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A friend of mine recently bought a 1970's 13' whaler and on the 70 mile trip home, the trailer blew a tire on the Maine Turnpike. As we all know this is everyone's worst nightmare. It was a nightmare for him, even with my phone support. 

For the record, the tire tread and sidewalls looked in good shape but the tire age was unknown. The tire completely disintegrated. 

  This event got me thinking about my trailer tires. The tires are 2003 and have low miles. Visually the tires look fine and hold pressure. 

Given that they are 8 yrs old, hold the boat 99% of the time and are dunked in salt water, how do you really know when they need to be replaced?  

While I currently don't have a spare, given my friend's experience, I will be getting one. 

I am pretty happy with the brand (Load Star) so I don't need help there.

What is the consensus for when to replace the tires? How old is too old?

Would you buy just the tires and remount them (jacking/blocking the trailer) or get new rims to save the hassle and potential mounting issues?

 

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Your friend can check when the tires were built from markings on the sidewall. Tirerack.com has good info on trailer tires. I wonder if your friend had checked the tire pressure before he started? 55 lbs is about the minimum for a trailer tire and that is rated at 55 mph.

Trailer tires wear out in time, not miles.

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Great topic that's been discussed before on many other boating threads, glad to see it brought up on WC.

In your friends situation, even though his tires looked good and had low miles, they sat for long periods in one spot which is terrible for tires. I typically replace my tires every three years. Trailer tires are different than car tires and trailers should only have trailer tires on them.

A group of friends of mine and myself, went on a long road trip with our boats this past July 4th weekend. The guy in front of me had a blow out on his tandem trailer and was seriously pissed off about it because he just spent a ton of money refurbishing his trailer. Upon questioning him I found out that though he put new bearings, bunks, lights etc on his trailer, he neglected his tires because he felt they looked okay. Come to find out his trailer hasn't been used in 7 years and the tires were 11 years old. To top it off they were car tires. It only makes sense that the tire would blow out with a combination of 102F temps, and highway speeds of 65-70 mph. This is a good set of circumstances to create a blow out.

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On the RV forums I visit, its commonly stated trailer tires have an expected life span of 3-5 years with 5 years being the maximum.

I tend to replace them about every 5-6 years but because I visibly see deterioration such as drying and even cracking which is waiting too long. My trailers sit outside in the Florida sun all the time and its a rough environment on tires. I've never had one fail on the road but I am pretty good about making sure they are properly inflated. Under inflation is the most common cause of tire failure supposedly.

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I am in the same boat. Sorry, bad pun. But, I bought a trailer that sat for 20+ years. I bought new hubs but haven't replaced the tires yet. They look great - but I know I could end up like your friend easy enough. Sometimes, dry rot is not easy to see.

My trailer pulls a Sport 13 and has a single axel w/ 8" tires. So, they're easy and inexpensive to replace. My thinking is, what's a few $ to have peace of mind?

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Last year I had the unfortunate experience of a trailer tire disintegrating in the middle of nowhere without a working spare. I will never repeat that experience. Henceforth, I will always carry a spare, and will replace tires if they are eight years old, no matter how they look.

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Always a very good idea Phil, and a great thread topic too.

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I am in the process of buying a whaler from a member here on this forum. This subject has come up between us (buyer/seller). thanks for bringing this much overlooked subject to light.

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A trailer tire blow out is almost always a complete disaster! I will never know what came first but on my way from Maine to NY I had the misfortune. Tire blew or the leaf spring broke and by the time I got stopped the fender was torn right off the trailer and the tire and wheel were junk. It actually bent the axle and I ended up buying a new trailer after all the expense of towing and temporary repairs to get me home.

If you tow your boat any distance then it is imperative that you keep up on tires, bearings and springs. If your boat spends most of it's life sitting on the trailer then it is smart to have a system in place that gets the weight off the axle, wheels and tires and protects the rubber from the sun and ground.

The 5 year max is a good plan but you can stretch that if you take some precautionary measures. Always allow some time for your wheels and bearings to cool before dunking them after a long drive. If your lights are the old style bulbs then it's a good idea to unplug before you dunk. Also a good idea to check the lug nut size of your trailer wheels and have the correct wrench with you. It is probably not the same as your vehicle lug wrench.

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Great thread. Now i'm worried! I'm leaving in 2 weeks for smith my lake va, longest tow to date from NJ. Trailer was new last year, but sat as a 2007 leftover. I towed last year chincoteague from NJ without issue. Tires were low recently, pumped to 35lb, rated for 60 loaded but my compressor would not get them up that high. Should I add more to 60, are they still under inflated? They don't look it. Have a spare mounted on the trailer tongue.

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Yes, add more air to those tires. Just take the trailer to a tire shop or the gas station to pump them up. My trailer tires are rated for 60psi as well but I run them at 50psi. 35psi isn't enough pressure.

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Florida sun is brutal. After 5 years, the Carlisle radials on my boat burst and peeled at rest in the storage lot one tire at a time. I replaced with Marathon radials, specifically reading the sidewall to avoid the ones made in China. Just towed over 1,000 miles without incident.

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Trailer tires have a load rating such as 1750 pounds marked on them. IMO, if you are towing a 3000 pound boat any distance with tires rated at 1750 or 3500 for both then you should air them up to the full 60 PSI. More than any thing this helps with the side to side sway.

The three major causes of trailer tire failure are under inflation, constant ground contact and sun. If your trailer is parked on the lawn then certainly get the tires up and off the ground. I use old aluminum road signs under mine. If parking for long periods such as over the winter then jack the trailer up and block the frame so the tires will rotate and the springs are relaxed. Tire covers can help to block the direct sun and keep some of the rain and snow off.

One other thing when trailering is to have the weight distributed properly. Too much weight in the rear of the boat will cause the tongue weight to be too light and is very dangerous. At some speed the trailer might begin a side to side wag as I am sure many of us have seen where a trailer appears to be like a dogs tail wagging the entire vehicle. On most single axle trailers the weight at the ball should be 200 pounds and a bathroom scale on level ground can be used to check it. Your trailer should also be level when on the hitch and they sell drop down receivers in many sizes to accomplish this. Use one up side down if your hitch is lower than the tongue but get the trailer as level as possible.

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I've always been told and read that a trailer tire should be aired to its rated maximum cold psi to achieve best reliability and durability.

Every tire on all three of my boat trailers, a utility trailer, and my travel trailer are rated maximum 50 psi and that is where I keep them.

Anyone know or been told anything different?

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The max tire pressure is required for the tire when running the max load rating for that tire. If you're running less weight, then less pressure is needed. If you do run max pressure without running max load, the tires will wear unevenly in the center of the tire.

My whaler tires are 8ply and rated for 100psi. I run them at 55psi because the 13' whaler isn't that heavy. For our other boat, it's a tandem trailer and the boat is very heavy so I run those tires close to the max pressure.

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I agree that running full max when carrying a much lighter load is not necessary and could cause premature center wear. What I am unsure of is just how much less air is acceptable to the manufacturer. I do know with automobiles the listed PSI inside the door is the only pressure they want you to go by at all times. My F-250 Diesel said 80 PSI but I always ran them at between 65-70 for a more comfortable ride unless I had a full load behind me.

I don't know Cliff but it sure seems an 8 ply tire rated for 100 PSI under a 13 foot whaler is a bit stiff. My Montauk trailer is bigger than it needs to be and the Duro Tires are rated as 4 ply tread, 2 ply side walls 1360 pounds at 50 PSI.

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Every 4.80 size 2 ply tire I've had on that trailer, I've blistered. I may have went overboard on the tire but I went ahead and put an 8ply 5.40 size high speed rated tire on there. I typically tow at 70mph for many bours at a time which is pretty fast for those tires and also the reason I went with a larger and beefier 5.40 size tire. The bearings run warm but are never hot.

So far I've run the 8ply 5.40 tires round trip from Dallas, Texas to Atlanta twice and also round trip to south Texas in 100F+ heat and they've held up much better than the 4.80 2 plys I've used in the past.

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Good points! I never considered the Texas heat and higher travel speeds. It sounds like you are running either 8 inch or 12 inch wheels and tires which I am very much against on my personal trailers. I have gone so far as to change wheels, tires and even fenders just to loose those baby tires.

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I'm running the 8 inch tires. With the 5.80 tires, I barely fit them under the fenders. There's enough clearance for axle movement and tires travel though with no rubbing issues.

If I had the option to run 13" or 14" tires, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Road trips from just north of Dallas to just north of Atlanta are usually 13 hours long and we drive straight through each way.

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Agreed! There is a way to calculate the rotations and comapare between 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15 inch tires and those tiny 8 inch ones are going about twice as fast as a 13.

Keep your eyes open when you see broke trailers along the highway and note the tire size!

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Less load, less air pressure. Okay, seems reasonable. Seems most (if not all manufacturer's) have inflation tables based on tire loads though you gotta search for the information. Does anyone actually use the tables for their rigs based on real-world known loads? I'll bet the reality is they're far and few between. No wonder its seems trailer tire failure is such a common issue on various marine and RV related forums.

Mine is pretty easy. I know my loads are relatively close (about 90% of) to the maximum rated load for the tires so I use the maximum rated air pressure. I don't put enough miles on any of my trailers to worry about excessive center tread wear and running a bit too high pressure seems a lot safer to me than running a bit too low.

The vehicle manufacturer's pressure ratings for automobile tires are based on the loads front/rear those tires are subject to as well as compromises in ride quality and vehicle handling. Also, those pressure recommendations are only good for the model tires the vehicles came equipped from the factory I've been told from the service department at the dealership which makes sense.

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As usual, I like the way CES approaches these situations. Do it right on the front end and not worry about it later.
Have only had one trailer tire failure, half way from Rock Port to Austin. I was grateful to have a spare and a jack. Still took a bit to change it on the side of the road. Then I realized that the second spare I had thrown into the truck really made me feel a lot better about the whole thing.
We will not always have that ability, but when available!!

Thanks for the RV tire life reminder. It is time to change a set of tires.

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Depending on the size, some of the 8 & 12 inch tires are cheap enough to buy already mounted on new rims. After checking the take-offs for dry rot and weather checking you can hang on to them for use as spares in a pinch.

I had a utility trailer at one time that came with the 8 ply hefty duty tires and absolutely hated them. Keep in mind a utility trailer usually travels empty for half the trip to the lumber company. It was fine when loaded but like a bouncing ball when empty. I may just do the 8 ply like CES for under my boat.

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When setting up my trailer for new tirs, I went to a local CAT weigh station. For $11 I had 2 weighs; first w/tow vehicle on one scale and the trailer & boat on the other, The second was with the trailer and boat only. It took 10 minutes and was well worth it. It showed that I had the wrong tires on the trailer for the load. CAT weigh station are all along the interstates where ever their is a truck stop.