Who's had a flat tire on their boat trailer

[Boarder]

I wouldn't go that far (I don't think so on the Extremes, but I'm not an expert on that), but if the entire axle is off by a little bit then it can cause tire problems. An extreme example was a trailer that we had years ago (not a boat trailer). This was a tandem on which one of the axles was off by a bit, enough that if you pulled the trailer more than a few miles it would pull the rubber right off of its wheel on the driver's side of that axle. Every time, without fail. Thank goodness it was a tandem. As soon as we took it in to get that axle straightened up, no problems.

I would think that if my axle was out of wack I would have seen tire wear. I noticed no unusual tire wear. I will have the guys check it out when they change the tires over

[WakeGirl]

I honestly don't know. I'm thinking that in theory it may be possible that it was out just enough to heat the tire enough to shorten its life by that much without showing uneven wear. If a trailer axle doesn't have toe & camber, then maybe when it's out like that it would scrub the tire evenly across the tread & thus not show up as uneven wear. Or maybe not, maybe it's just coincidence. Still, since you're dropping all the coin on new tires, I would check it to be sure.

[MalibuTime]

This year while running to Parker and Havasu I blew three tires in five trips. The tires were from 2004 so I guess it was time. The boat is stored in the garage and there were no cracks or dry rot but they just started self-destructing. I'll never go that long on trailer tires again. The heat and high speeds kill tires, Discount Tires told me that three years is the max for trailer tires. I lucked out two times but the last one killed the fender.

You can get "new" tires that aren't really all that new. You can check the DOT numbers and find out how old those tires really were (if you still have the last one kicking around)

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11

[Swampy]

I'm struggling with this issue right now. Last time out, I had my first blowout on the boat. I was pulling a different rig, but fortunately, my wive who was pulling the boat noticed it soon enough to get it off the road before the tire completely disintegrated and we saved the wheel and fender.

After inspecting the tire, it was obvious that the tire had been punctured by something in the road, went flat very quickly and then started to come apart. So it wasn't a "tire coming apart" kind of blowout. However, as I researched this tire thing a bit, I realized that these are the original tires on the trailer. The date stamp says 2001 making them 8 years old.

The rest of the tires (and the matching spare) are Goodyear Marathons and look great with no cracking or visible signs of wear. In fact, we just made a trip to Lake Powell this summer with no tire problems. However, from everything I've read, I've been lucky so far and it would be a good idea to go ahead and replace all of the tires at this point. Call me cheap, but I'm struggling with spending over $400 on a set of tires that look perfectly good. But at the same time, I think I'd rather spend the money now than have to fix a damaged fender and/or replace a wheel later on.

[Ndawg12]

This year while running to Parker and Havasu I blew three tires in five trips. The tires were from 2004 so I guess it was time. The boat is stored in the garage and there were no cracks or dry rot but they just started self-destructing. I'll never go that long on trailer tires again. The heat and high speeds kill tires, Discount Tires told me that three years is the max for trailer tires. I lucked out two times but the last one killed the fender.

You can get "new" tires that aren't really all that new. You can check the DOT numbers and find out how old those tires really were (if you still have the last one kicking around)

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11

That's super cool information, I'm bookmarking that!!

[mcc]

I had a blowout at night a few years ago. We were coming home from the lake when we must have hit something and blew out a back tire on a tandum axle. We were pulling with a diesel pickup and didn't hear it. We must have driven the whole way home like that becasue the fender was bent to HE!! and all that was left of the tire were the side walls. We were very lucky it didn't ruin the wheel or anything else.

Edited August 12, 2009 by mcc

[Boarder]

This year while running to Parker and Havasu I blew three tires in five trips. The tires were from 2004 so I guess it was time. The boat is stored in the garage and there were no cracks or dry rot but they just started self-destructing. I'll never go that long on trailer tires again. The heat and high speeds kill tires, Discount Tires told me that three years is the max for trailer tires. I lucked out two times but the last one killed the fender.

You can get "new" tires that aren't really all that new. You can check the DOT numbers and find out how old those tires really were (if you still have the last one kicking around)

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11

I do have the ones that didn't blow so I'll go out to the shop and see..thx

[Boarder]

I had a blowout at night a few years ago. We were coming home from the lake when we must have hit something and blew out a back tire on a tandum axle. We were pulling with a diesel pickup and didn't hear it. We must have driven the whole way home like that becasue the fender was bent to HE!! and all that was left of the tire were the side walls. We were very lucky it didn't ruin the wheel or anything else.

Thats exactly what happened to me.. Made me feel like a dumb a@# driving with a tire like that and not even realizing.

[Boarder]

I had a blowout at night a few years ago. We were coming home from the lake when we must have hit something and blew out a back tire on a tandum axle. We were pulling with a diesel pickup and didn't hear it. We must have driven the whole way home like that becasue the fender was bent to HE!! and all that was left of the tire were the side walls. We were very lucky it didn't ruin the wheel or anything else.

OK, the 3 original tires that I still have left on the trailer were made the 43 week of 2004. My trailers a 2005. The tire that blew was the one I had already replaced after the first one. I bought it Aug 2005 from American Tire. That tire was made the 32 week of 2003.. What a crock, selling me a tire thats been sitting around for 2 years. That will never happen again.