Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys. I have a tire question for you. When I was pulling the boat out of the water today, I rubbed one of the tires on the curb. No big deal, but I took a really close look at both of them. That is when I noticed it.....CRACKS!!

Ok, they aren't that bad, but I wanted to get your opinions. Do these cracks warrant replacement? I think I know the answer, but I figured I would see what y'all thought. The boat was purchased new and is only 6 weeks old. How in the heck are there already cracks?!?! I keep them at the psi recommended on the sidewall at all times. The other strange thing is that the tire I rubbed on the curb is fine. No issues with cracks on it. Thoughts?

BTW, if you are wondering why I'm posting this at 3 pm on a beautiful saturday afternoon it is because me and my wife go early to the lake and leave in the early afternoon so we can come back and relax for a bit...NO JUDGING!!

If that's a new rig I say you were sold an old trailer. I would demand new tires.

Looks like dry rot. Demand new replacement tires if you just bought it from a dealer. The info on this site may help you determine each tire's age: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... 12203757:s

I agree on the dry rot. That is what you appear to have.

I personally wouldn't trust tires like that with a valuable boat on the highway.

Taking it in and out of the water where no 'roading' is involved? Wouldn't be quite so picky.

But anything that's high speed (0ver 40) or long distance and I'd want better tires on anything I own.

I always figured that any given two axle vehicle or trailer has about 3 sq. ft. of rubber on the ground at any one time.

I want that to be THE best 3 sq ft I can afford and have.


So how old is that trailer and how old are those tires?

NonHyphenAmerican wrote:I agree on the dry rot. That is what you appear to have.

I personally wouldn't trust tires like that with a valuable boat on the highway.

Taking it in and out of the water where no 'roading' is involved? Wouldn't be quite so picky.

But anything that's high speed (0ver 40) or long distance and I'd want better tires on anything I own.

I always figured that any given two axle vehicle or trailer has about 3 sq. ft. of rubber on the ground at any one time.

I want that to be THE best 3 sq ft I can afford and have.


So how old is that trailer and how old are those tires?

I can't tell how old the trailer tires are from the pictures, and I just woke up from a nap so I haven't been out to the boat since.

The boat/trailer combo was bought brand new (supposedly) on the last week of May of this year. I called the dealership just a few minutes ago and they want to take a look at them. Unfortunately, that is quite a ways from me on the on the highway. I'm a little nervous about taking it that far. I guess it wouldn't hurt to put the spare on when I go then...ugh....kinda irritated right now.

All tires will have a date code on them usually set within a slightly depressed area nearest to the rim where the tags pressed into the tire during the molding process. Usually but not always the date code will be 1 through 52 for the week of manf and the last 2 digits of the year. Looking at those tires I can't quite make out the date code but they sure don't look new with all the weather checking in the sidewalls.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I can't see what the date code is on the tire. It's like I left for vacation and somebody took a power sander to my tire. I must really suck at this stuff if I didn't even notice the bad tire when I picked up the boat.

Do you guys think it could be a tire pressure thing? I have them filled to 50 psi which is the pressure listed on the sidewall. Maybe they are over-inflated? I would think that would impact the tread of the tire rather than the sidewalls though.

My dealer wants me to bring the boat in, but I don't know if I feel comfortable driving the trailer on the highway for 20 miles with no guarantee they'll do anything. I think I will ask if I can just bring both tires in from the trailer and see if that will work. If they won't accept that, then I'll give them the and take the trailer to the tire shop 3 miles down the road and get some high quality treads! I'm pretty disappointed in the dealership I bought from to this point though. I just hope if I have a real issue with the motor that they will be better....

Take the tires off the trailer and bring them in for him to see if your worried about the 20 mile trip; truthfully I've seen much worse on tires on the family truckster with a boat load of kids in the back window... The dealer may indeed be on the up & up us an employee might have tried to pull a fast one on him and you are simply the victim. What do you want him to do take your word and bring you some new tires?

Frankly, yes. You don't go and buy a new boat and trailer and expect to get crappy tires. I don't care who is at fault with regards to the dealer. They should still provide new tires. I'm sure they'll be fine driving over to the dealership, but I really don't feel like towing the boat in rush hour traffic to our downtown area. We'll see what they say though.

C_M_25 wrote:Frankly, yes. You don't go and buy a new boat and trailer and expect to get crappy tires. I don't care who is at fault with regards to the dealer. They should still provide new tires. I'm sure they'll be fine driving over to the dealership, but I really don't feel like towing the boat in rush hour traffic to our downtown area. We'll see what they say though.

And I agree with to the extent that you don't expect nor do you deserve crappy tires.... The dealer may very well see it your way once he see's the tires and I hope that he does. But I also know that he is likely jaded by having people attempt to take advantage of his business day in and day out plus many people also expect to be compensated for their stupidity too...

lakerunner wrote:If that's a new rig I say you were sold an old trailer. I would demand new tires.

Ditto! Take it back ASAP!

Those aren't new tires from this year.

Either that or they have a massive disastrous manufacturers defect.

I'd take the trailer to the dealer with the boat on it and let him investigate.

I'd give him a chance to make it right.

The RV world also has been overrun with extremely low quality Chinese tires. I read on RV forums almost weekly how tires didn't even make it home on new $80k fifth wheels without exploding. And they can do $2K damage easily to a RV.

My pontoon boat also has 4 unknown brand of new ST tires.

I'm to the point now where I'm going to replace any unknown brand of tire with a LT E rated famous brand tire or the Kumho 857's. I have a new fifth wheel trailer ordered, and I'm not going to risk shodding it with **** tires.

The only good RV ST tire is a 16" G rated Goodyear tire that uses special wheels for 125 lbs. pressure--and it costs $399 each. That's ridiculous.

Good luck to you.

I agree.. whether the dealer replaces them or you replace, either way I wouldn't trust those tires.... I also see that those are "trail america" tires.... Those tires came on my trailer when I bought my benny and you can see the result for yourself below.... replaced both trailer tires and the spare the next week with kenda load star tires... so far so good....

And Trail America strikes again! I've only used them once, never again. I second Kenda load stars!