Trailer tires

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 ?

Hey JamesD, just so you know...the ones I bought from farm and fleet are radials. Even came with a warranty!  I hope they last me a long time a well.  I had never bought new tires for this trailer and I have owned it for six years now, who knows how old the tires were when I bought the boat, so I got some good use out of them.

I've had my boat for a while and after going thru two changes of trailor tires from Fleet decided to spend a little more from a tire dealer. I'm happy to see very  little wear after several years now. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and after burning thru enough of the cheaper ones my newer radials seem well worth it. Just my opinion but there it is.

Went to Farm and Fleet this afternoon to buy tires for my trailer that I have. They were completely out of tires with rims and when I told him my size (ST155/80R13) he was shocked my tires were so small for a 13 inch rim and was told they don't make those anymore, smallest they had was the 175 size. Hopefully they fit under my plastic fenders, I had very little room under there before!. Oh well if they don't fit I'll probably just take the fenders off, what other choice do I have?

Has anyone noticed it is getting hard to find trailer tires lately? I went to 2 Fleet Farms and there were tires , but not the size I needed.  I also noticed that the semi auto handguns were all but empty, ammo was almost all gone for handguns, and even shotgun ammo was scarce and went up 2 bucks a box in price. 

Believe it or not, the trailer tire with rim (at F&F) is not much different in price from just purchasing the tire by itself. 

Check it out!! They have most sizes with rim in stock! 

You can always go up in size, if you have the play in your suspension, and clearance with your fender...

Going down in size however, is usually asking for trouble...

You’re generally better off staying with the same size, or going up a size - going down ins size is all bad...

And of course I just checked there's just no wiggle room for the shorelander  trailer it's already at its 4 inch clearance

That's good to know plum to change 13 to 14

You may substitute a 14 inch tire and wheel as long as you have both the wheel well height and width clearance for it, the capacity of your trailer, and has the 5 on 4-1/2 same bolt pattern.

It is typically recommended to have at least an inch of width clearance and 4-1/2 inches of height clearance on your trailer for the tires to fit properly.

Go to Fleet Farm, you can get new 13s already mounted on the rim, pretty reasonable price too.

I would save the 12s for spares.

If you have enough clearance, and play in your suspension, you can always go up one size, but going down one size isn’t recommended - The 13 inch tire that it came with was likely a match for the load (weight of the boat), going to a smaller tire, may change the load rating. 

 I was about to make a new thread, but found this one and figured I would get my question answered here.

I had a tire blowout on my way back home from up north two weekends ago.  I had already used the spare on the one side, well the other tired blew (Luckily I kept the old tire and it got me home.  I bought a trailer a few years ago and the guy gave me 3 spare tires, they have 12 inch rims on them.  My boat currently has 13 inch rims.  The load rating is similar, 1045 for the 12 inch and 1100 for the 13 inch.  Will the 12 inch rims work fine on my trailer, do you think, or should I get two new tires?  Actually, I plan on getting two new tires, but in the mean time will the 12's work for going short distances (20 miles or less)?

Edit: I did put the 12 inch rim and tires on the boat trailer for now, at least that will buy me some time to buy new tires for the 13 inch rims, but if I can use the 12's for a little while I will.

My boat trailer came with Goodyear Marathon trailer tires. I did some looking and asking around last year and went with Maxxis M8008 ST tires on both my boat trailer and pop-up camper. Whatever you get just make sure they are not old tires. They will age just sitting in a warehouse. I first ordered my tires from simpletire.com. when they showed up I checked the manufacturer date on the sidewall and they were 5 years old "brand new". They got returned. I called the closest discount tire store and got the same tires that were only 1 year old "brand new" but in an air conditioned warehouse. After 1 year I have not had any issues. I had them delivered and put on by a local tires shop.

I bought my Carlisle radials mounted on new rims at Northern Tool.  Good price, great selection, all in stock (I have a store 10 miles from me).  I went with a higher ply tire than I had due to the higher weight capacity.  Be sure to keep them properly inflated to the sidewall specs.  My older less-ply tires ran at 50PSI, the new ones run at 60PSI.  

I've had great luck with Recsuff.com on my last two sets of trailer tires. They are somewhat local to you. Come on rims balanced and mounted. Saves a ton of hassle trying to get trailer tire mounted. Large range of tires to choose from.

You can actually buy a Carlisle trailer tire from F&F pre-mounted on a rim, for less than the cost of purchasing a tire at a tire shop, plus mount and balance. 

Farm and fleet, is definitely one of the more cost-effective options.

I have had decent luck with them as well...

I’m on my 2nd set of Nanco Tires 165/80 D13 Tires. I bought them about 7 years ago. My trailer had them on when I bought 1 year old boat used. Trailer and Boat are 24 years old now. Tires still like Brand New