Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Trailer tires

On tandem axle trailers, the tires get dragged sideways a lot in tight turns. The stiff sidewalls on real trailer tires, or on LT's, will hold up better than car tires, whether bias or radial.

35' Jayco Eagle, came with Goodyear china bombs!! Replaced them immediately with 10 ply Maxxis tires. No issues now for the past 5 years. About time to replace them, will look at the new Goodyear's, but will probably buy Maxxis again. Second 5th wheel with them and no issues at all.

I was thinking of the marathons, didn’t realize this was a new offering. Reviews look awesome.

That is my impression as well.

Bearing in mind that I myself have not hauled a trailer in slmost 60 years, when my Dad put me to carrying limestone flats from the county work farm to build walls, I have been looking into the alternatives. Everybody here is more expert than me!

I did this month buy a used trailer that seems in decent shape for the price, so I’m putting my toe in the water. Clearly there are a few replacements needed, the first of which are all new tires.

It is a tandem aluminum 14’ cargo trailer (the body V front adds another couple of feet as does the A-frame) that I plan to use bringing furniiture and tools from my parents’ old house in Ohio to here in New Mexico, then for hauling the dogs around and later this summer for camping.

Hopefully, I can bring it to Armijo Springs in August.

There do not seem to be very informative manuals on trailers, and the best on maintenance seem to be the Airstream books. All of those say you cannot count on the tires you get on a used trailer, as they are all likely bad, especially if over five years old. Think of trailer tires as consumables that age out (or rot) far sooner than vehicle tires.

Frankly, with that in mind and replacing all five including the spare, I’m looking at price points and finding the best deals at Walmart and Costco, where one 205/75 15 in. can be found for around $45-55, plus mounting, some even with wheels (I don’t see the need for more wheels.)

Fresh tires I undestand, but the seller from whom I bought the trailer took it all over the country hauling his sidecar motorcycles for competition in events like the Pike’s Peak race. He used the off-brand tires like Carlisles and managed just fine.

I plan to switcch from bias tires to radials in buying new tires, since most trailer builders seem to use radials these days. For the above price range, I can get 6 or 8 ply radial tires, which for a light aluminum tandem cargo trailer (Featherlite at 1950 lbs. empty) should be fine.

What do you think?

FYI, I can order five ST205/75R15 8-Ply Trailer King II ST Radial Tires online, delivered free to my closest
Walmart store for installation on my wheels by June 5, for a total of $219.35.

Naturally, the reviews by prior buyers are self-justifying, but that seems true of all buyers these days. The tire specs look good for my 1950 lb. aluminum trailer with tandem 3500 lb. axles.

In the past this trailer was used for hauling several sidecar motorcycles and gear simultaneously, so nothing I put in it is likely to exceed that, I think.

I though abut trying ST225/75R15 10-Ply Trailer King II ST Radial Tires for a few bucks more ($51.36 each), but I wonder if that really suits my needs any better given my intended use.

Norm

No matter what, I carry a spare spare.

In case anyone was wondering, a tire is date stamped for when it was made. That's not saying it didn't sit in a warehouse for 18 months before it was sold, though.
Somewhere on the sidewall will be something like 'DOT 2315'. The DOT indicates it's a DOT specified code. The 1st 2 digits are the week of the year, the last 2 digits are the year. So, 2315 would have been made in the 23d week of 2015.

Understood! Two of mine date from 2016, but the other two, well worn, date from 2012 and the spare (the only radial) does not even show a DOT number anymore.

I figure it just makes sense to get all replaced with the same kind of new radials, and maybe ones with more plies.

Norm