Need new tires

[Alf S.]

Hi: charliej... Rubber unlike wine...doesn't improve with age... but if your spare has no visable cracking then I'd leave it and replace the 2 roadies. With new rubber on the road the likelyhood of needing a spare is somewhat diminished!!!
I had to replace all my valve stems on the trailer due to cracking. Seems in 2007 there were a few million valve stems from China that went bad in their boxes. To bad that a lot of tires took a bum wrap for blow outs when it was probably the stems fault!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[charliej]

Thanks Alf. I agree, keeping the current spare is the best idea. I am vigilent about air pressure in my tires, and fully understand how tires overheat and fail due to low pressure. I think I'll be fine and save some money as well.

Yeah, this crap from China.........hope the Marathons I see are NOT from china. I might have to re-evaluate in that case. "Buy American".

Thanks for your input. All you folks here are swell !!

[Joe Z]

In an earlier post i stated that Kumho's are an LT (light truck tire) I was wrong as someone more knowledgeable pointed out to me.... Kumhos are called "C" as it's a Commercial Tire and are still a load range D.
Sorry for any confusion
Joe

[Raya]

hope the Marathons I see are NOT from china. I might have to re-evaluate in that case. "[b]Buy American".

I'd be interested to know what you find on your Marathons, should you buy them. I have heard from what I thought was a reputable source that the Goodyear trailer tires are now made in China, but I have not checked it myself.

Raya

[charliej]

Well I got new tires.

I ended up with the Goodyear Marathons. I hope they work out.

I increased the size from 175/80R13 to 185/80R13. The load range increased from 1360 per tire to 1480. Still a C rated tire, but with a greater load capacity. Fit just fine.

They are made in the USA.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and opinions.

Charlie

[Rick kl]

The tires on my trailer are 10 year old Marathons, I phoned around for prices, heres what I found;

Tire size is 175/80 R13

Prometer 6 ply $61 (China)

Milestar 6 ply $88 (China)


Carlise super trail $85 (China)?


Anybody have any experience with any of these brands? any opinions on the best?
I was told by one tire place the 13" are going the way of the dodo bird soon anyone eles hear this ?

[charliej]

The tires on my trailer are 10 year old Marathons, I phoned around for prices, heres what I found;

Tire size is 175/80 R13

Prometer 6 ply $61 (China)

Milestar 6 ply $88 (China)


Carlise super trail $85 (China)?


Anybody have any experience with any of these brands? any opinions on the best?
I was told by one tire place the 13" are going the way of the dodo bird soon anyone eles hear this ?

Rick.....sounds like you've gotten good service from the Marathons. The 175's from Discount Tires were $86 out the door. The 185's I got were $94. (and they say US of A on the sidewall).

I can't give you any opinion on the others. I doubt 13's are going anywhere as long as there is a market.

Good luck.

[Rick kl]

This trailer ( 2000 Shasta) has always been used on a seasonal lot, the tires are original with the trailer they look brand new and have less than 2000 miles on them but they are 10 years old.I want to go on a few thousand mile road trip this summer. The marathons are special order and priced at $130, if I put a couple thousand miles a year on and change every five years the cheaper ones might work out, another consideration is this trailer has four tires to replace.

[charliej]

....AAAhhhhhhhh

With 4 tires, little use, and a budget (we all have that!), I would think the least expensive would be the ticket. Just my thought if it were me.

Discount Tires and Americas Tires are like one in the same. Perhaps you can get better prices. Buying tires is almost as much fun as buying a mattress..... Good Luck.

Hopefully someone has some input on the tires........

[Joe Steadman]

I learned this at my father's knee... a true car guy. He only purchased four tires at a time ... the best tire he took off always became the spare.

YMMV

That is exactly what my dad did... I miss my Dad... :-)

My problem is that all three of my tires are factory original 1985 tires!!! I will replace all three this time... not much choice.

[Loren G. Hedahl]

Last time I replaced the tires on our 16ft Scamp, we had had a blow-out near Crescent City, CA. and were limping on a suspicious looking old spare. I was hoping to upgrade from the 205x70-13's on the trailer, but the closest size they had in town was 185x80-13's in a car p-metric carcase. So I really had no choice but to use what was available or wait several days, this being a Friday before a holiday weekend.

Anyway, these Dayton 185x80's have worked out great for over five years. We have kids in Missouri and California and normally winter for several weeks in Texas each year so I'd guess they have more than 50K miles. The tread is about 1/2 worn out, rounded quite extensively on the edges because of their being used near, or possibly even exceeding their weight rating.

So I'm thankful for my good luck but probably shouldn't press it much longer. An upgrade is in the works. If I can, I will go with 6 lug 15's that will also mount up to my tow vehicle. Might even get ambitious and make fender flares to provide clearance for some 31x10.50-15's!