Tire recomedations

[89retta]

Need to replace my trailer tires. And looking your thoughts on brands. Tire size is 215/75/14. Boat is always trailered a few miles to the ramp and a few 2000kms trips during the year. Boat weighs around 2800lbs. Thanks for any help

 

[alldodge]

Any brand will work and it will dry rot before you wear them out. I'm weird and different but I buy only bias ply tires for my trailers. Others will be along shorty with radial brands.

 

[89retta]

Any brand will work and it will dry rot before you wear them out. I'm weird and different but I buy only bias ply tires for my trailers. Others will be along shorty with radial brands.

My recent pair only 2 years old , one of them decided to come apart. It looks like all the belts started to separate on it with a few big pieces missing. The other one shows signs of doing the same. They are radials. Why do you prefer bias ply ?

 

[alldodge]

Trailers sit a lot and steel doesn't like to sit in one position for long periods. Like take a small spring steel wire and bend then release, it comes right back. Leave the same steel wire sit bent for a month or more and it will not come back straight.

Bias ply tires and nylon cord and have no spring to them, so they can be bent for years and does not matter. After having a few really good looking tires come apart on the freeway I switch to bias ply. This was many years ago, and to date I have not yet had another blow out. Only issue is they develop flat spots from sitting. So you have to drive for a few miles until they warm up and the flat spot goes away

 

[bruceb58]

I store my trailer on jack stands...no flat spots.

My suggestion for tires are Maxxis and/or the new GoodYear Endurance tires which are made in the USA.

 

[jimmbo]

Need to replace my trailer tires. And looking your thoughts on brands. Tire size is 215/75/14. Boat is always trailered a few miles to the ramp and a few 2000kms trips during the year. Boat weighs around 2800lbs. Thanks for any help

Same size as mine

Was going out to Wabamun on Thursday, had a blow out about 2 miles west of the Stonyplain Exit on the Yellowhead. 10 yr old Marathon. I have local shop getting me 2 of the new Goodyear Endurance Trailer tire.

 

[89retta]

I was lucky mine didn't blow out. Got to the launch at west cove and there was another fellow who was behind me on the hi way. Told me my tire was wobbling real bad. Checked and half the tread was gone.

 

[bruceb58]

10 yr old Marathon. I have local shop getting me 2 of the new Goodyear Endurance Trailer tire.

This is why you change them at 5 years.

 

[Lou C]

Trailers sit a lot and steel doesn't like to sit in one position for long periods. Like take a small spring steel wire and bend then release, it comes right back. Leave the same steel wire sit bent for a month or more and it will not come back straight.



Bias ply tires and nylon cord and have no spring to them, so they can be bent for years and does not matter. After having a few really good looking tires come apart on the freeway I switch to bias ply. This was many years ago, and to date I have not yet had another blow out. Only issue is they develop flat spots from sitting. So you have to drive for a few miles until they warm up and the flat spot goes away

I'm going to agree with you 100%....I've been using Kenda Load Star bias tires over ten years and never had a problem. In fact back in the days when radials first came out for cars in the US the ones made here were not good because the production process was not upgraded fully to meet the higher tech demand of a steel belted radial. So many of us stuck with Fiberglas belted bias tires. These were one step up from plain bias tires of the time. Since most trailer tires come from places where manufacturing tech is not as high as here the EU or Japan then choose simple tech. Bias ply!

 

[Mellisa7]

I blew a tire last year, 20 miles into a 300 mile trip. Brand new Goodyear Marathon 215-75-14. Had 20 miles on it. Not enough left of the tire for warranty????? Nothing but the bead left. I always carry 2 spares. Because when you put your spare on, you don't have a spare anymore.

 

[R055]

+1 for maxxis tires. Many 5th wheel rv owners(the ones that travel the country) go with maxxis. Much less blow outs than China bombs.
Checkout some rv forums for really informative tire threads.

 

[RCJG228]

I have the same size tires on my trailer. Bought Goodyear Marathon radials in 2011. I don't trailer much in a year, probably only 100 miles in the spring getting the boat from storage, bringing it home, then launching for the year and the reverse in the fall. During the summer, the trailer is stored indoors out of the sun. Bought the tires from Discount Tire here in the Chicago-land area. I bring the trailer to them every year in the spring because they offer free tire balancing & rotation, and they said the tires are in great shape. They did recommend that I replace them in the next year or two due to age, but they have held up great for me. Granted, I don't trailer all season, but I have had zero issues with the Marathons.

 

[jimmbo]

The story I was told about the Marathons is, they were originally made in the States and were a quality product with a long life. They production moved overseas and suddenly they had a much shorter life expectancy. At the same time failure(blowouts) became as common on the Marathons as on Brand "C" tires. Brand "C" used to be poohblahed as a lower quality overseas tire. My US made Marathons were only 12 yrs old(earlier post said 10, but they were installed in 2005), and there was evidence the failure was a multiple puncture trauma, a piece of metal was inside when removed from the wheel. The other tire on the trailer shows no cracking in the treads or on the sidewalls.
However I did replace both with the new US made Goodyear Endurace ST. Higher load and speed rating then the Marathons, which is good cause most Highways I tow on have a 70mph limit

 

[Mischief Managed]

I tow my trailer often and for long trips, and have suffered through several blowouts over the years. I learned not to use any tires that are over 5 years old which dramatically reduced the blowout frequency. Two and a half years ago, I decided to ignore the max inflation pressure on the sidewalls and over-inflate by 20% (they are rated for 50 PSI, I use 60 PSI). The tires run a lot cooler and I have not had a blowout since. I have not experienced any big longevity difference in brands, they all seem to be crap and use price as the sole deciding factor for my purchase decision.

FWIW, a new trailer tire usually costs me less than a day's worth of boat gas so I just think of them as a normal boating expense. I buy them cash and carry and mount them myself at home. They are very easy to mount using a cheap tire changer I bought at Harbor Freight 15 years ago. No need to balance them. Mine tend to wear more on the inside edges than the outside edges so I flip them around on the wheels to even up the wear, halfway through their life-span. I have a utility trailer that uses the same size tires as my boat trailer and my old tires are excellent for that (it's rarely used and rarely loaded heavily). I also always have two good spares handy for every road trip.

 

[TCATTC]

You will never go wrong choosing a heavier load rating than you need.

 

[TyeeMan]

Strange coincidence, , or something like that. So I've been reading this post on and off and it got me worried about the 4 GY Marathons on my boat trailer. I bought the rig last year Memorial Day weekend. The tires look really good and all that, but I have no idea how old they are. The trailer is a 1995 Shorelander and likely saw daylight about twice a year per conversation with previous owner.
I was going to have tires put on my week of vacation over the 4th, the week got away from me and I didn't do it. Then I was going to tow the rig into work with me last week or this week and drop off to have tires put on.

Well, just this last weekend IT HAPPENED! We were headed up north, wasn't going to take the boat but changed my mind at the last minute. Half way into the trip and one tire let loose. Pretty much looked exactly like the picture Jimmbo posted above. When the tire let loose it also took out the it's fender and cracked the one in front of it, and it bent up my nice pretty new license plate. :mad-new::frusty::frusty:

Having been reading this post I wanted to install 4 Good Year Endurance tires, but to my dismay GY does not (as of yet) make that tire in a 13". Soooo I gues I'm going with 4 brand new Marathons. I've had good luck with them in the past, hopefully that will continue for a few more years.

Strange thing is, the last thing I did before leaving home was to change my shirt as the one I was wearing was all sweaty. I put on an orange t-shirt. . . .
Good to have while changing a left sided tire in heavy traffic.

 

[89retta]

These are the ones I went with in 215/75/14. https://www.carlislebrandtires.com/our-products/product-detail/radial-trail-hd

 

[jimmbo]

I got my GY Endurances a couple of weeks ago. Nice tires, more plies than the Marathons and higher load capacity, speed rating, and higher max pressure. Slightly less tread depth than the marathons.

 

[vans]

These are the ones I went with in 215/75/14. https://www.carlislebrandtires.com/our-products/product-detail/radial-trail-hd

I purchased a set of Carlisle's (4), on 6/20/15, paid 311.00 out the door
I just got home from a 700 mile round trip, everything went well, I stopped often to check bearing/tire temps, I also have a cabin that's a 250 mile round trip, boat makes that trip twice a month, so I pull boat often

Carlisle redesigned their trailer tire a while back, I haven't heard many negative comments since.

I've owned many sets of Marathon's through the years, had great luck with them, I was fortunate to see tire issues while trailer was parked, bought the Carlisle's because I dealt with local shop, and the Carlisle's were a bit cheaper. Do believe me when I say I researched tires for hours trying to make best decision

I'm also a firm believer to change out tires every 5 years, check tire pressure often- probably the #1 cause for blow-out, buy a infrared gun and check temps, my gun came from Amazon for under 15.00

 

[TyeeMan]

I found out how to figure out the manufacture date of my old set of tires, , including the one that blew and took my fenders along with it. Here is very likely the reason why the tire blew. It was 17 years old!! :facepalm::jaw: Actually all 4 of them were. And to think, I have at least a couple thousand miles on that trailer since I bought the rig last spring.

Oh well, we're all good now with a set of new hoops.