Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Purchased a Southbay pontoon last year with a tandem
Axle Baer trailer and the tires are already dry rotting
Is this normal ???? Trailer has 500 miles on it

no. Sold my 10 year old boat and trailer with the original tires on it. Never a problem.

ITs the sun! The mileage has nothing to do with it unless they are worn out.

Check the date code. Just cause they're new to you doesn't mean that they weren't sitting on a shelf for a few years before you got them.

It'll start with "DOT" and end with 4 digits. The first 1 or 2 are the week they were made and the last 2 are the year.

DOT XXX XXX2613 means the tire was made the 26th week of 2013.

My front 2 on my trailer did the same things in less than a year. Call the trailer manufacture and complain.. I did and have 4 new ones sitting in my garage right now.

Would I have better luck with the place I bought the boat ??
Rather than the trailer mfg
What's a good tire to replace these with??

Mine did the same thing. It was chalked up to a manufacturing defect (chinese tire syndrom) and were replaced with 2 new ones. They are still going strong to this day.

jwachevy wrote:Would I have better luck with the place I bought the boat ??
Rather than the trailer mfg
What's a good tire to replace these with??

It depends on the size of the tires. If they're 13", you'd best go with Maxxis M8008's. If 14", Maxxis or Kumho 857's. Avoid any Chinese built tire like the plague.

Another option would to use a high quality auto/truck tire and pump'em up to max air pressure. You'd have to check and see if their weight rating is equal to your boat & trailer weights, however.

As previous posts have said, check the codes on the tires. Tires are only supposed to last 7 years max, more if you keep them out of the sun. Any tire store can help you verify the codes. Go back to the dealer where boat was purchased and complain. Tires are about $100 plus to replace. You should consider having a spare too.

We have a 30' travel trailer and the same thing happened to us when we bought it. All 5 tires were replaced by the RV dealer. All we had to do was send in pics of the tires and find a way to get the tires on the rims ourselves. Your tires should be under some sort of warranty.

What is the brand of tire that you have problems with? I want to compare with ours to be on the safe side.

Another option would to use a high quality auto/truck tire and pump'em up to max air pressure. You'd have to check and see if their weight rating is equal to your boat & trailer weights, however.

I have never known anyone that has used auto/truck tires on a trailer and been happy. The sidewalls are not heavy enough and therefore do not handle well.

When my trailers sat outside (before the boat port and now the shed) I always covered my tires with vinyl tire covers. I got a bunch when I was the service manager at the Jeep dealership in town after they had a major spare tire recall a few years ago. They said to just slice them up and throw them away. Hell no! I could use them! A P-metric tire won't last 10 miles on a boat trailer You need at least a 6 ply side wall. My Hoosier had 8's and the old Clarks for my Baja's and the Heritage I have now, are all 10 plys.

Google "China bomb trailer tires" for hours of enlightenment.

Tim

Ok the tires are "Trail American "
Sent pix to dealer no word yet!!

That picture looks exactly like the one I posted almost a year ago. Same exact tire, rim, and damage. I'm sure that you'll get a set of new tires.

I passed the info learned here to my husband and he said our RV tires were not even a year old when he saw cracks like those in the pics.

I Googled China bomb tires and the info was old. Is there a list of tires to avoid? I also read online that RV tires should not go over 65 mph? We drive 70 here because that is the limit. Does it really make a difference?