Manufacturers making defective tires

JIMNLIN wrote:

Also, keep in mind that if you've had a tire fail, the other tire on that side of the trailer also needs to be replaced. It was almost certainly overloaded (possibly severely overloaded) during the time of the failure as it had to take all of the weight for that side of the trailer.

The flat tire on a multiaxle trailer is still carrying a majority its load through the equalizer bar.
IMO your thinking a trailer without the equalizer bar that the flat tire can place all the load on the tire next to it.
The rim will cut/shread a flat tire on a trailer in a few miles at interstate speeds and eventually start wearing the rims on the wheel. And even then its still carrying a good portion of its load.
Remember some folks report ramping the good tire to raise the flat tire still doesn't raise the flat tire. The equalizer bar at work.

I've unknowingly ran lots of flat tires on my road trailers when hauling and always inspect the tire next to the flat for cut/impact marks. For those folks that don't know what to look for I would have the tire removed from the wheel and inspected outside and inside.

I too believe that having a tire fail on a tandem axle trailer strongly suggests that the apparently good tire also be replaced since IMO the probability is "EXCEEDINGLY HIGH" that you have overloaded the non failed tire on that side of the trailer. This sort of damage just like hitting a pothole, and other non visible damages are a "MAJOR CAUSE" of many ST tire failures again IMO.

Also just as important is trying to equate one's experience with the more typical cargo, utility, work type trailers is dangerous since those most often are not subjected to the high speed, sustained, and loaded close to the tires capacity that we see with RV/TT usage.

I always replace both tires on the side where I might have a flat and will put the tire of unknown reliability (i.e. the tire that didn't go flat) as the spare to be used only as a temporary fix. Generally with the first flat I will just leave the spare on the axle that had the flat, and buy one new tire to replace the other tire on the other axle on that side and move the tire that was on that axle to use as a temporary spare the next time. The second flat will require the replacement of both tires on that side of the trailer since the spare used was already in the "QUESTIONABLE" reliability category.

Larry