Tire talk (long)

[abbear]

One of the things I do as I get ready for a new season is to look at all the running gear on the trailer and be sure it is in good shape and functioning properly.  This spring I had planned on replacing tires (6 years old with about 20k miles on them) but after finding a small crack in the side wall of one I replaced them today before we go this weekend.

There are a couple of interesting things that I have learned about tires and wheels over this past winter that I thought I might share.  Some of this may be covered on Tim5055's site (http://www.title-3.com/), but some I know is not.

First off - pop up tires need to be rotated just like car tires.  If not they will develop a "feathering" wear pattern on the outside tread.  I originally thought this was due to the tires not being balanced.  If you rotate your tires on a regular basis (for almost all of us once a year would be fine) this tread wear pattern will be nonexistent.  If you wait too long and it becomes very pronounced before rotating the feathering will wear down very quickly and tire wear will be accelerated.

The difference between wear caused by not rotating and out of balance tires has to do with the wear pattern.  As stated before, not rotating will result in abnormal wear on the two outside tread bands - the individual tread blocks feathering or developing a sloping wear pattern from front to rear.  Tires with a balance problem will develop abnormal wear across all tread bands.  

There is another problem I encountered in replacing these tires.  My Westlake takes C78-13(185/80D13) tires.  In order to support the weight of my trailer they need to be inflated to 65PSI(1660 lbs per tire).  However, my trailer came from Fleetwood with wheels stamped MAX PSI 50 LBS.  Yep, I exceeded the psi capacity of the wheels to get the tire to its proper inflation.  Was I wrong to do this? Maybe. But I felt that the danger of catastrophic tire failure due to underinflation was much greater.   But I fixed that with the new tires today - I replaced those wheels with new wheels that have no such limitation.  I feel much better.  Could I have hassled Fleetwood over this? Yeah, But I got new wheels for $25 each and my hassle factor was zero.  Something that bothers me is that I couldn't be the only one whose trailer came from the factory that way.  Please check your wheels!

Finally, I want to commend Duro tire in Ohio.  I called them up and told them I need someone in the San Francisco bay area and they referred me to East Bay Tire in Fairfield, CA.  Steve at East Bay was extremely knowledgeable and helpful.  They are the west coast distributor for Duro as well as several other brands.  If you are having trouble finding duro tires in the west I would give East Bay a call at 800-831-8473 and they can probably direct you to a local retailer.  If you want to buy tires from East Bay the number is 800-422-4774.

Now that we have our tires squared away how long has it been since you greased your bearings?

[AustinBoston]

Now that we have our tires squared away

Uh, I'll take my tires well rounded, thank you.  Squared tires don't run very smoothly.

Austin

[Camping Coxes]

A friend just took their first trip of the season in their hybrid double axle trailer.  In getting ready, the DH said he'd have to replace the tires when they get back.  Of course, during the trip they had blow outs on two of the four tires, one of which tore out the plumbing and cabinetry of the bathroom!  So we're replacing our tires before our vacation since our trailer is the same year as theirs and probably have the original tires on them.

[Steve-o-bud]

One of the things I do as I get ready for a new season is to look at all the running gear on the trailer and be sure it is in good shape and functioning properly.  This spring I had planned on replacing tires (6 years old with about 20k miles on them) but after finding a small crack in the side wall of one I replaced them today before we go this weekend.

There are a couple of interesting things that I have learned about tires and wheels over this past winter that I thought I might share.  Some of this may be covered on Tim5055's site (http://www.title-3.com/), but some I know is not.

First off - pop up tires need to be rotated just like car tires.  If not they will develop a "feathering" wear pattern on the outside tread.  I originally thought this was due to the tires not being balanced.  If you rotate your tires on a regular basis (for almost all of us once a year would be fine) this tread wear pattern will be nonexistent.  If you wait too long and it becomes very pronounced before rotating the feathering will wear down very quickly and tire wear will be accelerated.

The difference between wear caused by not rotating and out of balance tires has to do with the wear pattern.  As stated before, not rotating will result in abnormal wear on the two outside tread bands - the individual tread blocks feathering or developing a sloping wear pattern from front to rear.  Tires with a balance problem will develop abnormal wear across all tread bands.  

There is another problem I encountered in replacing these tires.  My Westlake takes C78-13(185/80D13) tires.  In order to support the weight of my trailer they need to be inflated to 65PSI(1660 lbs per tire).  However, my trailer came from Fleetwood with wheels stamped MAX PSI 50 LBS.  Yep, I exceeded the psi capacity of the wheels to get the tire to its proper inflation.  Was I wrong to do this? Maybe. But I felt that the danger of catastrophic tire failure due to underinflation was much greater.   But I fixed that with the new tires today - I replaced those wheels with new wheels that have no such limitation.  I feel much better.  Could I have hassled Fleetwood over this? Yeah, But I got new wheels for $25 each and my hassle factor was zero.  Something that bothers me is that I couldn't be the only one whose trailer came from the factory that way.  Please check your wheels!

Finally, I want to commend Duro tire in Ohio.  I called them up and told them I need someone in the San Francisco bay area and they referred me to East Bay Tire in Fairfield, CA.  Steve at East Bay was extremely knowledgeable and helpful.  They are the west coast distributor for Duro as well as several other brands.  If you are having trouble finding duro tires in the west I would give East Bay a call at 800-831-8473 and they can probably direct you to a local retailer.  If you want to buy tires from East Bay the number is 800-422-4774.

Now that we have our tires squared away how long has it been since you greased your bearings?

Thanks for the info. If I may be so rude for asking, how much were the tires? I am planning to replace mine very soon.

Other question, I notice that the tires are rated for about 1600 lbs, just adequate for my 3200 pound trailer. I guess that if you subract the tongue weight (say, roughly 200 lbs) I would infer that my load would be about 1500 per tire.

On the newer Colemans, the weight is about 3,600 lbs, if I'm not mistaken. Since they have the same tires, does this mean that the weight is more front biased, making the tongure weight a bit heavier, and hopefully leaving a little margin for the tire load capacity?

I would love to somehow improve my load margin, with the same basic size tire. I just can't get over being at near 100% capacity of the tires. I figure that upgrading the wheel/tire size would cause complications such as maintaining adequate wheel well clearence, ride height, etc.





Thanks...

[abbear]

Thanks for the info. If I may be so rude for asking, how much were the tires? I am planning to replace mine very soon.

Other question, I notice that the tires are rated for about 1600 lbs, just adequate for my 3200 pound trailer. I guess that if you subract the tongue weight (say, roughly 200 lbs) I would infer that my load would be about 1500 per tire.

On the newer Colemans, the weight is about 3,600 lbs, if I'm not mistaken. Since they have the same tires, does this mean that the weight is more front biased, making the tongure weight a bit heavier, and hopefully leaving a little margin for the tire load capacity?

I would love to somehow improve my load margin, with the same basic size tire. I just can't get over being at near 100% capacity of the tires. I figure that upgrading the wheel/tire size would cause complications such as maintaining adequate wheel well clearence, ride height, etc.

Thanks...

I paid $45 for the tires.  If you do a search on the web you can find them for $39 + shipping.  Since East Bay is the western distributor for Duro I was told if I ever have a problem ANYWHERE to call them and they would probably be able to help - that was worth a lot to me.  Give them a call and see who they recommend in SoCal.

Your second point is correct.  Look in you owners manual or on the info plate on your trailer for gross axle weight.  That is the max amount for the axle to carry.  The tires should match up to this as well.  The remainder of the weight is carried by the hitch (tongue weight).  One of the things you'll hear a lot of the oldtimers talk about is weighing your rig.  Hook it up to the tow vehicle with both loaded like you are going camping.  Head to the truck scale and weigh both together at once (gross combined weight) then weigh each axle.  Then unhitch with only the tongue on the scale for tongue weight.  Its a hassle to do this but you are way ahead of the game if you do because now you really know what everything weighs and can make better decisions about what to do next.

There is a way to do what you want to do, but it involves (I believe) flipping the axle and adding a leaf to the spring.  This will also allow use of a larger tire. There are also warranty issues.  I know that Abdiver has done this - you might send him a message and ask him about it.  I know he posted the whole thing over on popup explorer a ways back.

Hope this helps!

[rsmith]

thanks for the tire info.

i went on the website wanting to ask this question:  how do you grease the ball-bearings on the camper?

i camped as a kid with our Starcraft PU and we never greased the ball-bearings but then again, my father never did much of any kind of maintenance.  We bought a very used '88 Sunlite sable last year and we want to pull it to our new house which is 1700 miles away in Indiana (i am from massachusetts) and we have never pulled it before.  I figure one of the least things i should do before the trip is grease the wheels.

any suggestions?

thanks

bob

[moderator1]

thanks for the tire info.

i went on the website wanting to ask this question:  how do you grease the ball-bearings on the camper?

i camped as a kid with our Starcraft PU and we never greased the ball-bearings but then again, my father never did much of any kind of maintenance.  We bought a very used '88 Sunlite sable last year and we want to pull it to our new house which is 1700 miles away in Indiana (i am from massachusetts) and we have never pulled it before.  I figure one of the least things i should do before the trip is grease the wheels.

any suggestions?

thanks

bob

Not knowing exactly what axle you have, I can't direct you to the exact maitenance sheet - but here is one that gives the general directions:

Dexter Hubs/Drums/Bearings for 600 - 8,000 lb axles

[abbear]

The Dexter link is an excellent wheel bearing reference.  With my owners manual came a booklet from Dexter that included instructions on how to proceed with this job.

You may also want to search the forums for 'wheel bearings'.  There have been many questions like yours asked in several of the forums.  Check out tim5055's website as well.

Good luck.

[Steve-o-bud]

Thanks for the info. If I may be so rude for asking, how much were the tires? I am planning to replace mine very soon.

Other question, I notice that the tires are rated for about 1600 lbs, just adequate for my 3200 pound trailer. I guess that if you subract the tongue weight (say, roughly 200 lbs) I would infer that my load would be about 1500 per tire.

On the newer Colemans, the weight is about 3,600 lbs, if I'm not mistaken. Since they have the same tires, does this mean that the weight is more front biased, making the tongure weight a bit heavier, and hopefully leaving a little margin for the tire load capacity?

I would love to somehow improve my load margin, with the same basic size tire. I just can't get over being at near 100% capacity of the tires. I figure that upgrading the wheel/tire size would cause complications such as maintaining adequate wheel well clearence, ride height, etc.



Thanks...

Well, I went ahead a got some tires. I did call East Bay Tire, and they refered me to their So Cal Warehouse, which is located in Garden Grove.

I gave them a call, and they had the tires for $43 each. They also charged me a 3% credit card fee, tax, and the California Tire Fee, so the whole deal was about $99 for the pair. Not bad, considering when I called around, the best price I would get on Carlisels, was about $75 ea, w/o all the tax and stuff.

Also, the East Bay Tire folks were quite freindly, and knew the load rating of the tires. I would recommend them.

It was amazing that when I called conventional tire places, their level of knowledge was pretty low . The guy at Discount Tire told me, "It's a little trailer. I'm sure these will do just fine." I said, "No thanks, I need to know the actual weight rating."

Anyway, thanks for the lead on East Bay Tires.

[chasd60]

thanks for the tire info.
 
i went on the website wanting to ask this question: how do you grease the ball-bearings on the camper?
 
i camped as a kid with our Starcraft PU and we never greased the ball-bearings but then again, my father never did much of any kind of maintenance. We bought a very used '88 Sunlite sable last year and we want to pull it to our new house which is 1700 miles away in Indiana (i am from massachusetts) and we have never pulled it before. I figure one of the least things i should do before the trip is grease the wheels.
 
any suggestions?
 
thanks
 
bob

Here is an article right from the archives of Popup Times magazine
http://www.popuptimes.com/archives/bearings.asp
 
And here is another with step by step directions
http://www.rverscorner.com/articles/bearing1.html