Tires for cargo trailer

Question

Looking for advice from someone who has done this. I have a 12' 3500# tandem axle enclosed trailer I tow behind the MH. One of my tires was damaged recently and will have to be replaced. Currently I have 10 ply trailer tires on the front axle and light truck tires on the rear and have had no issues in over 5k miles of towing. My choice at the moment is to simply replace the damaged trailer tire or replace all four with a matched set of LT rated tires. Purchasing four new trailer tires is way over the budget and good takeoff sets are easy to locate.
I do know that running car/truck tires on a single axle trailer isn't a good idea but with four wheels tracking and the weight being around 800# per tire will this work.

jimnlin · Answer

Using P or LT tires on a single axle trailer or a liteweight multi axle trailer is perfectly acceptable. In fact thats all we had for years before the tire industry came up with the infamous ST tire.

A 3500 lb trailer has approx 875 lbs on each tire. You sure done't need a E tire on that trailer any P or LT in your wheel size will work fine.

I keep P tires on all my single axle trailers up to 3400 lbs I have one 14" tandem axle car hauler with derated 3500 lb axles that I keep P215/75-15 BFGs on it. These tires has thousands of miles up to 75 mph legal speed.

rexlion · Answer

You should be fine with the mixed tires.

phantom59 · Answer

JIMNLIN wrote:Using P or LT tires on a single axle trailer or a liteweight multi axle trailer is perfectly acceptable. In fact thats all we had for years before the tire industry came up with the infamous ST tire. A 3500 lb trailer has approx 875 lbs on each tire. You sure done't need a E tire on that trailer any P or LT in your wheel size will work fine. I keep P tires on all my single axle trailers up to 3400 lbs  I have one 14" tandem axle car hauler with derated 3500 lb axles that I keep P215/75-15 BFGs on it. These tires has thousands of miles up to 75 mph legal speed.Thanks this is the type of information I am looking for. The only reason for the E rated tire is I ran over something near Monteagle tn a couple of years ago and had to replace a tire. At that time the trailer was a single axle and E was all Monteagle tire kept in stock.Guess I will try to locate a good set of take off tires from one of the local dealers or maybe see what I can find on a new set. I have Lincoln turbine aluminum wheels so some white letters would look good.

chuck_gail · Answer

Personally I am fine with mixed tires, BUT, I want the same tires on both sides of each axle.  Emergency manuvers give way less trouble that way, as each SIDE reacts the same.Just my findings.

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Tires for cargo trailer

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