Trailer tire question

[mike b.]

Anybody ever had a small section of tire swell up into a ball shaped mass full of air on the sidewall? Mine did Sat. coming back from a trip.The mass popped during the day Sunday,scared the crap out me.Tire is still inflated so it must have been only the outer sidewall.What caused this?

 

[Franki]

Re: Trailer tire question

Ok, here is what has happened, you have a tubeless tire and the inner tire has a pinhole.<br /><br />the air has leaked into the layer between the inner and outer layers.. they are usually "glued" together.. but the air pressure has pushed out a bubble.<br /><br />So, you could probably get away with putting a tube in the tire, but I would replace it completely, once the bonding between the layers starts to go, you could end up loosing the whole outer layer and at speed, that would be bad...<br /><br />finial suggestion, get a new tire <br /><br />regards<br /><br />Frank

 

[DJ]

Re: Trailer tire question

loggerhead,<br /><br />Get rid of that tire. The tire has a ply seperation that WILL fail on the road. These seperations are USUALLY caused by excess heat. Pay close attention to your tire pressure.

 

[oldboat1]

Re: Trailer tire question

Absolutely -- replace the tire. When you go shopping, you will need the size shown on the sidewall. You will also need to know whether you need one with five holes or four. You are probably going to end up buying a tire and a wheel, and it might not be such a bad idea to just replace them both now, particularly if you do a fair amount of distance trailering. Unless you have air tools, by the way, the old nuts can be a bugger to get off. You might want to have your local garage mount the new tires for you. Figure on spending $50 or $60 each for the tires, and add in a tip for the guy who puts them on for you.

 

[seajay]

Re: Trailer tire question

If your rims are in good shape you can just replace tires. Most tire shops will charge 12 to 15 $. aLSO GOOD TIME TO SERVICE BEARINGS.