Truck tires on tt?
We live in Florida & the summer heat destroys our tt tires. We keep them covered & don't drive over 65 mph, and yet, we blow tires every 2 years. We were advised by another RVer to use truck tires o...
Forum Discussion
I just noticed this discussion.
A couple of comments:
Kumho 857 trailer tires are an overlooked alternative to 14 inch ST class tires. After an unexplained tire failure, I replaced my ST205/75R14 LRC tires with Kumho 857 205R14. Load rating went from 1760lbs to 2270lbs.
In my opinion, the RV industry habitually designs travel trailers that will overload their factory tires as soon as they are moved. If I load my TT to the full GVWR and somehow am able to balance the load, each factory installed tire will be within 10lbs of its maximum rating when the trailer is standing still in my driveway. When I then pull the trailer on a curve, the trailer will lean on the outside tires and overload them. I've calculated that if I drive at 20mph on a curve that has a 20mph advisory speed limit, the overload on my outside tires is in the ballpark of 580lbs each. A similar problem with the leeward tires occurs in crosswind.
The moral of the story is that it's not sufficient to make sure that tires are within their load ratings when standing still. You need a substantial margin in static load rating to be safe when towing.
Carlisle Tire recommends allowing a 20% margin between trailer weight and combined load rating of the tires, which makes a lot of sense to me.
A couple of comments:
Kumho 857 trailer tires are an overlooked alternative to 14 inch ST class tires. After an unexplained tire failure, I replaced my ST205/75R14 LRC tires with Kumho 857 205R14. Load rating went from 1760lbs to 2270lbs.
In my opinion, the RV industry habitually designs travel trailers that will overload their factory tires as soon as they are moved. If I load my TT to the full GVWR and somehow am able to balance the load, each factory installed tire will be within 10lbs of its maximum rating when the trailer is standing still in my driveway. When I then pull the trailer on a curve, the trailer will lean on the outside tires and overload them. I've calculated that if I drive at 20mph on a curve that has a 20mph advisory speed limit, the overload on my outside tires is in the ballpark of 580lbs each. A similar problem with the leeward tires occurs in crosswind.
The moral of the story is that it's not sufficient to make sure that tires are within their load ratings when standing still. You need a substantial margin in static load rating to be safe when towing.
Carlisle Tire recommends allowing a 20% margin between trailer weight and combined load rating of the tires, which makes a lot of sense to me.
