I live in Waukesha county and need new trailer tires.
It’s an 18 glass fish and ski type boat.
Do I go to a boat dealer or
Auto shop, or ?
Boats & Motors
Trailer tires
Displaying 1 to 15 of 44 posts
I finally got the time to install some risers for my fenders on my trailer. If you recall, I posted that with the newer tires being bigger than the originals (they don't make 155's for a 13 inch rim anymore, have to buy 175's) my hubs were running against the tires so I took them off and came up with a plan to raise them up a bit. Found a steel plate at the hardware store and cut them to 6 inches long and drilled two holes in them. Glad I made a template out of wood first because when I cut it 4 inches long I couldn't get the fender over the wheels. Might've fit if I had the tires off, but with them on still it didn't fit. Ended up needing to take the tires off anyway because the bolt was just a little too long and was an eighth of an inch from the tire after installing it! Had two other size bolts, both slightly smaller but neither had enough room to get the nut on, so I cut the bolt once I tightened the nut down. Overall I'm pretty happy with the end product. Couldve probably drilled the hole an inch of two lower to get it s little closer to the wheel, but it works and that's what I'm happy about. Only Question I'd have is does anyone thing this will still catch most of the mud and gravel from the roads, or is it too high up? This is as high as I can get it. Any higher and it'd be interfering with getting the boat on the trailer.
I purchased a new to me 185 alumacraft fall of 2018. Trailer had newer looking bias tires and the spare is a radial. The tires are 215/75×14. When trailering to lake Michigan, about a 90 mile trip at 65 mph I felt the tires would be just a little too warm.
I looked up specs on the bias tires and they were cheap bias. Max speed rating was 65 mph. C load level, 1760lbs. My boat is not too heavy but with full fuel and all my junk would be around 3600 lbs. I felt I was running right at the limit and speed for those bias tires.
To be more safe I bought 2 Goodyear endurance radial trailer tires. Same st215R75/14. They are reviewed better than marathon. New specs are D load level 2200lbs with speed rating of 87mph.
Second summer on these tires. Even on 80 degree days on the interstate at 72 mph these tires will be lightly warm. I have towed these tires about 1500 to 2000 miles per year. They show almost no signs of wear, or any chaffing or cracking on the sides. I do store boat inside a garage.
They were around $130 per tire. I will spend a little more so i am not that guy on the side of the road with a flat on his boat trailer.
Have a great day fishing...Shellfish
"Stringbean2
I would go over to a Discount Tire shop in your area. They have Maxxis trailer tires online at a very good price. Have them shipped to that shop and get them mounted and balanced. I switched over to them after having multiple blowouts with Carlisle tires. Haven't had a problem since. I can zip down the freeway at 70 without worrying when the next tire failure is coming."
I also went from original Goodyear Marathon tires to Maxxis tires. I did this last year after I discovered the inside wall of my Marathon tire had a huge tear in it. I originally got my tires from www.simpletire.com but when they arrived I noticed they were already 5 years old but still new. I sent them back and called the local discount tire store. They contacted their warehouse and had tires that were only 1.5 years old on the shelf. I had them send me the tires and had a different local tire shop install them. I actually bought 4 tires...2 for the boat trailer and 2 for the pop-up camper. Ask about the age of the tires as they do age while they are sitting in a warehouse.
A little warm isn’t bad, they typically feel similar to the outside air temp, maybe a little warmer, but not a ton.
You can definitely tell when you have an issue though, one will be considerably warmer than the other.
I would say anything below 120 is normal, anything above that, you’re going to start having issues.
Good call on checking your tires and hubs when you stop!
When I’m pulling a trailer, every time I stop, I grab the hubs to make sure they’re not warm!
They typically don’t experience catastrophic failure out of the blue, they typically run hot for a bit first.
I would go over to a Discount Tire shop in your area. They have Maxxis trailer tires online at a very good price. Have them shipped to that shop and get them mounted and balanced. I switched over to them after having multiple blowouts with Carlisle tires. Haven't had a problem since. I can zip down the freeway at 70 without worrying when the next tire failure is coming.
Mattw that's exactly what I'm thinking of doing. The one side where I had the tire blowout and the fender got caught up in the flat tire actually has more clearance now than the other one that is still in good shape, lol, but I'd jack both of them up somehow if I can. If you have any pictures of the material you bought to do it, I'd love to see it. I have two bolts to take off on both sides to pull the fender off, then I just need some kind of piece of metal, I'm thinking, with two holes in it, to lift it up higher. That's my idea, at least.
Fishlovme , if you can Jack up the trailer one each side and see how much clearance you have and you might just need to space up the fenders , I am having the same problem with my rangertrail trailer and the fiberglass fenders it has , I got some body washers and some other material from the hardware store and spaced the fenders up to provide more clearance .
An update on the tires I bought a few weeks ago: Since they no longer make the ST155/80R13 tires I went with the ST175's for the 13 inch rims instead of buying tires for the 12 inch rims I already had from my ATV trailer. They don't quite fit under the plastic fenders. Well they do, but they rub while traveling. I knew it'd be a tight fit but wasn't sure. I got to the launch about 10 miles from my house and saw white plastic rubbed on the tires. I'm going to have to take my fenders off and either find a way to raise them up a little or leave them off.
Just wanted to throw this out there; you can determine the age of a tire by looking at the manufacture date on the tires sidewall. It should be in the same area as the recommended tire pressure.
(It is possible it could be on the opposite sidewall if mounted backwards-which it shouldn't be, but I have seen it happen in the auto service world before )
Displaying 1 to 15 of 44 posts
