New tires

Ryanjb01 wrote:
I did not expect such debate. Wow!

So let me get this straight.

1. I have 6k lb axles/12, 000 lbs total
2. My OE tires were rated at 3, 520 lbs each/14, 080 lbs
3. LT tires are rated at 3, 050 lbs if I can remmber right / 12, 200 lbs
4. Pin weight I am not exactly sure, but im guessing around 2, 200 lbs. I did not see that stat on the sticker with the other info.

From the numbers alone:u

1. I feel a possible concern with the weight rating of the LT tires. I will be at the extreme upper limit with load capacity of these tires. As compared to the OE ST tires. Another question, are the LT tires overloaded when seperated from my truck, no weight on the pin?

2. Has anyone ever had a bad experience with an LT tire on a trailer?

Yes people have had problems with LT tires on trailers. These problems seem to occur mainly with LT's with poly ply carcass(sidewall) construction. That is why many of us choose to use the overbuilt steel ply carcass Michelin XPS RIB or Bridgestore Duravis R250.

The higher rating of the ST tires is because of the 65 mph speed restriction and marketing. ST tires are dirt cheap to the trailer manufacturers. They buy pre-mounted wheels and tires from Tredit or Tireco by the truck or train car load like you buy soda pop at Costco.

Later when you go to buy a replacement you pay between 100 and 160 dollars for tire that the trailer manufacturer paid 40-60 dollars for. The two suppliers above make good money based on really high volume sales contracts and after the fact retail sales make good money on much higher retail price.

People will tell you that TowMax and Carlisle recently added a Nylon over lay that is going to fix all of their tire tread separation issues. So I emailed Goodyear and asked if they were going add a similar Nylon overlay. Their response was that they added that many years ago. Guess what, they all fail at about the same high rate, with the exception of the Maxxis ST that are manufactured in Thailand. The Maxxis ST tires are much heavier than the bunch of 35 pounders and they carry a much higher retail price. They must also be ordered and are not generally found in stock at retail tire stores. No trailer manufacturer uses them as OEM tires due to the higher cost. They also crack and rot early like most ST, despite all the UV protection marketing with ST tires. Let's face it, these are tires designed for local use utility trailers that have found a home as delivery and show tires on large RV trailers, resulting in tire thread after tire thread.

Things are slowly starting to change as users are becoming educated and asking for upgrade tires on new trailers.

We as Cardinal trailer owners have recently through our owners club gotten Forest River to now use only OEM wheels rated for Load Range G tires, and offer those tires as a factor option.

I tried to get the Keystone tire guru to make this switch a year ago and be an industry leader, however they are going to now have to be a follower, as Forest River stepped up as the leader.

Sadly this movement to better tires for our rv trailers has been slowed by the likes of Fasteagle who seems to have some unknown connection to the marketing effort of the ST tire suppliers.

The tire industry is basically self regulated and all the documents that FS links to were created with a little government, but mostly tire industry input.

So is a LT tire rated at 3042 pounds better on a 6k axle than a ST with its speed restricted inflated 3420 rating? In most cases yes, provided you do not have one end of an axle much heavier and that the axle is not overload to begin with. Overloaded or one end overload was the HH2 and Uniroyal issue a few years back.

I feel strongly that the XPS Rib or Duravis R250 is the best route to go. I ran 6.5 trouble free years on Ribs and now have R250's. So I am biased! I believe that the steel ply carcass LT is the only one a person should install if they are going to see America with their trailer. They run cool and have low rolling resistance plus providing rock solid stability.

Chris