Upgrading trailer tires

bobndot wrote:
I would doubt that Jayco or anyone else would honor the 2nd year warranty if YOU listened to your neighbor.
Therefore you have to wait one more year if that matters to you.

I would also second this. If the trailer still has a warranty, don't change the tires. I have had 2 blowouts that took out panels on my trailer - both covered by Jayco because my trailer is under warranty. If you change them and anything happens, it will be on you from that point on. I would at least wait until the warranty is done. My warranty expires tomorrow and my trailer is in the shop getting the second panel replaced as I write this. I will be getting new tires (Maxxis) the day I get it back - because it will be on me from that point.

Before rushing out and spending a bunch of $$ based on a neighbor's opinion, you need to know that ST trailer tires are a different animal compared to passenger car tires and need to be treated differently. Many blowouts are simply due to improper care and attention and not brand or country of origin. When you read about blowouts, you will never know the history of the tires and how they were treated. Under-inflation and over-loading ST tires are major causes of failures, followed by excessive speeding over 65 mph. All 3 of these cause internal overheating of the tire's structure and irreversible damage that can't be seen by visual inspection.

1. Weigh the TT, total and side-side, and compare that to the load capacity rating on the tire. You want at least a 10 percent load capacity reserve and 20 percent or more is better. Trailers can sometimes weigh more on one side.
2. Do not exceed 65 mph (most ST tires are rated 65 max.).
3. Use the correct psi (cold) and check regularly. Checking psi is a good idea before heading off on each leg of a road trip.
4. Stay off road shoulders at all times to avoid picking up something that can puncture a tire.
5. If parked in any one location for a longer period of time, tire covers can help to reduce tire damage.
6. Use a TPMS. Won't warn you of an impending catastrophic failure, but can tell you if the psi is heading downhill and give you a warning something isn't right.

If you have 14" or 15" load range "C" tires at present, they will probably have a good load capacity reserve. If you believe that the tires were not treated appropriately, then I would consider replacement. Otherwise, keep the tires. According to this post on the Jayco forum, Jayco does cover blowouts under warranty. Jayco tire warranty. If that's the case, why not keep the tires at least until the 2 year Jayco warranty ends.

There is a ton of excellent info. on this RV tire blog by a retired tire engineer: RVtiresafety.com

I replaced my trailer tires with Maxxis tires prior to a six week trip last summer. The tires that came with the trailer were doing fine, but I made the change for my own piece of mind. I've had Maxxis tires before and never had a problem.

Since then, I've added a TPMS and I constantly monitor tire pressure when traveling.

But, if you monitor air pressure and don't overload your trailer, the original tires may serve you well. It really boils down to what works for you.

But there is a hell of a lot of difference in what you are pulling, and what the OP is pulling.

If I were pulling what you are pulling, I'd like to have XPS ribs also.

But the OP is pulling roughly what I'm pulling, a 4950 GVWR TT. The ST tires I have, ST205/75R Maxxis, provide me with about a 25% margin of error. I feel I'm good as long as I don't run them under inflated, or sustained speeds at over 65 mph.

The OP shouldn't need E rated tires for his trailer.

heartlandlover wrote:
ST Tires might get you 20 to 30,000 miles but thats not enough for me. I've been RVing for over 30 years and I would run nothing less than Michelin XPS RIB tires on my 41 foot 5ver. I have almost 60,000 miles on them and still have probably another 20,000 or so left on the tread. The good thing about these tires are they are re-groovable which means at least another 10,000 miles. They are 14 ply sidewall and made from the same rubber compound as over the road commercial truck tires. They are not cheap but after buying 3 sets of ST tires which might get you this kind of mileage combined you actually come out cheaper buying the Michelin tires. Thats just my opinion but if your gonna invest in a nice RV then don't go cheap on the tires that you depend on to get you where your going.

lbrjet wrote:
I would spend my money on a TPMS instead. I too have over 20,000 miles on my trailer and am on my 2nd set of ST tires both made in China. The OEM tires were Duro 2100 radials and the second set I put on are Hercules Power STR. 6 years, 34 states and no blowouts.

I'm sort of in this line of thinking camp also. I've been running China Bomb Marathons since 1995 w/o a single blow out racking up over 100K total miles and too many tires to count from normal age out and one issue of alignment. I have run the tires on my current trailer since 2007 at within 100 to 150lbs of their max rated capacity. My one foray into a non ST "truck" type higher capacity tire (Kumho 857s) was a disaster. I had one "Blow Out" on one tire after only 15mo and around 6K miles with moderate damage to the trailer followed by two more tread failures within 6 mos and 2K miles of the first and both on the same day less than 200 miles apart.

I was running a TPMS, but didn't catch the first failure since I forgot to plug in my tire ranger extender amplifier, but caught the next two and avoided any damage issues so I'm firmly in the TPMS believer camp.

I am real anal about tire pressures at max side wall pressures and keeping my speed under 65 mostly at 60 and am extra vigilant about avoiding "FREEWAY POTHOLES" and other tire damaging situations. I actually have replace two other wise "apparantly good tires" twice on the same side of my trailer when I hit one of the infamous "GRAND CANYON" potholes on I-95 in the Carolinas heading down to Fl. I would do the same replacement strategy if I where to seriously "CURB" one or two tires at any speed. To me the couple hundred $$$ for two tires is peanuts vs. the potential unknown "DAMAGED TIRE CAPACITY AND RELIABILITY" from the "HIDDEN DAMAGE" after such TIRE KILLING events from bad road hazard encounters. I also, replace tires in pairs side wise when I do have a tire failure since I believe when you have a tire failure on one side of a trailer you damage the other tire on that side immediately due to overloading it and compromising it's load capacity and reliability.

Larry

ST Tires might get you 20 to 30,000 miles but thats not enough for me. I've been RVing for over 30 years and I would run nothing less than Michelin XPS RIB tires on my 41 foot 5ver. I have almost 60,000 miles on them and still have probably another 20,000 or so left on the tread. The good thing about these tires are they are re-groovable which means at least another 10,000 miles. They are 14 ply sidewall and made from the same rubber compound as over the road commercial truck tires. They are not cheap but after buying 3 sets of ST tires which might get you this kind of mileage combined you actually come out cheaper buying the Michelin tires. Thats just my opinion but if your gonna invest in a nice RV then don't go cheap on the tires that you depend on to get you where your going.

goducks10 wrote:

smkettner wrote:
Forget the 5000, what is the GVWR?

Why? He's already said he's 5000lbs loaded. Why would it matter if he has another X amount to put in the trailer if he isn't putting that X amount in it?
No one pulls an empty trailer, but not everyone loads there trailer to the GVWR.

When we both get our list answered we will both make a recommendation and compare notes.
It's all good.

I've had good luck with ST tires on relatively light weight trailers. We got seven years out of our last set of Goodyear Marathons before I noticed a bulge in the tread. 3-5 years is good for any tires including LT tires in my experience. The only trailer that seemed to have problems with ST tires was our 10,400 lb actual weight Jayco Eagle 5th wheel. It had 225/75 R15 D's. I was lucky to get two years out of a set. I'd keep your ST's aired to the max on the sidewalls and like with any tire on any vehicle, check for anything unusual and check them often.

Yep, 7 years old and I put 15000 miles on them us what the previous owner added.

Factory installed ST 205s. Now that are being used for my utility trailer.

Good tires are good tires no matter who makes them.

smkettner wrote:
Forget the 5000, what is the GVWR?

Why? He's already said he's 5000lbs loaded. Why would it matter if he has another X amount to put in the trailer if he isn't putting that X amount in it?
No one pulls an empty trailer, but not everyone loads there trailer to the GVWR.