Siping?

nomad297 wrote:
Siping will help with heat dissipation which might be a good thing for an ST tire.

Bruce

I think that is wrong!

Sipes in tires are there for one reason, traction! A tire with a lot of siping will experience tread squirm, which is not good for trailer tires. Breaks in outer ribs and sipes are not what you want for a good trailer tire. Fuel mileage will be less with a tire with a higher rolling resistance. Sipes lines rubbing against each other will create heat not reduce it.

Here is a picture of the Goodyear G614 high quality/cost Regional Service Trailer tire. It has a tread pattern similar to what over the road trailer tires have. Tires with tread patterns like this and steel carcass have a lower rolling resistance and create less heat(RIB and R250) and provide better fuel mileage.



Les Schwab siped Toyo LT for a friends Chevy D/A, and he could not keep it on the road as heavy vehicles do not do well with a lot of siping, and they replaced them. Then LS siped new tires for their Prius and mileage went in the toilet, and again LS had to replace them.

Retail tire stores tend to sell what they stock! If you want better service as Jimnlin says go to a commercial tire shop that deals with people that make a living with their vehicles.

Here is the Bridgestone Duravis R250 all steel ply tire. I am currently using this tire on my trailer.



For 6.5 years and 40K+ miles I ran Michelin XPS RIBs, then sold them on CL for 200 bucks.



Will other LT tires work? Sure, people run the FS Transforce HT, Michelin LTX M/S and now M/S2 etc. Are they good choices? That depends what you want to do with them. Cross the SW desert in hot weather? Then you want the tire that run the coolest! Which is a tire like the G614, Rib or R250.

Here is the Michelin LTX M/S2. I is design for smooth ride in a pickup and good wet and snow traction in an A/S type tire. People do not normally tow trailers in the snow. Is has a lot more traction than is required for a trailer tire and has breaks in the outer ribs.



I still think the BS Duravis R500HD is the best POLY carcass LRE 16" available for trailer. It has a two ply poly carcass were most others have a single poly ply sidewall. They have very dense rubber compounds similar to the Rib and R250.



Chris