firecadet613 wrote:
My trailer came with Ds and when I bought it used I replaced them with Es for the extra capacity.
I had a blowout yesterday, air pressure was right, tread and tire looked good. Tube blew and the tread seperated.
Its very hard to fins an E in my tire size, and after talking to a local trailer dealer he says its unneccesary to go up a load range and says I should stick with Ds.
I'm curious to see what others think, as going up to Es didn't save me from a blowout.
Tire guy is recommending to stay with the 'D' only because he doesn't have the 'E' in stock. I have always found tire shops to 'push' what they have in stock.
Do your homework, know what you want, and have them order them in.
I personally upgrade load range / weight rating when I can. Current boat trailer and camp trailer have load range 'E' on them.
So you lost one tire, what was cause of blow out, tread separation? Did tire get damaged somehow prior to use and after tire warmed up, it failed. You can not blame the load range for that.
Just like when you buy a tow vehicle, you want a margin of safety, you don't want to tow at or above the GVWR or GCVWR. Same with tires, if you load them to the max or above the chance of failure is going to increase. I do know from experience on camp trailer, load range 'D's could not handle any sidewall flex created by a sharp turn, would tear the carcass and once the tire got warm going down the road, tread separation and ultimate failure.
Brand of tires, when and what factory they came from all have factors in performance as well, along with what abuse the tire sees. Do you ever drive over a curb, when backing trailer do you over flex sidewall, hit a pot hole in road, ect....
I would still recommend the heavier tire for your 268, its not a light boat and trailer only has 2 axles to share the load. You could upgrade to a tri axle trailer and then go back to a D range tire.
Currently have 5 trailers I maintain and use, have gone thru many tires. I always choose the heavier tire. I learned the hard way, but the tire shop benefits if you go with the lighter tire and have a higher failure rate.
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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
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