Boat trailer tires/rims

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oilboy123

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Dec 5, 2003
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Boat trailer will have contact with salt water. I have a 2 ply B78 13 tire with 1150lb load range B. The rim shows 13x4.5" 4.5" bolt pattern. The center hole is 2.75" will this work for me? What is the best for for corrosion? (1)Galvanized, (2)Chrome (3)painted? Boat is about 875 lbs with 210 lbs for the outboard maybe 1150 or 1200 lbs range.

ST175/80D-13" Tire & Painted Rim
ST175/80D-13" Tire & Painted Rim
TRAILER TIRE & WHEEL ASSEMBLY
STOCK #: 1350084
Load Range: B (4-ply)
Max. Capacity: 1100 lbs. each
Overall Diameter: 24.0"
Maximum PSI: 35 lbs.
Rim Finish: Painted White, Spoke Pattern
5 Lug on 4.5" Bolt Circle, 3-1/8" Center Hole
K550 series LOADSTAR brand tire

Price: $74.95
Quantity :
ST175/80D-13" Tire & Galv. Rim
ST175/80D-13" Tire & Galv. Rim
TRAILER TIRE & WHEEL ASSEMBLY
STOCK #: 1350086
Load Range: B (4-ply)
Max. Capacity: 1100 lbs. each
Overall Diameter: 24.0"
Maximum PSI: 35 lbs.
Rim Finish: Galvanized, Spoke Pattern
5 Lug on 4.5" Bolt Circle, 3-1/8" Center Hole
K550 series LOADSTAR brand tire

Price: $77.95

Thanks for any tips? Pat
 
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Forgot to mention my rims are 5 bolt.

$ 216 shipped seems like a decent price for these correct? Thanks Pat


ST175/80D-13" Tire & Galv. Rim

Load Range: B (4-ply)
Max. Capacity: 1100 lbs. each
Overall Diameter: 24.0"
Maximum PSI: 35 lbs.
Rim Finish: Galvanized, Spoke Pattern, 3-1/8" Center Hole
Lug Pattern: 5 Lug on 4.5" Bolt Circle

All purpose tread K550 series 'LOADSTAR' brand trailer tire.
Nylon bias ply trailer tires are constructed for better durability and bruise resistance under heavy loads.
 
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You want a galvanized rim for salt water use.

Unless you're going to pulling the trailer some serious miles, or in extreme heat, the "Loadstar" tires will do everything that you need them to do.

Keep them properly inflated, of course. Most trailer tire failures likely fall into three reasons...

1) Underinflation
2) Overloading
3) But they had plenty of tread left on them*


(*but they were 20 years old and weather-cracked everywhere)
 
A "B78" matches up to a P175, so you're good there.

If you have any hesitation with the LoadStar tire, then spend a few extra bucks each and upgrade to the Carlisle USA Trail tire.

I've run a set of the Carlisle USA Trail tires on a heavy older Yellowstone camper. They were a very robust tire.

I'm a little concerned in the difference in the center hole dimension on the rims. Are you telling us that the center hole diameter on the rims you're using now is 2.75"?

If so, that may be something that is from a car, and is not a dedicated trailer wheel.

My trailer has 13" wheels on it that came off of a Buick Skyhawk. I know that because I went to the junkyard and bought them myself.
 
I believe they are original rims. They are galvanized, but the rim near the holes in some areas is starting to Delaminate.

These have Carlise tires, but are C rated. Is the C rating OK, or will it affect things in a negative way?

0318

ST17580D13

1315#

5 ON 4.5

25"

C

38#

$89.95
 
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I was told using these C rated are OK for replacing my B rated tires. Is this Correct?
Galvanized rim with C rated Carlisle tires for $240 shipped. That seems pretty reasonable I think. The EZ loader website wants about $138 each plus shipping. They have Goodyear marathon tires.

another site: How much better are Goodyear than Carlisle? I won't be normally trailering too for as a rule. Every once in awhile I might drive 90 miles round trip.

GOODYEAR MARATHON®
ST175/80R-13" RADIAL Tire/Rim, Galv.

Load Range: C (6-ply)
Max. Capacity: 1360 lbs. each
Overall Diameter: 24.0"
Maximum PSI: 50 lbs.
Rim Finish: Galvanized, Spoke Pattern, 3-1/8" Center Hole
Lug Pattern: 5 Lug on 4.5" Bolt Circle

GOODYEAR MARATHON® Series Trailer Tire.
Specifically designed to make trailer towing easier, more stable and more economical.
 
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Galvanized rims for salt water, of course! Then rinse them off after use and they will last a long time.

Tires: The Goodyear marathons are radials, they should have much lower rolling resistance and run also run cooler.

At the weight you are pulling, also consider any good car tire.
Our show team pulls 9 trailers 4 days a week and sometimes long distances on the weekends - and have had a lot of blowouts! The Marathons seem the best...
Most bias ply tires eventually delaminate and throw the treads on our trailers - probably from the higher temperatures.
There are many odd brands of tires sold for trailers, many are poor - Nanco from Taiwan may be the worst. We put 4 on a tandem trailer that had worn out the original tires - without incident - but all four Nancos blew out within a year. Tires Plus replaced the first two --- they blew also. Titan brand trailer tires have given us four blowouts - but at least on two different trailers....

We filled out all the relevant NHTSA and DOT forms online, subsequently we were informed by the DOT that testing for trailer tires was much less comprehensive then for car tires.
There are large trailer tires with very high load ratings, but in the smaller load ratings..... I would buy car tires.
We have MUCH better luck with those. In fact their failure rate has been 10X better, only one failure - and it did not blow, just started to get tread separation at the end of its life.
 
Everything I have ever read says that auto tires are a big No no? I took apart the trailer bearings that were held on by chicken wire for the cotter pin. They were so loose the seal was worn down to the metal with no rubber.
I trailer tires are separating, and I think they are original 1985s. I might just order some online.....
 
Second vote for NOT using passenger car tires in place of ST tires.

Passenger car tires may be designed and manufacturred to higher standards, but those standards are different than for trailer tires. Typically trailer tires carry more load than passenger car tires - albeit at higher inflation pressures - and the tires are made to accommodate both the higher load and the higher pressure.

Not only is the Load Range C OK in place of the Load Range B, I would encourage you to do so - and use the higher presure ( = more load carrying capacity) I think most of the problems folks have with trailer tires is that trailer manufacturers tend to undersize the tires - plus the age of the tires and not enough pressure.
 
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CapriRacer, read my post again!! I approve of of trailer tires with high pressure ratings from major manufacturers but...

You say that most trailer tire failures are due to old age, underinflation and overloading, even though I specifically mentioned tire brands that failed when brand new. Now, when 3 Nancos or two Titans blow out on one 600 mile trip (different trailers) and you are laying along the road changing tires... the Carlisle brand generally fails about half worn out, at least we got 2 or three years from them...
sometimes in the ditch, sometimes on the interstate, one in a parking lot (yes, blew while stopped).

You can bet that we check all inflation pressures constantly and recheck tire temps with an infrared gun at every stop.
All the above trailers have run for years and years with car tires from major manufacturers without incident.

Your statement "car tires may be designed and built to a higher standard" seems true in our experience - and our DOT contact certainly confirmed it. If a tandem axle trailer can run car tires for years and years until bald, then blow 6 "trailer tires" within a years time....
Maybe if you laid along the road changing tires as often as I have you would have less confidence that stamping "trailer tire" onto the sidewall somehow improves the tire.

Let me say it again: A modern, high pressure radial trailer tire from a major manufacturer, or a car tire. The Marathons have performed well for us.

The Florida Boating Forum has covered this topic over and over again, I doubt many serious boat users would disagree.
 
fsskier,

I am confused by your post.

On the one side, you say that you have had bad luck with trailer tires of certain brands. Then you say you have used car tires with good luck.

Did you use the same pressure with the car tires as with the trailer tires? If so, what sizes and pressures are we dealing with?

The reason I am asking is that there are ST tires that are rated for 80 psi - and I would not recommend anyone inflate a car tire to 80 psi. Hence my concern about a blanket all encompassing statement. I think this takes more detail to flesh this out - and my comments were more about this specific case - a 13" tire on a boat trailer.
 
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No, I was careful to not compare apples to oranges.

Example: 50 psi Titans blowing out or separating, 6 total, I think 205/75/R14. Pressure was kept at 50 psi and they were running below their rated limit. Since so many of these exploded on road trips, they were often replaced with "whatever" (our spares were often questionable, we have limited funds!) along the way, Kelly Explorers, Goodyear Integrity's of the same size, any port in a storm. These "car tires" were blown to their limit - or a little above, probably 40 PSI or more - we also have some T rated 44 psi tires in the mix. Little by little we noticed that
car tires seemed to have a much lower - almost nonexistent blowout rate. A quick count is something like this:

Blowouts:
Nanco: 8 out of 9
Titan 4 out of 8, 3 more had tread separations
Carlisle: 1 blew, 2 more separated, out of 4.
Deko: Not sure of the count, but bad.

"Car Tires" None have blown, one separated at high miles and got the shakes, out of about 30 tires. All on the same trailers as above. Used and worn out Michelins from tire stores scrap pile out back are extremely reliable even when bald!!! Never underestimate our desperation to return home from a 400 mile away road show on Sunday Afternoon, when Dekos, Carlisle, Titans and Nancos are popping like popcorn.
We do 25 shows a summer, we have many other fish to fry besides driving from store to store on a Sunday!


Our heaviest trailers use Goodyear Marathons - 80 lb psi tires - they have held up ok, a couple have separated at high mileage. The Kelly "looks like a Marathon' seem to be ok also. My Triple rig (20 ft Dyne, triple 150 hp Evinrudes, just over 5,000 lbs) rolling on "Ultra Trail Trail CRT"s
50 psi tires, 1760 lbs each has also now reached 3 years without a blowout but that is a pretty small sample.



With 9 trailers (actually about 12 as we often use members equipment) I believe this is more than "anecdotal" evidence.
Discussion groups on boat forums seem to agree also.

Now, if anyone wishes to increase his mechanical skills by changing lots of tires under dangerous and difficult circumstances then he is welcome to repeat our experience!!!

CapriRacer, remember when DOT started testing tires, and how some brands had nearly 100 percent blowout rate when ran at speed and their maximum load ratings?? And, Michelins had a 0 blowout rate??? I bet you can find that information - and the tremendous improvements in "car tires" as a result of DOT publishing those studies. Trailer tires need a similar expose in my opinion!!

CapriRacer, I respect your knowledge, I am surprised that you are not hot on top of issues like this! You never seem to pursue the issue of defective tires, and blame it on "old, under inflated abused tires, used by careless people"!

Yes, I do appreciate your input to this forum!!
But the original question was about a lightly loaded boat and tires that we have seen lots of failures with.

fsskier
 
One last set of Titan trailer 13 inch radials blew this summer, on a light pickup boat that we use. These were 50 lb tires that were kept to their maximum. The "car tires" on that trailer previously were probably 15 years old and bald but still working well, sadly we put Titans on it!

The other 8 to 10 trailers ran all summer without incident, as we are no longer using ANY of the trailer tires that I listed above as questionable - we still use lots of Marathons.

OK, I have to tell one funny story. I stopped for dinner coming home from a road trip, pulling a tandem trailer with Carlisles on it. The small town I was in had maybe a dozen teenagers that surrounded the overpowered and cool looking boat that I was towing. A steady "pop, pop, pop" sound was coming from one tire - I looked at it, and it seemed ok except for a "volcano" growing right in the middle of the tread. I felt the tire, it was ok except for the bad spot was very, very hot. Probably had delaminated and was scrubbing internally, becoming very hot - and I shortly learned it had manufactured a huge amount of rubber dust in the failed area. The mound countined to grow, then "kerwham" the tire blew and surrounded everyone with a huge cloud of smoke and dust. The teenagers screamed so loud you could hear it for blocks, a nearby shop called the fire dept and several trucks arrived, although there was nothing for them to do!

Entertaining yes, but this was the seventh event on that trailer before we replaced all the tires on that trailer with "car tires"
and we have had not failure now in the last 5 years.
 
Very interesting info guys, especially fsskier. What about the fact they say that car tires on trailers can cause dangerous instability?

They also mention that trailer tire sidewalls are meant to be more "springy" than car tires and that is required. I ordered the galvanized rims and Marathon tires with load range C as opposed to B that I had.


fsskier can you let me know some decent boating forums without taking too much of your time?

Good discussions guys...........
 
What source are you quoting with the "dangerous instability" or the sidewall springiness??

Trailer stability is a complex topic - one that can generate unfounded facts to those that tow very little. A few things..

Tires at higher pressure usually swing around less and are more stable. We keep our tires at the maximum sidewall pressure. Passenger car tires have very high handling standards - much lower slip angles than the bias ply tires in your first comment.
This can greatly reduce "tail wag"

More tongue weight may help or make things much worse. Our Twin rig (20 feet long, twin 225 hp Evinrudes, single axle)
tail wags behind a Yukon and an Explorer, but is very stable behind a minivan. Reducing the tongue weight on this boat greatly increased the stability, indeed the minvan owner claims he could run a slalom course with it behind him!!
(This boat is on Marathons)

Our Triple rig - 20 feet, triple 150 hp, 5,000 lbs, tandem axle is very stable behind my Sienna, but a little waggy behind an Excursion above 60 mph. It has great brakes, so I generally tow with the Sienna when going long distances
pics of this boat and a 30 person pyramid behind it at
www.5sst.com

We pull 2 different 2,000 lb pickup boats, 18 foot with 75 hp
and 16 foot with 140 hp, both on car tires - 185/75R14, these are absolutely the best handling boat trailers on the team. Since we are sometimes squeezed for tow vehicles ( we may tow 11 trailers to a show 300 miles away) these boats are often towed by small passenger cars, Subaru's, Lumina's and even Ford Escort. Everyone is always amazed at how these two trailers pull like nothing is back there!

Now, two trailers are hauling our starting docks. These can be wild---we do not attempt to tow with any vehicle that has been raised up - indeed a 2wd pickup with a lower center of gravity is the only safe tow vehicle.

You will be very happy with your Goodyear Marathon radials. I would only have recommended "car tires" as being superior to the bias ply trailer tires you were considering.

Incidentally, in the early days of radial tires, everyone "heard" that you could not put radials on a trailer, the sidewalls were all wrong, etc.... Then, the Airstream clubs all discovered Michelins (car tires at that time) and widely spread the word - do not tow with anything else...
Then, Radials caught on, without having got any better or worse!

http://forums.floridasportsman.com/forum/florida-sportsman-forums/boating

This site has a zillion forums going on every possible boat question - and it seems like some real experts!!

fsskier
 
Fsskier,

Thanks for the info - and while there is a lot of info, I hope you'll bear with me asking a few more questions. I can understand your frustration. You'd like a quick, cheap, and permanent fix, but in the big scheme of things, unless the source of the problem is identified, the starting parameters won't be fixed and the trailer tire manufacturers and trailer manufacturers won't change anything. Others will have to go what you went through - and that's what I would like to prevent.

Background: I have always attributed the amount of trailer tire failures to trailer manufacturers specifying tires that are too small. I am still convinced of that, and I'll tell you why.

ST type tires have a speed limitation of 65 mph, unless you make some changes in load and / or inflation pressure - and even then, the speed is limited to 85 mph.

So my obvious first question is: What speeds have you been doing?

Question #2: Have you weighed any of the trailers? Did you make sure they were weighed at the worst possible condition load-wise?

Question #3: I understand that even trailers have to have a tire placard, but have never verified that this is the case. Do the trailers in question have such a placard? Does the placard list the GAWR's? (Gross Axle Weight Rating) If so, what do the placards say for GAWR and tire size / inflation - and how does that compare to the actual weight you got from weighing the trailers?

And one last question: You've used the term "blowout" to describe the failures. Typically, tread separations do not result in loss of inflation pressure - only the tread (and top belt) comes off. Is that what happened? If not, what was the failure mode? This is important, because the failure mode determines where the source of the problem is - and some failures can be attributed to road debris.

OK, and one more last question: You've talked about a forum where this has all been discussed. Could you provide a link?
 
My source is that I have read it numerous times......Whether true or false, I don't know.......

Sounds like trailer tires and related stuff is shrouded in mystery.....
 
Originally Posted By: oilboy123
My source is that I have read it numerous times......Whether true or false, I don't know.......

Sounds like trailer tires and related stuff is shrouded in mystery.....


It's just tires in general. There are a lot of myths and misinformation. Plus, everyone has a tire story. When I get on an airplane, if I tell the guy next to me what I do, I can guarantee I'll hear his "tire story".

It's just the nature of the beast!
 
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