I hate trailer tires

trailer tire blowout

Posted October 25 2008 09:21 PM by Willys
Filed under: Campfire, Jeep Enthusiast Culture

As near as I can figure I have under 10K miles on my 8 month old trailer. That is to say, it was built sometime in Feb of this year. In the few months I had it, I've now replaced 3 tires on the dang thing. On the way to Reno, one of the tires delaminated. Special thanks to my girlfriend, Missy for standing half in the right lane of traffic to take this picture.

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I don't know if its because the C load range tires are over their limit, or because I can pop a u-turn with this setup anywhere I want (I can get the trailer and Jeep to under 90 degrees in a jackknife type maneuver).

Anyway, the dang tire delaminated on Interstate 80, I put the spare on it, and went back to the nearest town to get another spare.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the whole using the Jeep's jack to jack up however many thousands of pounds of trailer loaded with Jeep. So, when I made it into Reno at my buddy Cody's house, he introduced me to a neat thing called a "trailer jack". Basically its a scaled down heavy duty ramp. And, while he wouldn't let me have his, we went ahead and built one that I could take with me. I've got a few tweaks to make maybe, and need to find somewhere to stow it on the trailer. But, at least now I've got a better way to get one trailer tire off the ground for a roadside tire change.

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Reader Comments:

1. Inflate 'em to the max pressure on the sidewall. They look like the cheapie bias ply tires that come on most equipment trailers. These have pretty stiff sidewalls that won't bulge even if the tire is underinflated. You can't base the tire pressure off how the tire looks. Notice how the treads are worn on the edges, but the center of the tire isn't wearing. You're underinflated. Pump 'em up. You gotta inflate them to max pressure.

Christian Hazel - Posted October 26 2008 06:25 AM

2. Oh, and stop jack knife turning that trailer. It's way bad for your bearings. You'll be losing a spindle next.

When you get back, replace the tires with some Goodyear Marathon 225/75R15 D-load range trailer tires. They're bigger than your 205/75R15s, but they'll fit and they're the best trailer tire you can run.

Christian Hazel - Posted October 26 2008 06:30 AM

3. Get some good radial trailer tires. They are about $85 each, they stay cooler, last longer, wear more equally, and carry more weight than what ya got. In some cases these trailers come with passenger car tires to save costs in building. If so, those are crap.

Oh, and I use a Hi-Lift jack to change trailer tires. You probably already have one on board if you're towing a Jeep.

John Cappa - Posted October 26 2008 06:33 AM

4. I second the jackknife turning manuever... however an amazing trick for precision traillering as the tires start skidding sideways it becomes aparent how it is quite hard on things. The ramp is a really smart idea

wrongclutch - Posted October 26 2008 07:27 AM

5. go to a little larger tire. I went to a load range d there either 215 or 225x 15 trailer and I havent had a problem since

fivespeed - Posted October 26 2008 05:37 PM

6. They are trailer tires... and while I don't check pressure when towing empty or not towing a Jeep, I did check before leaving on the trip and put em up to 45 psi in efforts to maximize efficiency.

Also... I don't think that there is that much side load on the tires when doing the jackknife thing... I mean they all still turn.

I definately want to go to D or even E load range tires. I just can't square a C-load range under the trailer that has the Jeep on top of it that also requires C load range tires.

I was figuring that if I put em to 45 psi, then when hot, they'd be at the max of 50... but was recently told that the 50psi number is a cold tire number... so put em to that heading out of Reno

Willys - Posted October 28 2008 07:10 PM

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