Tires, what are you using? Trailer? Truck?
I just bought a used 5th wheel and I need to replace the tires. I'm not new to trailering but I know that trailer tires can really be a pain. I am used to using truck tires on trailers, however, LT2...
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CapriRacer wrote:twodownzero wrote:
So I checked my wheels and I can't find a psi rating anywhere on them. Also checked my spare wheel for my other trailer and found nothing on it either, just a weight rating. If I had tires rated higher than the factory pressure, I'm not sure what I'd do.
It is my understanding that the max pressure is NOT required by the regulations - and after asking the question of various people who might know (wheel engineers and the like!), the best information is that load, not inflation pressure, is what is critical - that inflation pressure hardly matters when it comes to wheel failures.
So I installed my Goodyear Endurance tires this weekend with my manual tire machine. I had all of the tires off, including the spare, and I couldn't find a psi rating anywhere on my wheels. I guess if I have the money next time, I might consider an all steel tire with a higher pressure rating. Wheels are rated for 3800 pounds if I recall correctly (enough for full trailer GVWR for 4 of them). I inflated them to 80 psi and I intend to leave them there even though there's only about 8000 pounds on the 4 tires of the empty trailer. I'd rather have the best chance to keep these tires cool and have them last a few years.
The Goodyear Endurance are rated for the full GVWR of my trailer and they're made in USA. I paid about $120 a piece for them delivered after rebate. The sidewalls were much stiffer than the truck tires they replaced. This is the first time I've ever bought trailer tires. I've always been skeptical of trailer tires because most of them are only rated for 65 mph. These are rated "N" which is 87 mph. I probably won't ever pull my trailer faster than 75 mph so 87 is just fine.
I would have paid $225 for the Michelin XPS Rib or $250-320 each for Bridgestone/Goodyear all steel tires. Chinese all steel tires can be had in the $550 range for 4, delivered, but I do not trust Chinese tires on anything, so I passed. I'm not really a made in usa sort of guy for everything, but when it comes to tires, I just refuse to take any chances with a company that doesn't have a solid brand name and a full line of tires. It makes me think that they only make trailer tires because they can't make tires of sufficient quality to be on passenger vehicles.
