Tires (narrow discussion)

coolbreeze01 wrote:
M=81 MPH.

Is that for the Carlisle or for the Maxxi? When I said Amazon claims "R" I was talking about the Maxxi. Sorry I wasn't clear about that.

M=81 MPH.

hohenwald48 wrote:

coolbreeze01 wrote:
I had good luck with a set of Maxxis but I will probably buy the new Carlisle HD next time.
I run E rated 225 75 15 also.

Amazon shows this tire as having a speed rating of "R" (106MPH) is that accurate?

You'd have to ask Carlisle.

I actually stated the rated speed of 87 for the RH series in the 15" size...not the HD. My mistake.

I have no idea when leaves 2 & 3 broke and didn't notice leaf #4 until I was setting up at the end of the day. I took delivery of this particular (new) trailer a little over a year ago and based on the rust on leaves 2 & 3 it's possible they were broken when I took delivery. At the time of the breakage I probably had 15K miles on the trailer.

I have no idea how far I drove after the final leaf broke but I did notice, during the day, that the trailer leaned more than usual. However, I was experiencing strong (25 gusting to 40 MPH) side winds all day and attributed the lean to the wind. A broken spring never crossed my mind.

Okay, I guess I was imagining just one leaf broken, which it is, but the only leaf. I'm very surprised you pulled it any distance like that. What you should have done is block that up between the axle and frame. And yes, I have done that. And it was a single axle trailer, which makes it somewhat more urgent if you want to continue the journey.

Thanks for clearing it up. I can see why you want new tires. I run the Maxxis in that same size, same LR-E, and they look good.

bpounds wrote:
I would buy the Maxxis. Oh wait, I already did.

But I don't get why you think a broken spring stressed your tires. The tires were still carrying the same load, with or without a spring. Maybe slightly more if the trailer was leaning, and therefore shifting the COG, but couldn't be very much more.

Keep your tires unless you have a better reason than that.

That's not exactly true. When a spring breaks the tire on that end of the axle is carrying almost no load as there is no spring between the frame and the axle end. The load normally carried by that tire then has to be carried by the remaining 3 tires with most of it transferring to the other tire on the same side.

Additionally, when a spring breaks, both axles get out of alignment. When the spring breaks the equalizer is rotated until it hits the frame above the axle without the broken spring which changes the alignment of both axles. This is actually how I discovered the broken spring. When setting up, my Anderson levelers would not fit between the front and rear tires and they have always fit with inches to spare. That caused me to investigate and find the broken spring.

Dragging grossly misaligned axles down the road wears out the edges of the tires, places lateral loads on the tires that they weren't designed to carry and visibly wore the tread off the edge of one of the tires. All those different factors lead me to think I should err on the side of caution and trash the tires.

Take a look at the picture and you can see that tire is carrying no load at all. When I crawled under the trailer I could actually lift the tire and wheel off the ground by doing a "bench press". You can also see that the equalizer is fully rotated to the rear.

I would buy the Maxxis. Oh wait, I already did.

But I don't get why you think a broken spring stressed your tires. The tires were still carrying the same load, with or without a spring. Maybe slightly more if the trailer was leaning, and therefore shifting the COG, but couldn't be very much more.

Keep your tires unless you have a better reason than that.

Discount Tire says M (81 MPH). I found several other references to that rating. I also found this post regarding Carlisle RH tires. He claims:

The rating of all 4 tires at 2540 lbs = 10160 lbs. Gross weight on the trailer 9800 lbs.

Which isn't really true. Tires on tandem axles get derated by 12% (Source 1, Source 2, Source 3) - 225/75R15(D) from 2540 to 2235 (8940 total), so he was overweight by 860 lbs. In addition, Carlisle says "The combined capacity of all of the tires should exceed the loaded trailer weight by 20 percent." So, by the manufacturer's recommendation, he was over by 2350 lbs.

Edit: not sure why Carlisle doesn't want their tires run at their rating - I haven't seen any other manufacturers make that sort of statement.

coolbreeze01 wrote:
I had good luck with a set of Maxxis but I will probably buy the new Carlisle HD next time.
I run E rated 225 75 15 also.

Amazon shows this tire as having a speed rating of "R" (106MPH) is that accurate?

Carlisle HD series.

Ran their RH series tens of thousands of miles, the predecessor to the HD and felt they are a very HQ trailer tire.

Both have speed ratings of 87mph...not the standard 65mph claim.