LT Tire vs ST Tire
I assumed I wanted ST Tires for my camper and some people are telling me to go with LT Tires. Now I'm confused, and guess I shouldn't assume.
Forum Discussion
- I only want to say is LT/ST who cares. What works for you may not work for the next guy. I had Goodyear Marathons on my old trailer, would'nt put them on a shopping cart but the next guy may have good luck with them. I have had ST tires on both my trailers and not a problem since replacing my Marathons. As they say, opinions are like, well you know, everyone has one. Do some research, find what works for you and stick with it.
- Forget it. There's already enough endless argument over this subject on here.
It's up to the OP to filter through all the data and separate that from opinions and come to their own decision. - I wouldn't put an ST tire on my garden tractor's trailer... Past experience has taught me to avoid ST tires like the plague.
wrvond wrote:
Obviously you haven't read the testing standards.
LT proponents like to point out the higher testing standards applied to those tires, and rightfully so. No ST tires are tested in the same way. What would be the point in testing tires for conditions they are not intended for?
By the same token, there is no test data to indicate LT tires make good trailer tires. They aren't designed for it, therefor are not tested for it.
The majority of all reported tire failures are attributed to under-inflation by all official studies.
Another truth is that trailer manufacturers outfit their units with tires that could be characterized as "under-rated". One point that seems to be universally agreed on is that if you have load range 'C' tires, you should move to load range 'D' tires. Also, when you get new tires, ensure the valve stems are steel.
A Tire Pressure Monitoring System is also a wise investment. Not only does it allow you to continuously monitor air pressure, with alarms for under and over inflation, it also monitors the tire temperatures. IMO a much more relevant indicator of tire condition.
Trailers are not a part of the testing in any way.
The same machines test both tire types... The standards are just more extreme for the LT tires.
Here is the link again:
Plain English Testing standards for LT and ST Tiresmartipr wrote:
Which is better ST or LT?
Which is better Ram, Ford, Chevy or Tundra? Everybody has an opinion and everybody thinks theirs is right.
What... you forgot the Honda Ridgeline, someone told me it had a payload of 8000lbs and a towing limit more then 3x the space shuttle weight of the Tundra.- LT proponents like to point out the higher testing standards applied to those tires, and rightfully so. No ST tires are tested in the same way. What would be the point in testing tires for conditions they are not intended for?
By the same token, there is no test data to indicate LT tires make good trailer tires. They aren't designed for it, therefor are not tested for it.
The majority of all reported tire failures are attributed to under-inflation by all official studies.
Another truth is that trailer manufacturers outfit their units with tires that could be characterized as "under-rated". One point that seems to be universally agreed on is that if you have load range 'C' tires, you should move to load range 'D' tires. Also, when you get new tires, ensure the valve stems are steel.
A Tire Pressure Monitoring System is also a wise investment. Not only does it allow you to continuously monitor air pressure, with alarms for under and over inflation, it also monitors the tire temperatures. IMO a much more relevant indicator of tire condition. - I went through this debate last year when a number of folks with teardrop trailers had catastrophic blowouts with damage, and these are tires that are underloaded by a large factor (usually less that half the rated weight). Through church I know a Goodyear exec who said China made trailer tires "are crap, but getting better". There is a study done by the Good Sam club with better than 17,000 respondents that has a better than 30% failure rate, some are no doubt neglect but...
Finding non China ST tires proved impossible for our teardrop so I bought Micheline Harmony (14") passenger tires each of which has a weight rating more than our trailer weight. This is not a solution for most who do have the weight but I would feel LT tires would be safer. One thing I found was that the weight rating for our ST tires were only 100# more than the passenger tires. If you do buy ST and have a blow out report it to the NHTSA they will only act when there is enough evidence, and most do not. - Here is a link to a very good explanation of the govt. testing requirements for each tire type. The actual govt. regs are available, but are difficult and time consuming to research as they keep referring to different sections of the law.
This person did all the work and put this together:
Plain English Testing standards for ST and LT Tires Final one other thing that I think you will find FACTUAL is that the world of RV.NET is a very small segment of the overall RV community and folks here posting are what can best be called "enthusiasts" so strong opinions on ANY SUBJECT will be plentiful so be careful how much time you spend on the RV.NET "SALT LICK" since too much of a good thing can have the opposite effect.
Would have to agree with this - tire threads are about as useless as the current 14 page ranting session in another thread about campfires and lights at night. While I value this forum for a lot of things, deciding on tires is something I'll use it to gather talking points, and then do my own research using appropriate sources.- Good post from LarryJM.
