Please Check my Tire Logic....

It sounds like you are on the right track, and you understand what you need to do. Buy yourself a good quality LT tire that is rated to carry the weight of your axles, and move on.
Tire-easy.com has a big selection, including Bridgestone, if you feel like ordering them later on.
Tire prices can go up too, especially with the new year coming. If you buy the tires now, I would not mount them until spring time. Put them in the garage, out of the sun, and they should be fine, IMO.

cruz-in wrote:
Hi Team,

Made the decision to go LT....after tons of research I decided on Bridgestone Duravis R250. So now the tire size question...

I have a 28 foot 5th wheel with dual 4400 pound axles (trailer GAWR rating is 8800 pounds. Unloaded weight is about 7500 pounds and max loaded is about 10K pounds. Pin weight unloaded is 1350, I suspect about 1800 laoded. Trailer usually comes with 15 inch wheels, this one has the optional 16 inch rims. Currently has 235/80/R16.

Looking at replacing with Bridgestone Duravis R250 225/75/R16. Load Range Index 116 (2496 Pounds).

My questions:

1) Do you think I am good to go with this load range/size? Seems to me they should work just fine given the weights I am working with.

2) Wally World now has them for $214 a piece with free shipping to store (pretty great price). Will not be using the trailer for the next 5 months. Should I wait till spring or go for the good price that Wally World has on them? Will being installed and sitting for 5 months affect life of tires?

Thanks

That would be a good choice. But you need to verify that the weights listed are accurate. Some trailer manufacturers don't do a good job in this area. I'd recommend getting the trailer weighed BEFORE you buy tires.

Weighing the trailer? Fully loaded with everything you've ever put in there, including full water tanks.

Tire by tire, please. If not, you need to account for side to side and front to rear variation. I recommend using a 10% value for axle by axle measurements, and 15% if all 4 are weighed as a unit.

Anyhow, I just had Firestone Transforce put on my pig for a boat load less money than that. 16" LR E

cruz-in wrote:
Hi Team,



Thanks

.

FastEagle

cruz-in wrote:
Hi Team,

Made the decision to go LT....after tons of research I decided on Bridgestone Duravis R250. So now the tire size question...

I have a 28 foot 5th wheel with dual 4400 pound axles (trailer GAWR rating is 8800 pounds. Unloaded weight is about 7500 pounds and max loaded is about 10K pounds. Pin weight unloaded is 1350, I suspect about 1800 laoded. Trailer usually comes with 15 inch wheels, this one has the optional 16 inch rims. Currently has 235/80/R16.

Looking at replacing with Bridgestone Duravis R250 225/75/R16. Load Range Index 116 (2496 Pounds).

My questions:

1) Do you think I am good to go with this load range/size? Seems to me they should work just fine given the weights I am working with.

2) Wally World now has them for $214 a piece with free shipping to store (pretty great price). Will not be using the trailer for the next 5 months. Should I wait till spring or go for the good price that Wally World has on them? Will being installed and sitting for 5 months affect life of tires?

Thanks

FastEagle

cruz-in wrote:
Hi Team,

Made the decision to go LT....after tons of research I decided on Bridgestone Duravis R250. So now the tire size question...

I have a 28 foot 5th wheel with dual 4400 pound axles (trailer GAWR rating is 8800 pounds. Unloaded weight is about 7500 pounds and max loaded is about 10K pounds. Pin weight unloaded is 1350, I suspect about 1800 laoded. Trailer usually comes with 15 inch wheels, this one has the optional 16 inch rims. Currently has 235/80/R16.

Looking at replacing with Bridgestone Duravis R250 225/75/R16. Load Range Index 116 (2496 Pounds).

My questions:

1) Do you think I am good to go with this load range/size? Seems to me they should work just fine given the weights I am working with.

2) Wally World now has them for $214 a piece with free shipping to store (pretty great price). Will not be using the trailer for the next 5 months. Should I wait till spring or go for the good price that Wally World has on them? Will being installed and sitting for 5 months affect life of tires?

Thanks

You are NOT looking at LT tires. You are looking at passenger tires. When not in passenger use, you must de-rate passenger tires by 10%, or a tire rated at 2496 in passenger car use is only good for 2190 in trailer or truck use. Because you have 4,400 pound axles, then if loaded to 100% of the axle rating then the tires will be overloaded.

LT tires start with LT in their size. Such as LT 235/60R16C. Lt tires have a "ply Rating" from 2 to 10, that also have letter grades. C is a 6 ply rating. D is 8 ply, E is 10 ply. Larger tires even go to F, G, H for 12, 14 and 16 ply ratings. Back in the 30's, light truck tires had actual cotton plys, leading to that rating. Nowdays a 8ply rating might only have 3 or 4 steel plys.

You might need to go with a 60 or 65 series tire to avoid the tire being taller and having problems with clearance between the forward and rear tires. By changing from a 235 mm wide to only 215 mm wide, then you can go to a taller 70 series, it will not be much taller overall than the 235.. that is 60% tall. By going to the skinny 215 mm wide and 70% tall, you get about the same overall diameter.

Yes tell them you will be checking the date codes, and not accepting older tires. Because the are to old at 7 years old overall (since date of manufacture) buying tires that are already 6 or 8 months old takes out that much of their life before they are even installed. So buying new ones in 6 months will save you some money by them being newer.

ABC did a news report on old tires. It seems one Sears store had the display tires under the covers in the display window, and kept them there for years. At 8 or 9 years old, they sold them to a reporter undercover.



Good luck!

Fred.

My questions:

1) Do you think I am good to go with this load range/size? Seems to me they should work just fine given the weights I am working with.

Always go to the tire mfg web pages for actual tech info.
The R250 is a top choice for any trailer.
The LT225/75-16 E has a 2680 lbs load capacity for single tire position. Four of them will give you 10720 lbs of capacity for a nice reserve capacity.
The 2470 lb number is for a dual position or two tires such as a DRW truck and doesn't apply to your tandam axle trailer with a single tire at the end of each axle. Number's I gave are straight from Bridgestone web pages and really are no different than other LT225/75-16 E tires regardless of tire material or brand.

Wally World now has them for $214 a piece with free shipping to store (pretty great price). Will not be using the trailer for the next 5 months. Should I wait till spring or go for the good price that Wally World has on them? Will being installed and sitting for 5 months affect life of tires?

I use LT tires and my 11200 lb RV trailer sits for a good 5 months every winter. I generally get 6-7 years and 50k-55k from them so sitting 5 months IMO not going to hurt the tire.
I can get the same tire from Hibdon Tires Plus stores in my area for 214 bucks but mounting/balancing/stems/etc is another 18 bucks per tire.
Now the bigger question with the prices of crude going up so will the cost of tires.
Your call there.

That is interesting the Walmart website lists:

"Tire Load Index: 112 (2469 lbs.)"

and Tire Rack lists:

"Load Range: E"

Any thoughts on the difference?

Is that a D load range? Goodyear E says 2680 at 80 psi and would cover the entire GVWR.

http://www.goodyearrvtires.com/tire-selector.aspx

Frankly, if I knew I wasn't going to be using it for at least 5 months, I think I'd wait until I was getting ready to start camping. The tires will just be that much newer, especially if you =insist= on tires no more than 6 months old. Just my opinion...

Lyle