Trailer Tires

Pretty simple question: do you use trailer specific tires, car tires, or truck tires on your trailer?

Which ones do you use and why? I have a tire I'd like to replace before I go on a 5500km roadtrip this weekend but I refuse to pay the gajillions of dollars the local places want for one. I usually order them online for way cheaper.

Been using used car tires for 30 years without a single problem. You can get them for pennies on the dollar compared to trailer tires.

i usually run the best treaded used truck tires i can find. especially if i can find a MT or an AT. those usually have a few extra layers and last forever on a trailer.

trailer specific tires seem to lose caps, crack, leak, and get flat spotted WAY to easy in my experience.

-J0N

I used to have used truck tires and those worked fine for me, although since they were always older tires I was constantly losing air.

A couple years back, right before the trip to the $2011 Challenge, I think, I put on a set of trailer tires that I got from easternmarine.com. They were under $60/tire and bias ply instead of radial. Other than having to use a strap around the tread of the tire to get the bead to set when I was mounting them and then not having to really put air in them more than a couple times over the last 3 years/10-15k miles, I have noticed exactly zero difference. I put them on because I figured since I knew I'd have a couple 1000+ miles trips, I thought I should have the "right" tire for the job and the price for an ST tire wasn't much different than any other new tire.

In your situation, though, I'm not sure that I'd pay more to put an ST instead of an LT on the trailer.

From what I've heard, if you can fit em, run LTs.

If you run close to the tires load capacity I'd go with trailer tires.

I've had both car tires and trailer tires on a single axle boat trailer that was used for a 3500 pound boat. Trailer tires had significantly less sway than car tires, as a result the trailer tracked much better.

trailer tires typically have more sidewall plies and strength than car tires. They are meant to bear weight with no thought of comfort. LTs are somewhere in between the two. The extra side plies help with sway as jstand mentioned and on multi-axle trailers they resist the crazy sideways forces you get in sharp turns. If you load heavy, stick with trailer tires. If you are running a lighter single axle trailer, save your money and throw on used LTs.

I paid $46 a piece for the trailer tires from Wal-Mart. They were cheaper than any car tire I could find in the same size.

Locally, radial trailer tires are the least expensive option. Heck, our local tractor supply has tires already mounted to rims, which are surprising reasonable in price.

I still use those inferior Wilderness firestones that were recalled over 15 years ago.....probably why my car trailer pulls so nicely.

Well, it seems to be based on evidence provided here ( ) that anything black, round, and holds air will do haha.

I actually found a place that sells ST load range D 205/75R15's locally for $100 (load range D 205/75R15 are fairly rare as the weight rating is overkill for the size of trailer that small of a tire would go on). That is a steal in my neck of the woods!

From personal experience towing, I've always found the higher load range tires to last longer/not explode, but I don't really have any scientific proof this is a thing versus random unknown crap happening to said tires. So in short, I'm going to stick with the 8 ply radial ST tires for now. I could cheap out with a car tire of some sort, but really, we're talking a difference of $50 if I am lucky, and I HATE flat trailer tires

I run the least expensive ST (trailer designation) tire in the proper size and load range. Generally it's a hercules, and I pay about 50-60 bucks a tire. I once bought the Marathons everyone says are the best and they didnt last any longer.

Trailer tires live a hard life, especially on a trailer that is only used sparingly, they are drug around corners, they dont have any dampening so they bounce all over the place, bearings go bad and lead to a premature death, and if it sits they get low and get driven on causing overloading issues. A trailer tire does not live a good life, hence the cheapest CORRECT tire.

I do not run P tires or car tires on my trailers.

If I had a 16" trailer wheel and room to fit them I would run a decent LT235/85/16. If you're gonna run cheap E36 M3 and you dont use the trailer often, then get the St235/80/16 or the cheapest LT235/85/16, but if you use it a lot or rely on it for work a good LT tire can make a difference.

My trailer came with a mix-match of radial and bias tires (on separate axles) from several brands. One was flatspotted pretty good too. Trailer still towed fine on some long trips, but when empty it was clear that the tire(s) were out of balance, out of round, or flatspotted as the trailer got a lot of vibration.

I eventually got a full set of Goodyear Marathons a few months ago since they were on sale at Tire Rack for $80/each in the 15" size. Trailer still tows well, but no more vibration. ST tires are pretty cheap no matter what you get, so I just go with them since we're usually loaded up fairly moderately (~5000lbs total weight) for race days. Never had any/any problems with sway or trailer not tracking well. We run about 400lbs of tongue weight (my estimate).

Good info here - following

I have a miss-match pair of tires on my open trailer. A set of 215/70X14 LT tires and a pair of 215/70X14 Trailer tires. They are weight rated at nearly the same load with the trailer tires being a bit higher rated but also at a higher air pressure (50 psi vrs 35 psi). I run all of them at the same 35 psi. I have no issues with either set.

i toss the tires off my truck on when i replace the truck ones, as they have the same bolt pattern.

nothing has lasted longer or pulled better than a/t pickup truck tires. i bought brand new bias ply trailer tires and they were crap. lost one bubbled one, broke a belt in another.

my trailer weighs 2200# and i had 5800# on it last week, it pulled great. with plain old 235/75/15 pickup truck tires.

My trailer has a set of the cheapest ST-rated trailer tires they had at Belle Tire. They don't cost that much more than passenger car tires, and they are made for this purpose. I figure it's cheap insurance.

Also, since mine doesn't get used all that much, I have some vinyl covers that I keep over the wheels. I figure UV will kill them before I wear them out, so I try to keep the sun off them as much as I can.

One other thing to think about. Here in Virginia larger trailers require an annual safety inspection. I haven't had to get one on mine yet (my old trailer was below the weight threshold for inspections), but you may want to look into whether that kind of inspection would have a problem with passenger car/LT tires on a trailer and/or bias/radial mis-match tires on it.

I don't know the answer, but could be worth looking into if you go with non-ST tires and your state has similar inspections.

LTs are certified for trailer use, I think you have to derate them somewhat from a legal standpoint, but they're legal. I do not believe passenger car tires are legal for use on trailers.

Trailer tires here. Most of the time I buy on the rims cause its cheaper then off the rim and mounting. I'll buy 5 maxxis for the toy hauler next spring as they have the best rep of all trailer tires except the Michelin LT in 16inch but I can't fit the 16's on my axles. http://www.maxxis.com/catalog/tire-122-129-st-radial-m8008