Tow dolly tires

I put a set of st205/75/15's on mine in Texas and pulled it to east Tennessee via Missouri and noticed the outside edge of the right tire was showing wear. Checked the air pressure and still holding 50 psi as recommended from Southwest Wheel. Am going to swap sides when we leave for Florida in Sept and see what happens...

cwit wrote:
If car tires will hold up a car with the wheels 4 down, why won't they hold 1/2 a car on a dolly?

:h I don't know, but here is what the big boys say: Trailer Tires vs. Passenger Vehicle Tires

I found this thread on a search of tow dolly tires. I also am having issues of tires wearing out pre-maturely. Master tow dolly, Tow Master trailer radials, ST205/175R14 size. The set from Master Tow were shot at 7,000 miles and contacted Master Tow to complain. They reimbursed me $120 ($60 per tire) towards new tires which cost a little over $100 a piece. The new Tow Master tires mentioned above have not quite 10,000 miles and are shot also. They are wearing unevenly. First question: Do tires designed for trailers have a shorter life for some reason? Do tow dollies need alignments like a car? I just don't understand why a radial I put on my car can go 50k - 70k miles and this tow dolly can't even squeak out 10??? I never tow empty and do NOT exceed the trailer limits and rarely do mountain driving. What's the answer here??

If car tires will hold up a car with the wheels 4 down, why won't they hold 1/2 a car on a dolly?

I was told that trailer tires (TOW DOLLY TIRES) are different in as much as the side wall is stronger than a car tire-I am sure someone will help us on this-Rich

It depends on the dolly type. We had a "swivel pan" type, and couldn't keep tires on it. Now we have the "steering" type, and the tires last much longer, if properly aligned.

I had some very quick wear on my Master Tow dolly tires and replaced them at about 8,500 miles. What I found is that the pressure needed to keep wear to a minimum is 50 psi. It seems high but these tires have been on it for about 12,000 miles and show no wear at all.

I was told not to use radials on my Dolly when I had one. Can't remember why.

I am going to go with radial car tires next time, the bias trailer tires are going to be shot after maybe 10K miles. FWIW my dolly calls for a reasonable 35 psi pressure, too high a pressure for the load can cause premature wear issues. Even at 35 psi, the major wear is in the center of the tread.

Brian

If you want to stay with ST tires, get Maxxis, and nothing else. But if it were me, I'd be looking for LT tires (Light Truck), and they are available in 13". Don't have a opinion on the bias vs radials. Oh, no experience with dollys except what I have pieced together on various forums.