em14
Platinum Member
California, I was of the opinion that several years ago we adopted the European Tire Standard are you sure we didn't?
Leo
Leo
exploding trailer tires
- Thread starter LoneCowboy
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California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,950
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
I don't know a lot about this; a tire man should really be the one to answer. But I was responding to the following:em14 said:
It is my inpression that load range on US trailer tires is expressed by a letter that corresponds to maximum pressure and load rating, where 'D' is heavier than an automobile tire. On the other hand European tire letter grades are in the second half of the alphabet and represent automobile maximum speed rating. The two systems aren't integrated - as Renze noted a European 'D' grade tire probably doesn't belong on the highway, but an American 'D' trailer tire is common.Renze said:If you refer to tires as "load range G" i think you guys dont have a clue about what it means, and i'm not surprised to hear all this tire horror...
The cipher/letter combination stands for a load index ( example: LI 128 means 1800 kg per tire) where the Q stands for, i think it was 160 km/h max speed.
p.s: "load range D" ??? tires are certainly not advisable for other than slow traffic and farm use
Somebody bail me out on this - surely someone has a better explanation!
skipmarcy
Veteran Member
Dougster said:Don't feel so bad Brian. I had my share of trailer tire problems this weekend. I blew out both tires on the left hand side of my brand new Downeaster dump trailer... on the highway no less!!!
Reasons for the blowouts? Not entirely clear, but several prime suspects. Turns out that my Downeaster came with two different brands of wheels and tires... mounted one brand per side... which may have been braking very differently. The trailer had clearly been pulling to the left... with the left side tending to lock up first as I adjusted and set my brake controller. I never noticed the wheel and tire brand difference before this weekend's incident. Loadstar on one side (left) and Duro on the other (right). The loadstars blew out. The Duros held.
Also... no more ST225/75R15D tires ever again. I never trusted or wanted those skinny, ugly, undersized tires on either trailer and now I have paid the price for caving in on El Cheapo, crappy 10K trailers when I should have bought 12K trailers. Both of my trailers are getting upgraded to same brand 235 wide, 16 inch tires ASAP. Load range E if I can get them, otherwise load range D. Just not sure what type, aspect ratio and brand until I can do some serious investigation.
Did the two different brands/treads really lead to the blowouts? Who knows. I did instinctively apply the brakes to slow down when I saw the radar trap ahead... even though I was only going 55 MPH. Did the left side lock on me and blow? Quite possible I'm afraid.
I also found glass buried deeply into one tire... although it will never be known if this caused the first blowout or if this was something I ran over after the blowouts over in the breakdown lane. Regardless, once the first left side tire was gone, the second one on that side could not take double the load and blew out right behind the first. Nasty business!
This was my first trip on the highway at 55 MPH with a full rated load. Never again. I bought the wrong dump trailer with the wrong tires... two different brands worth I'm afraid. I'm certainly going to do the best I can with bigger, higher-rated tires... of the same type & brand... but I believe my initial compromise on trailer rating and price led to this mess and I'm thinking that a much higher quality dump trailer may be necessary for my long-term safety.
Dougster
Doug, My Anderson 12k dump trailer has been a first class trailer although it came with the Chinese radial tires. At least mine are all the same size. Last year I made 4, 1800 mile trips at 75 mph with a full load on (maybe even a little over on that last trip!) and probably have another 3,000 loaded miles on top of that. I think I've just been lucky with the tires, but if you want a good trailer I would highly recommend a look at the Andersons. As soon as I worry enough about those tires and get my tractor tires paid-off I will be installing what I have on my 20' 14k trailer - they are Dynatrac 10 ply nylon, bias ply in 7.50 - 16. I put those on 4 years and about 5k miles ago and they are the best trailer tires I've ever had. I never have liked radials on a trailer. These Dynatracs have good, deep treads and good solid sidewalls that stand right up there with a full load on.
Dougster
Veteran Member
Hi Skip - My research of the last couple days has been a real eye opener in regard to the whole trailer tire situation. I had no idea that virtually all trailer tires are now made in China (including Goodyears) and that there have been an amazing number of problems with them. This was an aspect of trailer ownership, use and safety that I never thought about... and there does not appear to be any clear or easy solution. The choices out there range from bad to terrible... no fair or good choices at all. Very scary after an incident this past weekend that could easily have killed me.skipmarcy said:
In regard to Anderson 12K trailers, when I first started shopping there were some seriously good buys on leftover 2006 Andersons very close to home... but at the time, I didn't feel they fit my needs so well. I was focused in another direction and didn't come full circle to reconsidering Andersons again until almost all of the leftovers had been sold. I eventually found one at a super-great price up in the land of "Live Free Or Die"... until I actually went up there to see it. Turned out it was a two year old leftover that was rusting away so badly from road salt that I was not sure the electrical and hydraulics would even work. The guy also raised his price by thousands once I was there on his lot.
Overall, it was not what you would call a good buyer experience. I do not blame Anderson for the trailer's pitiful condition. The guy selling it was obviously a bit senile or just plain nuts. Dougster
California
Super Star Member
- Joined
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- Messages
- 14,950
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
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- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
em14
Platinum Member
California, Remember when buying a tire was easy ... not any more ... it appears that you need to know way too much anymore about anything you buy ... to include country of manufacture! and just a few months ago I bought a Anderson Goose Neck 10T, 29 ft trailer with 16" Goodyears! Now I need to check them out?
Leo
Leo
Renze
Elite Member
California: I replied before i read page 5 of this thread, so sorry to double some of what has been said. anyhow, I was searching around, and found this:
======================
Load Range
Load Range is another way of indicating the ability of a tire to handle stress and weight. This time, we are indicating how much load can be placed on the tire horizontally. Often, these tires are associated with towing because the back end of the car tends to wallow while towing a trailer. In other words, you are exerting stress on the tire from side-to-side.
While there is no industry-wide definition of ply rating, truck tires are frequently marked with ply rating and equivalent Load Range. These markings are used to identify the load and inflation limits of that particular tire, when used in a specific type of service:
Load Range Ply Rating
A 2
B 4
C 6
D 8
E 10
F 12
G 14
H 16
J 18
K 20
L 22
M 24
N 26
Source: Bridgestone/Firestone North America, Sizes and Classifications
===================
Load index (actual carrying capacity) is the indication of the vertical load a tire can take.
The load RATING is something totally different: It sort of represents the amount of cord plies, or the equivalent of the cord plies in steel wire. (steel wires are stronger than nylon, so when using steel plies, less plies make up for the same ply rating)
We have the same industry standards all over the world, just "load rating" is a very uncommon thing, the "ply rating" is a much more widely known thing to express tire stiffness, even though it doesnt represent the actual number of plies.
In fact, ply rating, as well as load rating which is based on the ply rating, arent a real standard, because there is no authority that checks if ply strength of tire manufacturers around the world, are comparable.
Hmm... i was just thinking... My 1996 Volvo 850 wanders a lot on the road, i checked the tire pressure but found it at 2.7 bar, high enough. They still belly out quite a bit. The cornering behaviour is not what i expected of the upgrade of an entry level volvo 440 to an 11 year old, but classy 850...
Maybe i should check the ply rating/ load rating as these tires might be underrated to carry the heavy 2.5 TDI engine on the front axle....
======================
Load Range
Load Range is another way of indicating the ability of a tire to handle stress and weight. This time, we are indicating how much load can be placed on the tire horizontally. Often, these tires are associated with towing because the back end of the car tends to wallow while towing a trailer. In other words, you are exerting stress on the tire from side-to-side.
While there is no industry-wide definition of ply rating, truck tires are frequently marked with ply rating and equivalent Load Range. These markings are used to identify the load and inflation limits of that particular tire, when used in a specific type of service:
Load Range Ply Rating
A 2
B 4
C 6
D 8
E 10
F 12
G 14
H 16
J 18
K 20
L 22
M 24
N 26
Source: Bridgestone/Firestone North America, Sizes and Classifications
===================
Load index (actual carrying capacity) is the indication of the vertical load a tire can take.
The load RATING is something totally different: It sort of represents the amount of cord plies, or the equivalent of the cord plies in steel wire. (steel wires are stronger than nylon, so when using steel plies, less plies make up for the same ply rating)
We have the same industry standards all over the world, just "load rating" is a very uncommon thing, the "ply rating" is a much more widely known thing to express tire stiffness, even though it doesnt represent the actual number of plies.
In fact, ply rating, as well as load rating which is based on the ply rating, arent a real standard, because there is no authority that checks if ply strength of tire manufacturers around the world, are comparable.
Hmm... i was just thinking... My 1996 Volvo 850 wanders a lot on the road, i checked the tire pressure but found it at 2.7 bar, high enough. They still belly out quite a bit. The cornering behaviour is not what i expected of the upgrade of an entry level volvo 440 to an 11 year old, but classy 850...
Maybe i should check the ply rating/ load rating as these tires might be underrated to carry the heavy 2.5 TDI engine on the front axle....
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