Tire brand/type for trailer???

Blew a tire yesterday morning on the way to Everts.

Tires on there are 3 years old, replaced fall of 2010. I wouldn’t think these should be too old for service, and its possible that we just hit some metal or something on the road.

The boat is an 18′ Lund Aluminum. 140 4s + kicker. We try not to keep too much other weight in the boat if we can avoid it. Tires were inflated properly.

What brand/type of tire have you guys had good experience with in the past on your boat trailers? Anything to avoid? How many years realistically of light/moderate use should I get out of a set of tires?

I’m sure this had been covered before, thanks in advance for your replies…

Mike

Goodyear Marathon’s are the best boat trailer tires on the market in my opinion.

They’re a little spendy but well worth the piece of mind.

What tires are on there now?

-J.

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Goodyear Marathon’s are the best boat trailer tires on the market in my opinion.

X 2

Stay away from Carlisle(sp?). Those tires really do damage to your tire fenders when they go. More than a few members have had that problem.

I have had good luck with Goodyear Marathons. 5 years per set. I drive to Winnie or further north from Minneapolis about 5 times per season (March-Nov)and the rest of the season I’m running to P4, P2 and Mille Lacs most weekends.

This would be a good time to spend 10 bucks and get your rig weighed at a truckstop or similiar scale. Once you know what your real load is, it will be easier to select the appropriate tires.

Sometimes, trailers tend to be one of those items that dealers “skimp” on, to save money.

HRG

I’ve been researching quite a bit this winter with plans to replace my nearly three year old Carlisles (came with new rig). The’ve got plenty of tread, but are starting to crack on sidewalls. I’ve pulled a lot of reviews from the camper world as well as boating….I’ve got it narrowed down to Maxxis (bit spendy) or TowMasters (reasonable). good luck.

We bought the last set in sort of a pinch.. It was what was available at the time and is some generic company I haven’t heard much about.

I attached the image of the tire size…

18′ Lund Explorer SC with 140 HP Suzuki, T-8… 32 gallon tank, 3 large batteries, one smaller one for the T-8… Anchor, gear, etc… Have never weighed it. Maybe not such a bad idea.

I’m thinking spending a few more bucks this time around and ordering the right product would be worthwhile…

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This would be a good time to spend 10 bucks and get your rig weighed at a truckstop or similiar scale. Once you know what your real load is, it will be easier to select the appropriate tires.

Sometimes, trailers tend to be one of those items that dealers “skimp” on, to save money.

HRG

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X2. That’s a lot of weight riding on 13 inch tires.

-J.

Thanks for the pic. There are (2) different ST185/80D-13 tires made, a “C” load range, capacity of 1480# @ 50psi, and a “D” load range, capacity of 1725# at 65psi.

Could you look to see what load range yours might be?

Just to put this in persective, I weighed my Lund 1700 Explorer/75 Opti tiller, loaded for a trip, and got an axle weight of something like 2850 pounds. I would think yours might be in excess of 3000#.

HRG

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Goodyear Marathon’s are the best boat trailer tires on the market in my opinion.

X 2

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X3

Boat – 1240 lbs
Suzuki – 410
t-8 – 102
32 gallons gas ~ 192
3 batteries ~ 150
1 t-8 battery ~ 30
terrova – 50?
Anchors
Gear
Spare tire
Misc boat stuff…

I have used Towmax the last few years because the GY Marathons are now produced in China. The price didn’t go down but the quality sure did. Had a 3 year old Marathon come apart on my tandem axle trailer and take the fender with it. Tire was not even flat afterwards. The tread face came off and the tire still had 42lbs of pressure in it. Thats just my opinion.

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Boat – 1240 lbs
Suzuki – 410
t-8 – 102
32 gallons gas ~ 192
3 batteries ~ 150
1 t-8 battery ~ 30
terrova – 50?
Anchors
Gear
Spare tire
Misc boat stuff…

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Trailer? Keep in mind, we’re talking tire capacity, not trailer capacity.

HRG

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Thanks for the pic. There are (2) different ST185/80D-13 tires made, a “C” load range, capacity of 1480# @ 50psi, and a “D” load range, capacity of 1725# at 65psi.

Could you look to see what load range yours might be?

Just to put this in persective, I weighed my Lund 1700 Explorer/75 Opti tiller, loaded for a trip, and got an axle weight of something like 2850 pounds. I would think yours might be in excess of 3000#.

HRG

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Thanks to all for all the quick help so far… You guys are great… I don’t know much about tires unfortunately, so I really appreciate the help – and this does help a lot! I’ll check some more, but I know that the max PSI is NOT 65… 50 psi is what is on there now I believe.. Which would be the lower rated tires.

I think my minimum weight is going to be 2500 lbs at any give time… More gear = more weight…

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Trailer? Keep in mind, we’re talking tire capacity, not trailer capacity.

HRG

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Yup, thanks.. forgot about that…

Anyone know what is the average Shoreland’r trailer weight for that type of setup?

I should also be able to SUBTRACT the tongue weight from the total, though, since that load transferred onto my truck tires, not the trailer tires… correct?

a WAG for the trailer is 475# to 500#, and yes, you can subtract the tongue weight from your calculated total. But, if you do decide to roll it over a scale, the axle weight is what it is.

I have three trailers with marathons and never had one fail, only problem I had was I got irregular extreme wear on my boat trailer on a 800 mile trip at a 80 mph average. On the return trip I slowed down a bit and no trouble. When I replaced them I had competing salesman tell me that marathons are now made in China. Good year dealer informed me they were made in Canada, so I bought them and couldn’t be happier. If you do go with marathons just make sure they aren’t made in China and you should be good to go.

Say we add 600-700 lbs for the trailer, add some gear, that gets us to at or over 3000 lbs.

At least a good ballpark figure. Weighing it would be a good idea, though…

Did some research on the Goodyear Marathons…

1500 lb rated 50 psi tires are radial…

The 1700 lb rated 65psi are bias ply.

The guy at the dealership thought given the choice, he would rather go with the lesser rated radials due to the benefits of radial tires in general… (vs bias ply tires)

My original tires were radials. 50psi. Unsure what brand. Lasted ~5+ years. The last tires were bias ply, 50psi, lasted 2.5 years. Thinking heavily about going with the radials and making sure we are hauling a boat only with the boat trailer instead of a boat + a half ton of other crap.

Thoughts?

This winter when I was looking for boat tire replacements I went to the RV forums. Those guys put thousands of miles on there rigs a year and the Maxxis tire came up more then any other for being a quality tire next to the Khumo`s. I went with the Maxxis and very happy with them so much so when our horse trailer needs tires this year Maxxis they will be.

A couple of years ago, Goodyear released this product bulletin http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/goodyear/Marathon_Special_Trailer_Applications.pdf

That basically says, if you’re gonna run ’em fast, run them at 60psi, rather than 50. They claim that it doesn’t increase the load capacity at all, but when I added the 10psi to my Marathons, it took a lot of the “bulge” out of the sidewall.

I would suggest going from a bias tire to a radial. You will get a smoother ride and will not weather check as fast. I work for Redneck Trailer Supplies and you can check tire wheel combo out on web@ http://www.redneck-trailer.com it will also give you tel# to closet store.

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This winter when I was looking for boat tire replacements I went to the RV forums. Those guys put thousands of miles on there rigs a year and the Maxxis tire came up more then any other for being a quality tire next to the Khumo`s. I went with the Maxxis and very happy with them so much so when our horse trailer needs tires this year Maxxis they will be.

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Maxxis was waiting 4 someone 2 say that

I went with them – I’m done with the goodyears

Also get them balanced ! I did that on my boat/trailer I now have huge difference, I could feel the vibration in the truck after balancing smooooth.

I see Carlisle has a new tire out.

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Also get them balanced ! I did that on my boat/trailer I now have huge difference, I could feel the vibration in the truck after balancing smooooth.

I see Carlisle has a new tire out.

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Yes,yes yes-balance them no mater how much crap the service person behind the counter tries to give you( or the maroon kid mounting tires). It is your money and you will see/feel a difference going down the road. I had new tires mounted,asked for balancing, paid for balancing, put the wheel assemblies back on the trailer and proceeded to BOUNCE down the road right back to where I purchased the tires and chewed some a….

They did recommend balancing, and I did opt to have that done… I have three Marathon’s on order (one for the spare), I’ll feel a lot safer knowing I’ve got two new, quality radials on the boat with one new, quality spare (instead of a spare that is 8 years old and probably half “dry rotted”…

Also nice to be a little more educated on trailer tires…

Thanks for the help!

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This winter when I was looking for boat tire replacements I went to the RV forums. Those guys put thousands of miles on there rigs a year and the Maxxis tire came up more then any other for being a quality tire next to the Khumo`s. I went with the Maxxis and very happy with them so much so when our horse trailer needs tires this year Maxxis they will be.

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I searched all over too, I couldn’t find any options I was happy with.. Then someone told me to find out what the RV guys are running, I went Maxxis and last spring and couldn’t be happier, they still look new and I put 7k on them last season.