Change tire size?

[jwc99]

I need to replace all 4 tires on my TT, a 28BH Grey Wolf. The current wheel size is 14". Would I be better to change over to 15" wheels and tires? I have found a couple places that offer tire and wheel combo's. I have got terrible life out of both sets of 14's that have been on the trailer so far. I will say the first set wore out due to bad axles, current axles not much better. I am trying to find a local place to align them before I replace the tires. I was just curious if the bigger wheel setup would be better in the long run, after the alignment of course.

[Grit_dog]

With wear like that, tires aren't the problem, axles are.
Anyway, everyone check out etrailer.com for good 14" tires. They have a couple D rated 14" tires now that are way cheaper than the gold standard 857s. I love the 857s, tough and wear like iron, but good luck so far with my Etrailer tires.

[jwc99]

Thanks everyone for all the replies. I am ordering a set of Maxxis 215/75/14's to go on the trailer. Thats stepping up one size in the 14" wheel giving me a little more capacity. The axles were replaced about 18 months ago, I really don't think they are bent, I could be wrong. There is no one anywhere around me that does alignment, my only option is to order new axles. I think I will try my next trip, aprox 1500 miles on the new tires. If they are showing wear I will look for a shop that can check them where I will be camping. As with all my new tires the shop I use to install them balances and fills them with nitrogen. I hope to upgrade to a new camper in the first part of next year and you can bet I will do a very detailed inspection of the axles and tires that will be on the new trailer.

[gmw_photos]

audio1der wrote:
@OP- Yikes. I just upgraded to Kumho Radial 857's and couldn't be happier. You'd also have to make sure your rims are rated for 65psi, but the trailer pulls SO much better now that the poor tires aren't at 95% capacity all the time. For additional value, they have a speed rating of 99mph (not that I would ever do that, but the headroom is comforting) and significantly more weight carrying capacity than most of us need.
Get yourself a proper alignment, or even look at upgradin the axles. We went from Al-Ko 3500lb units to Dexter 6,000lb with upgraded springs and proper brass greaseable bushings. Going to 15's won't solve anything.

That was my experience as well when I switched from the original ST tires to the Kumho 857. The trailer towed in much more stable manner at highway speed. Once I had the ST tires off the wheels, I could feel they had a very soft and flexy sidewall. I could easily deflect the sidewall of the unmounted tire with my fingers. By comparison, the Kumho felt much stiffer and more substantial. Very happy with how the 857's are working.

[audio1der]

@OP- Yikes. I just upgraded to Kumho Radial 857's and couldn't be happier. You'd also have to make sure your rims are rated for 65psi, but the trailer pulls SO much better now that the poor tires aren't at 95% capacity all the time. For additional value, they have a speed rating of 99mph (not that I would ever do that, but the headroom is comforting) and significantly more weight carrying capacity than most of us need.
Get yourself a proper alignment, or even look at upgradin the axles. We went from Al-Ko 3500lb units to Dexter 6,000lb with upgraded springs and proper brass greaseable bushings. Going to 15's won't solve anything.

[dodge_guy]

Here is how bad Forest River is with installing a marginal tire on a trailer. My trailer is 7100lbs dry and has an 11,200lb GVWR. they installed China bomb "D" rated tires. yes a "D" rated tire on a trailer with an 11k lb GVWR. they failed after a year and a half. when I replaced them I installed Carlisle "E" rated tires. the first set went 5 years and 6k miles, I replaced them again with another set of Carlisles and they are now 2 years old. and the trailer handles way better with the stiffer tires. it used to walk all over behind the trailer due to the weak sidewalls.

The wear you are showing certainly looks like its just a tire issue, but if you can check the alignment, its well worth it. then I would step up to the 15" tires and whatever rating your trailer needs and go up to the next rating.

Good luck!

[gmw_photos]

jjj wrote:
To the op. Also make sure they are balanced. That also make a big difference.

Yes, agree on the balance, and also I had them install new high pressure metal valve stems. The one I had them use for my load range D, 65 psi tires are the "tubeless snap in valves for high pressure"
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=208

[jjj]

To the op. Also make sure they are balanced. That also make a big difference.

[gmw_photos]

jwc99 wrote:
There is no one around my area that does alignment on trailer axles. I spoke with a guy at the local RV dealer and he said they just ordered need axles. Mine were replaced 18 months ago, the old ones were wearing my tires also. The guy at the shop said the tires I had were junk and that was the biggest part of my problem. I think I will just replace the tires with a better set of 14's and keep a close watch on the wear. If I start to see excessive wear on good tires I'll try something different. Now to decide on the tire brand.

Kumho 857 are available in 14" from tirerack. I have something around 20,000 miles on mine on the camper and they are working well, with very little wear.

[PHS79]

The Trail Express tires that Forest River put on their campers are complete and total JUNK!! The ones that were on our 2012 Grey Wolf 26BH were weather checking when they were only 16 months old (going off the build date on the tire) and our campers are stored inside when they are not being used. I have 2 friends, one with a Grey Wolf and other with a Salem Cruise Lite, both are 2013s and their tires are wore out with less than 3000 miles on them.

I replaced mine with a Hercules Power STR trailer tire, and I also went up a size to 215/75/14 to get a bit more load capacity (1870 vs 1760 for a 205). I know 110lbs per tire isn't a big difference but the 215 was only $4 more than the 205. After 2 years and probably 3000 or so miles on the Grey Wolf the tires were wearing so good I had them put swapped onto our "new" 2013 Passport 3220BH in place of the 205s it had.

[jwc99]

There is no one around my area that does alignment on trailer axles. I spoke with a guy at the local RV dealer and he said they just ordered need axles. Mine were replaced 18 months ago, the old ones were wearing my tires also. The guy at the shop said the tires I had were junk and that was the biggest part of my problem. I think I will just replace the tires with a better set of 14's and keep a close watch on the wear. If I start to see excessive wear on good tires I'll try something different. Now to decide on the tire brand.

[JIMNLIN]

ThomasFour wrote:
JimLin,

Any idea why Discount Tire (2 separate stores, over the course of 3 years) never mentioned all the tire options you've listed? I just bought Carlisle ST tires for my toy hauler to replace Pirelli Scorpions. Thanks for any insight.

I sure don't. However judging from some of Discount tires website bs in their adds its not surprising.
I would honestly say sounds like those two don't have a good customer base of trailer owners other than maybe lawn service trailers/once in a while RV owner/etc.
Having a good customer base of various type of trailer owners can give a tire dealer some valuable input on what works best vs what a tire mfg or their advertising folks says should have worked.
I've read on forums where some Discount tire stores recommend and sell and mount LT tires for their trailering customers.

I've bought lots of tires from Discount tire for my small 5 trailer fleet when I was on the road but they sold and mounted tires that I asked for. One thing I don't do is ask any tire dealer what they recommend for any of my trailers.

And they simply may not want to push the brands on the list.

[ThomasFour]

Just remembered they put my old Pirelli underneath as the spare. It is a 235 75 r15. The Pirelli is a load range D, and the Carlilse is load range E.

[ThomasFour]

I did not mean intentionally to limit my question just to Jim Lin, so others feel free to respond as well. For further information my tires are 225 75 r15.I think these are slightly smaller than the Pirelli scorpions I just replaced, but I'm still disappointed discount tire told me there were no other Lt tire options.

[ThomasFour]

JimLin,

Any idea why Discount Tire (2 separate stores, over the course of 3 years) never mentioned all the tire options you've listed? I just bought Carlisle ST tires for my toy hauler to replace Pirelli Scorpions. Thanks for any insight.