What tires are you running?

[78 MarkTwain]

Hi, I have a 20' Misty Harbor Pontoon that came with a single axle trailer. It has 20.5x8x10 tubeless high speed tires on it (10 ply). The original tires lasted for years with no problems, but after I replaced them this year I have blown 3 tires on very few miles. I repacked the bearings this spring and had the alignment checked and everything was fine. They run hot and blow out. I was towing at only 50 mph. I have seen some 13" tires that seem like they would run cooler. So I am wondering what size tires people are running?

Thanks

 

[JGator]

Re: What tires are you running?

What tire pressure were you running?

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: What tires are you running?

What load range are you running. As a guess I would think a minmum of a D load range and are they nitrogen filled. Nitrogen reduces the heat its common on big truck tires.

I am running the same thing 20.5x8x10 and in a 10 ply rating with no problems. Kendra load star`s

Right off hand it sounds like wrong load range or low air pressure, thats about the only thing that will cause that sort of heat.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: What tires are you running?

W Nitrogen reduces the heat its common on big truck tires.

Nitrogen has nothing to do with heat, at least not directly. Fill two tires to 50 psi, and then run them 20 miles at max load. The nitrogen tire will be WARMER! Yes, you heard correctly... Nitrogen is more stable, and doesn't expand as much when heated. (the heat is generated by the tire, not the gas inside) So after 20 miles, the air filled tire might be at 55 psi, while the nitrogen tire might be 52. Lower PSI = more heat.

Nitrogen also has been show to POSSIBLY increase tire life by reducing the affects of oxygen. In general though, that is of little concern to a trailer tire, they will dry rot from UV and O2 from the outside first. The biggest advantage is that nitrogen won't leak out and is temperature stable.

 

[louiefl]

Re: What tires are you running?

Tires that size are also the ones for golf carts. Make sure yours are high speed rated. Do you know the weight of your load including boat, fuel, gear, trailer? If your tires are rated for 1,100 lb each, then your total weight should be no more than 80% of 2,200 lb to give you some room as the tires age. A 20' boat on a pair of 10" tires seems like a lot. I'm running 14" tires and the original trailer spec was for 13" tires, I guess the PO must have changed them. My boat is a 17'5" center console.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: What tires are you running?

Toon tires are a common size of 20.5x8x10 but with several load ranges you really have to watch out when replacing them. A E rated tire is around 1650

Smokingcrater... I wasnt sure of the exact reasons why the big rigs use nitrogen, but I know most of them now run it.

 

[78 MarkTwain]

Re: What tires are you running?

Thanks for all of the responses,
I am running load range C or D. The tire calls for 90 psi and a max payload of 1535 pounds. This seems like what could be my problem. The part that confuses me is those are the exact same tires that came on the trailer when we bought the boat new. The original tires lasted for years before I had to change them out due to dry rot. I don't know if anyone here has any ideas why the originals were so much better than the ones on the market today. I've got the trailer in the shop right now getting a second axle installed which should help out a lot with the weight issue.

 

[lncoop]

Re: What tires are you running?

Tires that size are also the ones for golf carts. Make sure yours are high speed rated. Do you know the weight of your load including boat, fuel, gear, trailer? If your tires are rated for 1,100 lb each, then your total weight should be no more than 80% of 2,200 lb to give you some room as the tires age. A 20' boat on a pair of 10" tires seems like a lot. I'm running 14" tires and the original trailer spec was for 13" tires, I guess the PO must have changed them. My boat is a 17'5" center console.

I've always been told barge trailers have smaller tires in order to keep from making the rig's profile any higher than it already is. I've never verified that, but it sounds reasonable to me. As for the weight, a twenty foot pontoon won't be nearly as heavy as a twenty foot glass boat, although it will seem like it at highway speeds due to the wind resistance.

 

[lncoop]

Re: What tires are you running?

BTW, as to your original question 78, I have a 21 foot barge on factory matched trailer. It's a single axle setup and I'm running F6514-STs. Max PSI is fifty.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: What tires are you running?

the reason many rigs and cars are running nitrogen is the absence of moisture that is present in compressed air. the moisture plays corrosion havoc with tire sensors after a a short while.

part of the issue is the quality of the tires today (especially specialty tires from china) is not as good as years ago. part of this is due to the high use of re-grind vs virgin material. The highest warranty replacements on L&G equipment is tires not holding air which is due to crappy tires from the manufacturer. Since the same manufacturer also makes trailer tires, I would suspect the issues are similar

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: What tires are you running?

On my 20 foot toon, the boat with out gear is 1250, the trailer is 800, so a dry weight is 2050, add in at least 500 for gas and beer and stuff and its around 2500. Now my load per tire is 1250 so a D rated tire would just barley work with 200 pounds to spair and I found that way to close of a margain and put E rated on mine

ply ratings for a 20.5x8x10

B= 4 ply,910
C= 6 ply,1100
D= 8 ply,1320
E= 10 ply, 1650