www.iFourWinns.com

I by no means am an expert, but let me give you my 2 cents.

I have been pulling trailers since I was able to drive (20+ years now) and know a few basics. First and foremost, air pressure is your #1 concern. Yes some tires are better than others, but I would rather drive on cheap crap tires that have been properly inflated and maintained than super premium tires that have been left to rot. Get a GOOD air guage and make sure you are running what is printed on the tire. Check the tires for dry rot. If they look bad, they probably are.

It is amazing what a 3-4 lb difference in air can do for the handling of your boat trailer. It's worth the 10 minutes and 75 cents to get it right.

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2001 Horizon 260 - 7.4 Volvo GSI DP

Paul, apparently the difference between trailer tires and passenger car tires is the construction and amount of sidewall flex. Trailer tires are quite rigid in the sidewalls that helps prevent trailer sway. Passenger car tire sidewalls are quite flexible to give a softer ride, but supposedly too flexible to be used on a trailer and can induce sway. +1 to St Louis Dave, tire pressure is also a critical factor - the higher the better (to a certain extent!).

I also think one of the major differences is if you have a single axle trailer or a tandem. With a single axle trailer I would not dream about using a passenger car tire - I would always go for a light truck tire. You will be close to the max load capacity anyway for a passenger car tire... For a tandem, you are spreading the load over 4 tires instead of two so tends to be more forgiving. I have towed tandem trailers for 20+ years - mostly carrying race cars with an all up load and trailer weight in excess of 2.5 tons and used both car and lite truck tires with no noticible difference.

Hope this helps...

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Alec

2006 Horizon 190
VP 4.3GL/SX, Sunsport

I've thought about this too, the record of trailer tires coming apart is not too confidence insipring! One thing is that you'd have to go to a 15 in tire for sure, since very few truck tires are made in a 'C' rating in a 14 in size. There are a few though, like the Michelin Agilis which comes in 185R14 with 1875 lbs at 65 psi (D rated) and 205/65R-15 with the same 1875 lbs at 54 psi (C rated). The load of these tires is basically similar to what you would get from a 215-75/14 trailer tire, which is what I have on my trailer. Using the 14" truck tires would keep you from raising up the trailer too much as you would be if you went to a 235/75-15 LT C rated truck tire with about the same load capacity. I'm still not sure if they would cause sway, but at least you know that Michelin makes quality tires!

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

My statement about using automobile tires is restricted solely to LT tires not passenger car tires.

I see absolutely no reason to run "Trailer" tires, the best trailers in the world, under some of the most expensive boats in the world, are running on light truck tires.

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Brett DiMichele

I wonder how maany problems are due to underinflation. I checked the new tires after putting them on and they were inflated to 40psi

Now I'm getting ready to pull 300 miles this weekend, I can't imagine this would have ended well.

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-Rob.


Current boat: 2011 Yamaha AR210
Previous boat: 1998 Horizon RX 4.3GL SX

Thanks for all the responses and info guys. I should clear up that when I was saying "regular tires" in my previous I was not referring to passenger tires but rather light truck tires (even though I didn't say that). Sorry for any confusion I might have caused, but it looks like you guys worked through it pretty well for the most part.

So, now the dumber question, why are there trailer tires instead of just using LT's? Is it simply a matter of cost v. the amount of use the average trailer gets? I'm having trouble coming up with any other real reason for the existence of trailer tires.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Go over to
http://www.championtrailers.com
look in the tech support, they have a good article on trailer tires.
Basically the supposed advantage is that, they do not have to steer and corner the same as tires on a car or truck do. And the issue of ride quality is not so important, so that the tire can be made a lot stiffer to both support more weight and cut down on the possibility of sway as compared to an LT tire. And in fact, if you compare sizes vs load, a trailer tire will have a greater capacity than an LT tire of the same size. The problem seems to be that people want to pay as little as possible for trailer tires, so they have been outsourced to manufacturers that do not have the necessary quality control.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II