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Trailer Tires?


jcon44

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Anyone bough new tires lately? I will most likely need some new rubber soon and wondering what size fits a 07 Boatmate trailer. I currently have 225/55 R16 that are 7 years old. They have tons of tread left, just tow once or twice a year and only a few miles at that but selling the boat soon and don't really want to sell it with old tires. Not seeing much in that size so curious what I could get to fit without new fenders.

Would reach out to Boatmate but it looks like they are closed like everyone else for now.  :( Thanks, 

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I'd sell it as-is.  Maybe the new owner wants different wheels.  Just tell them how old they are. 

Etrailer.com has a variety of tires; did you check their site? 

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Put whatever trailer tire brand your local tire shop has. Several calculators online that will allow you to play with sizes. I have a 2007 bm single axel trailer designed for an i ride i use for my vlx sunsetter. It has 225 75 15 tires. Sell with new rubber and out of town buyers won’t have to worry about issues trailering home after sale.

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My 03 boatmate came with Good Year Marathons. Finally going to replace them this year, if you want a review on the Marathons.

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11 minutes ago, electricjohn said:

My 03 boatmate came with Good Year Marathons. Finally going to replace them this year, if you want a review on the Marathons.

Mine are due for replacement so sure - a review would be great.  I am sure my local shop will slap whatver rand (like is what is on there now) on my single axle that sees maybe 150 kms/yr.  Maybe.

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Just an observation with my experience, when i bought my 01 a few years ago, it was 3 hrs away from me. I made sure the dealer put new tires on it and i speced load range E tires. They were just a generic brand but i ran 80 pounds of pressure always. Still only got 4 years out of them before a belt let go in both of them after a 6 hour round trip. 

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They had not given me any problems in 17 years.  Tires were used about 2000 miles annually and trailer sat in a car tent when not in use, so no sunlight. One thing that may have been in my favor was trailer (boatmate) was a tandem axle with only a 3000 lb boat on it.  I always overinflated tires when not use and rotated every two years. Plenty of treadlife left.

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I took the OEM junk tires off my Malibu the first year that the Endurance came out.  I tow a lot, and they have served me well.

I do agree with the other comment about just selling as-is though.  You certainly won't get the money you put into it out of the sale, and I doubt it would help you sell the boat any faster.

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  • 11 months later...

Dredging up one of the many tire threads. 

I have to buy a set of four for my flat trailer, but I keep reading up on these threads and I can't decide.  Light truck, expensive trailer (e.g. Goodyear), and el-cheapo all have decent reasoning behind their use.  The set I have on there now is bald, and I can't tell if it is from misalignment or just turning.  I have checked the alignment with a tape measure and it seems very close, so I suspect it is from turning and cheap rubber.  I use this trailer a lot, and sometimes it has a heavy load on it, so D or E rated tires are the best choice for me.  Tires are fully inflated to the pressure indicated on the sidewall.

I would hate to put expensive tires on it and then scrub them away, so please rate your current tires here if you don't mind.  I have WD/Velocity H188ST in 225-75-15 Load Range D on there now, and they might have maybe 6,000 to 8,000 miles and they are now fully bald.

I do understand that if they are bald and five years old, it may have been time for new tires anyway.  I'd rather get ten years out of them if I could.

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Whike Dad used to  say "Buy once - cry once", I have to admit I use cheap tires on my trailers. I guess if I  trailered every weekend I'd use decent ones, but I don't so I cheap out.  No issues so far.

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Still happy with my Endurance tires.  I'd estimate they have more than 20,000 miles on them now, tread still looks good.  I'll likely replace them next year due to age.  I won't run anything more than 5 years on my boat.  I've had too many tread separations to go any longer.

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11 hours ago, RyanB said:

Still happy with my Endurance tires.  I'd estimate they have more than 20,000 miles on them now, tread still looks good.  I'll likely replace them next year due to age.  I won't run anything more than 5 years on my boat.  I've had too many tread separations to go any longer.

Thanks.  I'm looking at pricing on Endurance.  I have another set of tires on the toy hauler that aren't going bald nearly as fast, so hopefully it is just these tires.  They were on the toy hauler first and I swapped them to the flat bed.  Both trailers seemed to scrub them away pretty quickly.

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On 4/21/2020 at 9:45 AM, jcon44 said:

Anyone bough new tires lately? I will most likely need some new rubber soon and wondering what size fits a 07 Boatmate trailer. I currently have 225/55 R16 that are 7 years old. They have tons of tread left, just tow once or twice a year and only a few miles at that but selling the boat soon and don't really want to sell it with old tires. Not seeing much in that size so curious what I could get to fit without new fenders.

Would reach out to Boatmate but it looks like they are closed like everyone else for now.  :( Thanks, 

When I sold my 454 Echelon the buyer made a 7 hour drive (one way) from Wisconsin, so I put new tires on it without him even asking.  If I had someone local looking at it, I never would have bothered.  I'd say put it up for sale and then have a conversation with the buyer before you go out and do that.  It's a good bargaining item too.

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9 hours ago, justgary said:

Thanks.  I'm looking at pricing on Endurance.  I have another set of tires on the toy hauler that aren't going bald nearly as fast, so hopefully it is just these tires.  They were on the toy hauler first and I swapped them to the flat bed.  Both trailers seemed to scrub them away pretty quickly.

GY Endurance is what I put on my trailer a couple years ago - so far so good.  Bought them at tire rack and mounted them myself - at around $120 a tire they are a decent deal.

The original (under rated) tires the factory put on my trailer were there for 7 years and starting to show a lot of wear from the scrubbing in and out of the driveway. I don't put a ton of miles on since the launch is about 5 miles away, but they get a ton of abuse making the right angle turn in and out of the driveway/launch every time they are used.

 

Edited by oldjeep
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OK, so I went and bought four Endurance tires today.  The new truck keeps a tally of miles on each trailer I set up, so I'll be able to report back with miles on these tires when the next guy asks.

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Tread depth isn't a good measure of trailer tires.  Most people never tow enough to wear down a set of tires before they otherwise rot.

 

I've adopted at 5 year replacement plan, tread life be dammed, if i'm towing any real distances.

 

Last time i hit the 6 year mark, i blew up 3 tires in in 2 days while trying to get it in for a full set.

Remember to run trailer tires at their specified sidewall pressure.   Normally 50ish.  

As long as they meet spec, yes, you get what you pay for, but i'd take new "cheap" tires over older "expensive" tires any day of the week.

 

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15 minutes ago, dhcomp said:

Tread depth isn't a good measure of trailer tires.  Most people never tow enough to wear down a set of tires before they otherwise rot.

 

I've adopted at 5 year replacement plan, tread life be dammed, if i'm towing any real distances.

 

Last time i hit the 6 year mark, i blew up 3 tires in in 2 days while trying to get it in for a full set.

Remember to run trailer tires at their specified sidewall pressure.   Normally 50ish.  

As long as they meet spec, yes, you get what you pay for, but i'd take new "cheap" tires over older "expensive" tires any day of the week.

 

Another thing to remember - if your sidewall pressure is 50 and you have anything bigger than a 19ft bayliner, your tires are likely overloaded.  The factory tends to stick C rated tires (typically 50PSI) on trailers where that is the hairy edge of the load limit.  Switching to D rated (typically 65PSI) (or E rated) where appropriate leads to a lot longer tire life.

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I'm running the full 80 PSI in the Endurance tires. 

I put 34 miles on them the other day with the tractor loaded.  We pulled a few Juniper trees out of the creek so we could saw them into lumber, then loaded the tractor back up.  About two miles into the trip home, I looked in the mirror and saw blue smoke coming from the trailer.  I pulled over and noticed that some little limbs and debris from moving the logs had lodged into the gap between the frame and the inner fender skirt, causing the skirt to rub the inner sidewall of the rear left tire.  I cleaned it out and beat the skirt away from the tire and continued home.  The sidewall on that tire doesn't look like the others any more.

As my friend casually observed, this kind of thing can only happen to brand new tires, never old worn out ones.  :blowup:

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5 hours ago, justgary said:

I'm running the full 80 PSI in the Endurance tires. 

I put 34 miles on them the other day with the tractor loaded.  We pulled a few Juniper trees out of the creek so we could saw them into lumber, then loaded the tractor back up.  About two miles into the trip home, I looked in the mirror and saw blue smoke coming from the trailer.  I pulled over and noticed that some little limbs and debris from moving the logs had lodged into the gap between the frame and the inner fender skirt, causing the skirt to rub the inner sidewall of the rear left tire.  I cleaned it out and beat the skirt away from the tire and continued home.  The sidewall on that tire doesn't look like the others any more.

As my friend casually observed, this kind of thing can only happen to brand new tires, never old worn out ones.  :blowup:

If it helps, I can demonstrate my empathy; Last month I bought a new F150 windshield on a Thursday and busted it on the following Tuesday. I do like my GY endurance tires better than my kumho whatever they were, which I liked a whole lot more than my Carlisle tires.

Edited by Bozboat
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1 hour ago, Bozboat said:

If it helps, I can demonstrate my empathy; Last month I bought a new F150 windshield on a Thursday and busted it on the following Tuesday. I do like my GY endurance tires better than my kumho whatever they were, which I liked a whole lot more than my Carlisle tires.

Not your month, I guess.  Did you cut your finger on the windshield?  You still haven't told us what you did....

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I can’t figure out where to put that response, probably the shop thread but it doesn’t fit the trailer tire thread, although one event a few emergency care/urgent care trips ago involved a trailer tire.

Edited by Bozboat
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1 hour ago, Bozboat said:

I can’t figure out where to put that response, probably the shop thread but it doesn’t fit the trailer tire thread, although one event a few emergency care/urgent care trips ago involved a trailer tire.

We do need a kitchen thread....

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