Tires, tires and more tires

robsouth wrote:
How many members are there on RV.Net? I would guess maybe a total (not all active) of maybe 200,000. According to RVIA there are 8,900,000 RV's on the road in the US alone. Thus the advice received here represents the opinions of about 2.25% of the RV'ers in the US. IMHO 2.25% of the opinions of the people is not significant to sway my opinion of tires or most anything else concerning RV's. Some very nice and helpful tips, and some good trouble shooting advice, but that is about it. Form your own opinion.

RV.Net member number is just a guess. If the real number is known, insert it into the equation and get a new percentage.

We can get a better count by looking at how many members have looked in on any thread and replied. This thread had 147 looks and 9 replies.
We can also look in on any website that uses a trailer and find about the same number of ST tire complaints vs any other tire type complaints. Those complaints cover many known and un heard of brands to the big three brands of ST tires that are popular with this website.

A word of caution:

There can be side to side and front to rear weight variation on the tires. The worst case is the important one.

So while it might appear that 2800# on a 3042# rated tire is plenty, that's only 8% and we've seen more variation than that.

I am still of the opinion most tire issues are caused by:

Age
Sitting Still Long Periods
Under inflation
Overloaded
Over speed
Road hazards

You put all of these together either in total or in part and you have potential for tire damage and failure. Some of us are very good at eliminating some of these issues, none of us are able to eliminate all of them. Tires are going to fail at times. An earlier post referred to why we all carry spares.

I have run ST tires on various trailer for many years with very few problems. Most every flat/blowout I have had was on the right rear tire. I'm sure this is because the right front trailer tire runs over something, kicks it up a bit and the rear tire gets it. Did I get a bit too close to the edge of the road? Probably so.

With all of this being said, I did upgrade my original E rated tires to G's a couple of months ago. Not because I was scared of the original ST E tires, but because of the tire loading and tire age. I have 3,000 lbs load per tire and the extra capacity of the G rated tires just made me feel better (Yes I weighed my loaded 5'er). Were my original E rated tires worn out? Absolutely not, but they were a tad over 4 years old and I won't run them longer than that. JMHO

How many members are there on RV.Net? I would guess maybe a total (not all active) of maybe 200,000. According to RVIA there are 8,900,000 RV's on the road in the US alone. Thus the advice received here represents the opinions of about 2.25% of the RV'ers in the US. IMHO 2.25% of the opinions of the people is not significant to sway my opinion of tires or most anything else concerning RV's. Some very nice and helpful tips, and some good trouble shooting advice, but that is about it. Form your own opinion.

RV.Net member number is just a guess. If the real number is known, insert it into the equation and get a new percentage.

JIMNLIN wrote:
Excellent plan. Your story is typical of most folks that had ST tires issues. They did everything right and still had big problems. Its a old old sad story.

The R250 is a commercial grade LT tire with a steel ply carcass. You will get many years of trouble free use out of them. Just keep them pumped to 80 psi sitting in storage or on the road.

Agreed. Duravis R250 or XPS Ribs would be a great choice for you.

wacdmc wrote:
Bruce - they are 8 bolt 16" rims. I called the manufacturer, Tredit, and they told me they are not rated up to the 110 psi required by G loads.

No need to inflate to 110. That pressure is good for 3750 pounds per tire. Will you carry that much weight? 80 psi is still good for 3042 pounds.

Michelin LT's, aired up to 80 psi, are on my Everest. I will never run another Chinese-made ST bomb.

Bruce - they are 8 bolt 16" rims. I called the manufacturer, Tredit, and they told me they are not rated up to the 110 psi required by G loads.

Excellent plan. Your story is typical of most folks that had ST tires issues. They did everything right and still had big problems. Its a old old sad story.

The R250 is a commercial grade LT tire with a steel ply carcass. You will get many years of trouble free use out of them. Just keep them pumped to 80 psi sitting in storage or on the road.

I put Federal LT load range D 15" tires on our fiver, but it was about half the weight of yours. Yours no doubt has 16" tires, and I would do exactly what you are contemplating. Duravis is a good tire.

Weight: Lets say you have 20% pin weight, which is typical.
Pin: 2,832
Weight on wheels: 11,328
Weight per wheel: 2832.
Max weight capacity per tire: 3042

You are well within the range of the tires.

Next, are your rims rated at 80 psi? If they are 6 bolt 16", they probably are.

Hope that helps!