Best Tires for Travel Trailer?

Lowsuv wrote:
Speaking as a "car guy " that regularly attends Porsche Club Of America tire tech sessions I can say that it is a simple basic truth that the tire speed rating is an indicator of tire quality and safety .
That may not be common knowledge to those that are not motorheads .
To take the position that a 65 mph rated tire is as safe as a 106 mph rated tire means that the buyer is ignoring the information readily available on the sidewall and the manufacturer's specs .
Regarding 14 inch tires the choice is fairly clear for me .
The Tire Rack has the specs and load ratings for many tires .
The Kumho 857 in a 205 R 14 C has a load rating of 2271 pounds . This is about 10 % higher than other tires in a 14 inch diameter . That particular tire is also a Q speed rating which is 99 mph .

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=Radial+857&sidewall=Blackwall&partnum=0R4857&tab=Specs

You've got to be very careful here.

In apples to apples comparisons, speed rating is an indicator of DESIGN quality. It is NOT an indicator of the manufacturing quality (or put another way, even high speed rated tires can have defects.)

Further, the problem confronting travel trailers is that the formulas used to calculate the loads have a speed component built in.

So when we talk about ST tires with their built in speed limitation, substituting LT tires (on a direct same size basis) results in differences in load rating - and those are the result of the difference in max speed.

One of the major problems in this discussion is the comparison of first and second tier LT tires with third tier manufacturers of ST tires (or ST tires built on third tier equipment). This completely confounds the analysis of what is going on - and it is entirely unclear when people talk about ST tires whether they are referring to the way the tire standards are written and the way the tires are tested or the way they are designed and manufactured.