Let's talk 14" trailer tires

[Krochus]

I have a 2013 20' g3 pontoon boat where the manufacturer specs the package weight right at 3000lbs new with no fuel and no stuff in the boat. I'm not even sure if this includes the 800lbs for the trailer.


Anyways

The trailer is a single axle bear on the cheapest 205/75-14" trailer tires known to man. These load range c 1750 lb max load tires are already done for wearing like absolute ass with probably not 300miles on them with a fraction of that being high speed towing. I attribute this to the fact that A- the tires are cheap ass Chinese junk and more worry some B- that the two are absolutely maxed out on the rated load.

My question is is there a load range D 14" radial tire for me to step up to and or are there any specific tires you'd recommend to better handle the load and or provide a better service life?

[NonHyphenAmerican]

Tooning experience I don't have much of.

Trailering experience on the other hand, I got LOTS of.

The first thing to check out on cheepchinese axles is "Are they aligned"?

Out of alignment trailer axles will wear tires out faster than an 80 year old woman at a break dancing party.

Any GOOD alignment shop can check that for you, but eyeball them with the boat on and you might get your answer.

I once had a tandem axle 6x12 cargo trailer that had 10,000 pound axles on it. There is NO WAY I was overloading them and yet it burned through 3 sets of cheap chinese axles and tires before the trailer company out of Corsicana Tx replaced them with real American Steel. Ended the problem.


We had pretty good luck with Hankook Trailer Tires. This one http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direc ... =14&cs=205

is in your stated size.

It'd make a good replacement tire.

Tell ya though, check the alignment first.

[LongLakeLegacy]

He said his trailer is only a single axle

[Krochus]

He said his trailer is only a single axle

Lol anything is possible with Chinese junk but you'd think a single axle trailer would be pretty much self aligning.

[Bamby]

Nope, the axle or a wheel spindle can still be bent putting the trailer out of alignment. Simply one curb shot could be all it would take.

[LongLakeLegacy]

I think they should all be double axles why max out one axle if your roads are like the ones here the axle and tires will go through hell lol

[Liquid Asset]

My single axle Hoosier came with load range e tires. I actually just bought new tires mounted on rims to replace the stock ones since they are showing their age. The trailer is only a 2010 but has a lot of miles on it.

[Bamaman]

Trailer tires are not auto/truck tires.

The Radial 857 is KUMHO's Euro-metric Commercial-sized special purpose tire designed for use on trailers. And three 14" sizes are available at TireRack.com.

These tires are simply in a class of their own for marine trailer use.

[NonHyphenAmerican]

He said his trailer is only a single axle

Noted. However, think on this. I was loading 5-6000 worth of cargo in a tandem axle trailer with 20,000 pounds of combined capacity and yet it chewed through three complete sets of tires in like 1500 miles.

Got good axles that would hold alignment and only had to replace tires every 60,000 miles or so.

Now take his single axle trailer and put the tires out of alignment due to a misaligned axle/spindles and load it to near capacity.

It chews his tires up lickety split, IF out of alignment is the issue.

If I were him, I'd get it checked at a reputable alignment shop.

KumHo tires are good trailer tires, so were the Hankooks we used.

But even the highest dollar, highest capacity tires will be toast in a heartbeat if the alignment is messed up, thus wasting whatever money is spent on new tires.

[LongLakeLegacy]

I dont think theres any adjustment on a solid trailer axle not the ones i have around my business anyway i know weve had alignments done on out b trains so they track straight

[Krochus]

There's really no aligning that can be done short of replacing the axle itself.

I will inspect everything but this said I doubt it's an out of alignment issue as these tires are BOTH both have worn the edge of the tread off on the inside and outside of the tire evenly and the center of the tread is bulging or crowning out and looking uncomfortably round. In other words these tires a simply garbage.

More worrysome the more I research is that ALL ST tires nowadays are Chinese made shit that are garenteed to blow out sooner or later with many people recommending LT or even P tires over any and all current ST offerings

I think my best bet is to raise the fenders slightly and step up to a short LT 15 of reputable origin and QC on a ford ranger aluminum wheel

[MH Hawker]

If its wearing on the outside of one tire and the inside of the other its out of alignment, its that simple.

[Krochus]

Please read again

It's wearing the INSIDE and OUTSIDE of BOTH tires evenly and leaving a raised bulged stripe of tread in the center.

Both tires are wearing identically

[VacationLand]

From the tread wear pattern it sounds to me like the tires were under-inflated (or possibly overloaded). Tires out of alignment usually have a "cupped" wear pattern on either the inside or outside, not both. I agree that load range C tires are not enough for the load. I have a similar setup, 22' boat at right around 3000 lbs on a single axle trailer but I have load range E tires on 14" wheels and have not had any problems. I think mine are Carlisle brand but I'd have to look to be sure. I know when I picked up my boat/trailer from the dealer I had to put air in both tires due to them being very low on air.

[NonHyphenAmerican]

Please read again

It's wearing the INSIDE and OUTSIDE of BOTH tires evenly and leaving a raised bulged stripe of tread in the center.

Both tires are wearing identically

I agree with vacation land on this and if you'd posted this in the first post, I'd have commented on low inflation/overloaded.

What you're describing with the wear pattern is classic 'under inflation'.

If they're at max cold pressure, then that tread wear indicates overloaded.

Around here, there are Co-Op scales available.

If I want to know what the boat, motor & trailer weighs, I can simply drive it on a scale and weigh it.

You might try doing that to check out your loaded weight.

And yeah, going up a size will work for the tires, but I suspect you also should check the weight capacity of the axle just to be on the safe side.

By the way, regarding axle alignment: Always have alignment checked with the trailer loaded as you'd normally trail it.

For example, with a boat trailer, it spends most of its time with the boat on it. Then have it aligned with the boat on it.

About 40 years ago, we used to chew up tires on our business vans. We carried heavy loads. We found if we aligned them while empty, it chewed the tires up one way, and if we aligned it loaded, it chewed them up the other way. So we started aligning the vans with a 'half' load in them as the vans were never always fully loaded or fully empty.
The Michelin XPS Heavy Rib tires we were running then started lasting us 90,000 to 120,000 miles per set. At $2k per set of 4, that was a substantial savings and greatly extended the tread wear. When I retired and sold off my rolling stock, one of the vans had 230,000 miles on it with 70,000 on the tires. The guy who bought it thought they were new until I handed him the Maintenance Log. I then pointed out that we'd had adjustable bushings put in and that the van was aligned for having a partial load and he should adjust accordingly for his use. You could have laid a t-square across the tires to measure the rubber they wore that evenly. The Michelin XPS Heavy Rib Tires were always inflated to the max cold pressure of 80psi. The trailer tires for the trailer we pulled behind one of the vans were always inflated the same way.