Mixed Tire Types

The do not mix radials and bias ply goes for any tire in a steer/drive or trailer position.

However your broad statement about tires on a motorized vehicle position vs trailer position has some merit at least even though it didn't help the OP with his question about mixing bias and radial tires on his trailer.

A lot of the tire information promulgated on this board is related to motorized vehicle tires and may or may not relate to TT tires that are not providing any drive force. It's difficult to sort fact from urban legend.

phipps33 wrote:
We just bought a NTU travel trailer. I noticed that 3 of the tires are radials with one being bias. Is this a problem?

A dot date code won't help your question.
Bias and radial mix ??
Here is what I've found when I was on the road.

Do not mix bias ply with a radial on a trailer that sees lots of highway use. Sure we can mix them on a old utility trailer or a lawn service trailer or a hay wagon/etc that spend most of their life rolling around town or close to home.

The biggest safety issues IMO is braking. With a bias on one end of a axle and a radial on the other the axle won't have balanced braking especially under hard braking events and on wet pavement. One brake can lock up and flat spot the tire.

Same goes for tires with different load ranges or different tread patterns and much different tire diameters.

Uniroyal says;
*If you must use radial tires with bias-ply tires on the same vehicle (not recommended), the radial tires must always be placed on the rear axle. Never mix radial and bias-ply tires on the same axle.*

A google on mixing radial and bias ply tires has days of reading.

Atlee wrote:
ZIf I were you, I'd replace all four of those tires with the same size, including load range, and I'd make them radials. And among the 50 psi tires, I keep the best and youngest one for the spare.

That's the conclusion I've come to. Guess I need to hit up the fat guy in the red suit!! LOL

Bias will flex and give differently from radial as you go down the road.

It's kind of like putting a steel toe boot on one foot and a tennis shoe on the other. If you just walk around the house, it may be a bit akward but no harm. If you try to play a game of tennis, there is a good chance it will throw you off enough to trip you.

I'm guessing if they have different recommended pressure, they are not the same size/load rating. That's like having one properly fitted tennis shoe and another that is 3 sizes to big and always wanting to fall off.

Having tires of the same size & load rating all in radial but from different manufacturers is OK but mixing size, load rating and construction types is not a good idea.

ZIf I were you, I'd replace all four of those tires with the same size, including load range, and I'd make them radials. And among the 50 psi tires, I keep the best and youngest one for the spare.

phipps33 wrote:
One more question, 2 of my tires require 35psi and 2 require 50psi. I'm guessing this means different load ranges. If they are different load ranges, should each load range be on the same axle?

Sorry for the questions, I'm trying to learn as much as I can.



Thanks!

If we start at the beginning your tires numbers should all start with ST then the size. LT denotes light truck, P denotes passenger service.

The TT manufacturers prefer equal axle load on each tire. They want all the tires to share the load.

If you have a different tire type and different tire pressures it is difficult to predict the tire load distribution.

Most TT tire makers recommend replacing them every 5 years, because the compounds used in TT age quicker even though there is a lot of tread left.

How much attention each customer pays to the manufacturer's recommendations is unknown. They just tell you what they think is best.

phipps33 wrote:

darsben wrote:
ALL your questions are moot until you know how old the tires are.
Get the date codes then we will talk

Really?!? SMH

I'm well aware of replacing tires before they wear out, but I am trying to learn more about the various tire issues to look out for and your reply didn't provide any useful information

Thank you to all the posters who have answered my questions.

I am trying to tell you they do not wear out they age out. If the tires are over 5-6 years old THEY SHOULD BE REPLACED even if the tread looks new. SO until the age of the tires is known talking about replacing one or 2 is MOOT because of age they may all need to be replaced.
SO WHAT IS THE DOT DATE CODE

darsben wrote:
ALL your questions are moot until you know how old the tires are.
Get the date codes then we will talk

Really?!? SMH

I'm well aware of replacing tires before they wear out, but I am trying to learn more about the various tire issues to look out for and your reply didn't provide any useful information

Thank you to all the posters who have answered my questions.

ALL your questions are moot until you know how old the tires are.
Get the date codes then we will talk