Forum Discussion

haulinghorses's avatar
Jul 12, 2013

Gladiator Tires????

Well, I'm new in this forum so first let me say hello.

My question is simply does anyone have many miles/experience with Gladiator tires?

Now I'll ramble a little.... Tow Rig 2012 Ram 3500 Longhorn, and the Jeep has a hitch but it only pulls the utility trailer.
Trailers-5x8 utility
Gore 2 horse trailer GWR 7,000#
OLD Heavy Steel Tracer 4 Horse head to head with tack room GWR 12 or 14K unknown at the moment until I determine what axles I have. I know empty is 6,600#
Thor/Chateau 30' Fifth Wheel 2 slides, GWR- not a clue just bought last year and used it twice.

All my trailers need tires, I really got to find a tracking method so I'm only buying tires for one thing a year. My children are in 4-H and qualified to go to a big Regional show in Louisiana, two weeks ago the big horse trailer tires I notice are OMG Hot and one had extreme cupping... I think to myself hmmm time to replace. Current tire is a GY 7.5 x 16 Load Range E which seems to be a dying breed. I plan to go to 235/85R16... just got a couple from a friend that I need to test fit before I buy new. They are just under 2 inches wider I think about 1.75. Oh not to mention the tack room door has suffered rot and the outside skin blew off the trailer. Being on a tight budget I have until July 29th to be road ready, all parts for building my own door are on order now its figuring out tires.
I have no wish to get into the LT/ST or balance don't matter debates. The really nice Michilin's seem to run holy smokes I've seen some $300 a tire. Not gonna happen EVER. They appear new in the small/medium business but I came across Gladiator on tread depot.com 235/85R16 load range F for $108 a piece. Can't seem to find much history/reviews on them. I found a local shop that carries them and they quoted me $190 each.... yeah I think I'll order on-line and ship them. Just bought a HF manual tire changer too cause I'm a tightwad.
The 2 horse is also in need of tires. Currently the new Carlisle Radial 205/70R15 Load Range C and I can't complain and don't understand why they've got such a bad rap. That trailer has been all over and those are the original tires from '05. So 8 years and nearly bald. I could easily replace them with same at a decent price but again the Gladiators are slightly cheaper.
The 5vr, bought it used for a song and dance. Second trip out had a failure. Current tires GY Marathon. The other 3 and spare all look to be going south in a hurry. I'm not impressed, however I am concerned that an axle appears bent which would lead to a failure. The Camper and big horse trailer also need a "lift kit" as they are lower than truck. I plan to do an over/under swap on the 4 horse next weekend but the camper has Torflex axles which would require me to take it to shop.

Ok enough rambling, long and short is anyone got any miles under their belt with them? I've got 3 trailers that need tires and they're cheap. Let me rephrase that, they are inexpensive and I hope they aren't too cheap.
  • well, we made it down. Still have to make it back. I didn't order any new tires yet. I had the already jacked up spare, and the two tires a friend gave me mounted on rims.
    I checked tires that morning before we left, 40psi. Well shoot no wonder the went went all crazy. They do show some dry rot. Aired up to 75, loaded our crap, stopped and picked up a couple other horses in the state.
    Crossing my fingers, the old cracked GY Workhorse's load range E made a 1100 mile trip with about 12,000lbs. I noticed across Mississippi and Louisiana the roads were littered with blow out pieces.
  • I have no experience with that tire. I do have experience with GY Marathons (USA made), Duro (Chinese) and Maxxis (Thailand) ST tires. With my experience of ST tires and the information available on this forum I will not use anything but Maxxis at this time. Perhaps someone will produce a better ST tire at some point but currently it is the best available IMO.
  • I would stick with what has worked for you.

    The Gladiators are popular feed store or agriculture store or a small town tire dealer low cost tire around here anyway. I've not used them but I see them on utility trailers stock trailers at sale barns.
  • Thanks for the inputs. A friend gave me 5 rims 2 of which have LT 235/85R16 somethings mounted on them. With the budget being is tight as it is. I believe the plan is:
    Test fit one to ensure that size fits on horse trailer it is wider than 7.5x16
    If it does then I think right now I'm buying two Gladiators and mount them. Then I can take off to LA with 5 spares. I'll run the others until failure. THen get the other 3 Gladiators when we get back.

    With my luck they won't fail and I'll end up in the end with 5 new tires mounted on the rims the friend gave me. and the 5 on the trailer. To bad the 5vr isn't 8 lug.

    For the 5vr, because the budget is as tight as it is. I think I'll either go Carlisle or Gladiator. I know a lot of people talk smack about Carlisle but I've had really good luck with them. The radial anyway. That two horse has made3 trips back to the midwest and been all over NC and VA. 8 years old and I don't know how many miles, they're nearly bald now and still rolling.
  • Les Schwab wanted to sell me some so I asked why? He said they sell a ton of them and see very few come backs.

    They were about 20 bucks a tire cheaper than the Maxis I bought. I'm on vacation right now and have about 3K on the Maxis. Are the Maxis better? I have no idea. They are round and roll and that's all I know about them.

    Is it sales man talk? I have no idea? I was real close to buying them though.
  • Don't know anything about the Gladiator, but we have Firestone Transforce AT on a 4 horse slant Titan, ( about 14 to 15k pounds gross ) and they work well. They are an LT so the speed rating is 99 mph if I remember. They are about $170 from tire rack. BFG also makes a tire in that size for about $150, same load rating ( E ), the commercial TA.

    For the 5r I'd put some sort of LR E LT tire on it. Maybe a continental vanco, or similar. Not too many choices of LT in 15" though.

    Have fun showing in Louisiana.
  • I have a gladiator after one of the junk tires keystone put on broke the belts.Then another blew 5 miles from home. So yeah I can call the stock blow max junk. Not many miles but the tire guy said they have had good luck with the gladiators.


    Moderator note: Edited to fix double post.

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