Who makes the BEST Tires?

[Pete Dumbleton]

Since the Denman ST205/75-R15 tires are advertised to have "Specially design tread and large contact patch "Reduces Wander."" wander-reduction, that leads me to suspect that your tongue weight is a bit light or you are towing with tongue up instead of level or down.

[Frederick L. Simson]

I found out last summer when I needed to get a tire replaced, there are not a lot of choices for 13" wheels.

There aren't many choices for 12" Tires on my Fiber Stream, either.
I just replaced 2 year old 5.30 x 12" load range "C" because of sidewall cracking/checking. My tire guy says that they're all made in China now, and the quality is poorer than the older US made tires, and there's nothing he can do about it. I did get chrome valve stems and caps, as I had one cracked rubber stem on the old tires.

[Pete Dumbleton]

They aren't all made in China -- Carlisle, for example, is still being made in USofA -- Saw some recently in Wally...

[Dan R]

My Scamp came with Douglas tires that were made in the US. Are they still being manufactured? After watching the video about tires aging and drying out whether used or not, I am wondering about the life left on them. Nice tires though.

[Tom Vervaeke]

They aren't all made in China -- Carlisle, for example, is still being made in USofA -- Saw some recently in Wally...

Just bought 3 new Carlisle's today and they are made in the USA. I got Carlisle Radial Trail's in 175/80R13. They are ST (Trailer) radials. $60/each.

Tom

[Pete Dumbleton]

This is an ever-changing subject -- Just yesterday I read on RV.NET about one guy's bad experiences with Maxxis...

[Roger C H]

Here is how to read the information on your tire sidewalls and what it means.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_size

I would think that tire RATIO would have a large effect on trailer tires. A higher aspect ratio would mean the sidewall is taller and (I would think) more flexible causing the sway mentioned earlier in this thread. I didn't see the tire numbers quoted and would be interested in what they are, the 15" vs the 14". You could have 15" tires that are the same diameter as 14" tires by adjusting the ratio. Cest nes pa?

Here is another link very similar but seemingly clearer:

http://www.gglotus.org/ggtech/tire-DOTnotes/tirerat.htm

O! O! I just remembered something. When my parents bought their first car with radial tires, we noticed a shimmy in the car. You could actually push the car sideways and it would wiggle a bit in a sideways direction. A radial tire has the cords aligned in a radial direction parallel to each other, hence the name, whereas bias plys have the cords at an angle and crossing each other. The reason for radials is they run cooler and smoother because the threads 'lay down' on the pavement. So probably radials would not be suitable for a trailer and would result in the sway, shimmy, or side to side movement described earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_tires