After hauling my motorcycle home on my trailer last night, I noticed both rear turn signals were gone, and only the stalks with a couple wires hanging out remained. I can say with certainty the poor condition of the highways I travel on are the culprits. I-65 between Chicago and Indy has a few bad spots, but I-70 between Indy and Dayton just beats the living snot out of the trailer and consequently, the bike. That highway has a heavy flow of semis and they are very hard on the pavement.
Since this trailer has no suspension, I'm wondering about doing a couple of things to help with this problem. On the sidewall of these 8" tires, it says they can handle a load of 585 lbs (which works out to a max load of 1170 lbs for 2 tires) at a max pressure of 60 lbs. Since the bike and the trailer combined weigh roughly 920 lbs, that leaves me a little room to play with. I'd like to run the tires with a little less air pressure to soften the ride a bit, but how would I know how low I can go before 1) I exceed the weight limit of the tires and 2) the lower pressure is causing excessive wear on the tires. Is there some formula that can be used to determine how low I can safely go with the tire pressure?
The other thing I was thinking about doing is moving up to a 12" tire (they have the same 4" lug pattern as the 8 inchers). This size tire would probably handle the lousy road surfaces better than the 8 inchers. However, the problem with the larger diameter tires and wheels is by raising the height of the trailer axle by 2" (which is what going to 12" tires would do), it's going to transfer more weight to the trailer hitch. The hitch can handle the weight, but the tow vehicle is a Corolla, and it already sags quite a bit in the rear from the weight the trailer puts on it. I don't know if it can handle any more. How much more weight would raising the trailer axle by 2" put on the hitch?
Since this trailer has no suspension, I'm wondering about doing a couple of things to help with this problem. On the sidewall of these 8" tires, it says they can handle a load of 585 lbs (which works out to a max load of 1170 lbs for 2 tires) at a max pressure of 60 lbs. Since the bike and the trailer combined weigh roughly 920 lbs, that leaves me a little room to play with. I'd like to run the tires with a little less air pressure to soften the ride a bit, but how would I know how low I can go before 1) I exceed the weight limit of the tires and 2) the lower pressure is causing excessive wear on the tires. Is there some formula that can be used to determine how low I can safely go with the tire pressure?
The other thing I was thinking about doing is moving up to a 12" tire (they have the same 4" lug pattern as the 8 inchers). This size tire would probably handle the lousy road surfaces better than the 8 inchers. However, the problem with the larger diameter tires and wheels is by raising the height of the trailer axle by 2" (which is what going to 12" tires would do), it's going to transfer more weight to the trailer hitch. The hitch can handle the weight, but the tow vehicle is a Corolla, and it already sags quite a bit in the rear from the weight the trailer puts on it. I don't know if it can handle any more. How much more weight would raising the trailer axle by 2" put on the hitch?