Bought our boat back in April of '11 and towed it from Michigan to Ohio. No problems towing it back but one weekend in May, I blew a tire. Next weekend, another. Ended up having to replace all four even though they looked PERFECT. If I had to do it all over again, I would have replaced them right from the start just for the piece of mind. We have a 238 Vista and it's a pretty heavy boat so changing tires on the side of the highway was NOT fun. Just my two cents.

Rule of thumb on trailer tires is that they should be replaced every 5-6 years regardless of how they look. If you wait until the tread looks low they'll be 300 years old, so that's no indication. Sidewall cracks are a good thing to look for but they don't tell the whole story either. On a multi-axle trailer, only one axle can follow the arc of a turn so the tires on all other axles get pulled sideways every time the trailer turns. That's very hard on tires.

You can find out how old your tires are. See http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=11 .

You might want to have a read through this:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8233&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=maxxis

As an update, the "new Carlisles" I had put on our band trailer last fall have been fine so far.

Last time I looked, the only ST tires Tire Rack sold were Marathons. Run away.

To be clear, when we say "new Carlisle" we specifically mean the Radial Trail RH. Carlisle made other trailer tires for years (and may still) and many people had horrible experiences with them.

The single most important thing with trailer tires is to keep them inflated to max cold pressure. Everyone talks about that with cars & trucks, but with trailers, it really is that important. Just the loss of a couple of pounds can mean the difference in the life of a trailer tire.

So you're tires were not even a year old then. Sound more like defect or over inflated, yes??

Paul,
I suspect the tires were original to the trailer which would have made them close to 9 years old. They looked PERFECT as the trailer was never used. Just parked and sat. But father time does his work whether is shows or not. It's no fun having a blow out on the highway two weekends in a row. The good thing is that it motivated me to get a spare holder and a new spare. I'll never be caught without again.

My trailer currently has two 14" rims/tires. I'm going to bump up to a 15" with stylish aftermarket aluminum rims. Why not, it's dirt cheap and gives me a safety barrier when it comes to weight. Also, the sale of my two new 14 rim/tire combo will pretty much pay for most of it.

As far as jacks go... I've had one of these for YEARS. Love it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-lightweight-aluminum-racing-jack-with-rapid-pump-68051.html

My boat is right at 4,000 lbs without trailer, but since I'd only be lifting one side at a time, I would think this would work ???