some (like mine) had a manufactures name and model stamped on the back side of rim. From that I was able to look it up on their web site.

Others I've been told (never seen one) that is stamp on the inside of rim and a person would not be able to see it with a tire mounted.

Why do they make it so hard, and not a uniform place on all wheels, who knows. When I was looking for 16 inch rims I found several tire places near me that sell rims with that have nothing on them.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Run the same pressure.

X2 run all at 65

Check the load rating of the "E" tire at 75 psi. If it is greater than the "D" tire at 65 psi, (which it should be) simply run the "E"s at 75 psi. You then have an "E" rated tire on your 75 psi rated rim, without exceeding any specs. :)