Trail Express trailer tires

[fishrdan]

Has anyone heard of Trail Express trailer tires? I'm putting new tires on the boat trailer and want to see if anyone has any experience with these.

Good
Bad
Ugly

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

Never heard of that brand.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

Never heard of them.

This is privileged info but I will put my Texas Red Neck up against anybody's. With that said,

My current tires are:

Boat trailer: Shield made in China
16' Tandem flatbed trailer: Shield made in China
Dodge Truck #1 Goodyear Wrangler made in the USA
Dodge Truck #2 Goodyear Wrangler made in the USA
Tractor #1 Titan made in the USA
Tractor #2 Kelly Springfield made in the USA
Tractor #3 Kelly Springfield made in the USA
Stock trailer, bargain brand made in the USA

My couple dozen or so grounds manicuring tires are Carlisle.....wherever they are made and are doing just fine.

Shield tires have shown a remarkable resistance to plasticizer depletion and thus after several years have shown no tendency for the tread to dry out and separate from the carcass or split and crack. The GoodYears on my trucks have also shown that tendency and that is the first time in as long as I can remember that I have had OEM US vehicle tires that resisted ozone oxidation having had primarily Michelin OEM tires in the past which I do not care to have again.

I am satisfied with both; all.

Mark

 

[sevoman]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

Just had a complete tread separation on my 5th wheel, shredded the floor and cabinets above it. AAA person never asw anything like this

 

[robert graham]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

Has anyone heard of Trail Express trailer tires? I'm putting new tires on the boat trailer and want to see if anyone has any experience with these.

Good
Bad
Ugly

Thanks,
Dan

I've not heard of that brand, but I believe you can get very good or very poor service from any trailer tire, a lot depending on the age of the tire, pressure maintenance, load weight, UV light degredation, etc. Lots of off-brand, Chinese, whatever tires on the market. My trailer tires are Carlisle brand and so far, so good, have run them about 2 years without problems, but I have no idea where they're made. Good Luck!

 

[coFLounder]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

My couple dozen or so grounds manicuring tires are Carlisle.....wherever they are made and are doing just fine.

They make them in Carlisle PA. My little brother used to work there.

 

[JimS123]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

They make them in Carlisle PA. My little brother used to work there.

The home office is in PA. They make 5 different trade name tires. The "USA Trail" is made in the USA...ALL the others are made in China under their licence. If you don't believe me just look along the tire bead - it clearly states "Made in USA" or "Made in China".

As far as trailer tires go, most all of them are crap. The USA Trail generally has a bad rep. (google them - not my opinion, just relaying what the reports are). The Carlisle Chinatires are generally not regarded high either.

Google "Trail Express" - not much good to say there either.

Regardless, just keep an eye on them. Keep them fully inflated and balanced and watch for bubbles. If you see any anomolies, replace them right away. If not, keep them. Don't simply replace based on opinions of others.

I bought new tires this year and spent countless hours researching the subject. There are no USA tires to speak of, so you're stuck with china. The Loadstars seem to be one of the best rated. I had some 3 year old ones and they have held up good, so that's what I bought.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

Wow, someone dug up an old thread.

There are no USA tires to speak of, so you're stuck with china.

I found the same thing while buying trailer tires 2 years ago... I just went to Discount and had them put on a set of Tow Master's. Still gripes me that I paid $175 for 2 China trailer tires, hope I get 5 years out of them.

(BTW, I saw Goodyear started making certain sizes of Marathons in the US again.)

 

[robert graham]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

After I had tread seperation and failure on 2 trailer tires on the interstate during one trip to Florida, I decided then to just replace the darn tires every 3 years regardless of their visual condition. A couple of hundred dollars every 3 years is O.K. for at least some peace of mind and confidence! I mean a trailer blow-out on the interstate could get a guy killed!

 

[robert graham]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

I wish Michelin would start producing a really good, dependable trailer tire....I'd probably be willing to pay a bit more for the quality...apparently Michelin has no interest in this market segment?

 

[jeffnick]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

If you can cover your load with LT or even passenger radials you'll be much better off.
http://72land-n-sea.blogspot.com/2011/05/trailer-tires-brakes.html

 

[Fleetwin]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

I just returned from a 3400 mile round trip on my Goodyear "ST" tires. They are 13" on an AROS trailer. They are mounted on 13" galvanized rims, which I had BALANCED. I checked tire pressure, every morning.

Speeds in excess of 80 MPH. NO issues.

 

[JimS123]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

I just returned from a 3400 mile round trip on my Goodyear "ST" tires. They are 13" on an AROS trailer. They are mounted on 13" galvanized rims, which I had BALANCED. I checked tire pressure, every morning.

Speeds in excess of 80 MPH. NO issues.

Goodyear has been waffling back and forth in recent years with different manufacturing plants. Were yours USA or China? (it says on the sidewall)

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Trail Express trailer tires

Goodyear has been waffling back and forth in recent years with different manufacturing plants. Were yours USA or China? (it says on the sidewall)

Could be other countries too and I wouldn't be the least bit worried with Canada or NewZealand,,, I had NewZealand Marathons several years ago that were great tires. For other countries beyond that, I don't know...

I recently bought a set of Goodyear Eagle's for our car as they seemed reasonably priced. Well, they rode like carp at anything over 60MPH. I had them rebalanced 3-4 times and even at a different shop in case the first shop had a bad balancer. They were flat out bad tires. The country of origin,,,, Chile, South America. The shop couldn't resolve the high speed hop and replaced the Goodyears with Michelin's, problem solved!