Another tire post

Didn't want to keep adding/ hijacking Mike M's post on tires. I know trailer and camper tires are supposed to be replaced every 5 years because of deterioration. Nothing to do with tread still on the tire. So how many of you do replace tires on trailers/or campers that are 5 years old even if they have a lot of tread ? I don't. I just do a visual. If they look dry or checked I replace. If not I run them till they start showing signs of getting bad. Second question. I usually buy cooper tires from a local tire shop. My brother was the assistant manager there and I still get tires for their cost. Pretty good people. Anyway the coopers have a tread milage guarantee. Only good if you take your vehicle there for rotations at the recommended mileage. Rotations are free if you bought the tires there. So the last set lasted around 40k. They were guaranteed to last 55-60k I believe. Could not use warranty because I always rotated them myself. Never really have the time to sit there and wait for them to do it, so I usually do it when I change my oil. So after all that the question is do any of you ever get the mileage out of tires that the manufacturer says you should ? I am pretty good about pressure, rotating, and alignments and never come close. George doesn't count ! He gets probably double on his !( From earlier post) Just kidding George.

Actually my 10k dunp trailer tries last 6 years. Tread was gone. Tire side walls were ok. I learned I should have rotated tires. Never over loaded. Kept proper air pressure. Always parked trailer in pole barn out of the sun. Replaced with radials with a heaver rating. Plan to rotate annually.

I do not get anywhere close to the mileage claims. The roads I drive are twisty curvy snakes draped over the rolling foothills of West Virginia. 40% of my driving is on rural unlined roads that vary from gravel, to tar/chip, to asphalt. I do good to get 20K out of a set of tires. I maintain pressure and rotate on schedule. While it does help, it doesn't get me anywhere close to the mileage claimed. My father drove I-66 into DC every day and often saw over 100K on set of tires.

YMMV,

Aaron

I never get them to last on my cars/trucks either. I can't find anyone who can do a decent alignment either. They just say it's within specs. Well the specs. have a wide range and it would be nice if someone would align buy looking at the tire wear.

Had a utility trailer bought new in 1976. Used on road some more off road. Original tires finally crapped out last year ! still had decent tread though.

i normally get about 3 years out of "new" offshore tires, by new, i mean made in the last dozen years or so,almost always failure is a broken cord, for the difference in those vs old American made tires, i have 6 goodyears on a 1980 chevy farm truck.... tires made in 1983, still have about half tread, still not cracked or dried out, ill run them until i have problems, then replace them, that truck doesnt see highway use, and is mainly slow dirt road use or no road at all

I replace them as they get flats because a flat while loaded generally destroys the tire, so I guess they would get changed every 4 years on average. I have 3 spares with new tires on them at the moment as I had to haul a very heavy load a long way from home. These are 235/85 load range G tires.

That 5 years could set you up for bankrupsey. Only when show need do I change. Some on trailer I am using regular are probably over 20 years old, got them used years ago. 7:00x15 light truck tube type. And I had 80,000 mile tires on car that were completly bald at 12,000 and no I never spun out the tires. Just driving a hundred fifty miles a day stop and go averaging 2 stops per mile.

And I also have machinery tires dating from the 40's that are still good.

My gooseneck flatbed trailer is 16 years old. Still running on the original tires. Plenty of tread left, and the tires look good. I have no idea of how many miles they've gone. The next heavy load could be the demise of the tires, or maybe not.

I agree ! Replace as needed. I would go broke too if I had to buy tires every five years too if I had to buy tires that often. Bad enough with my truck and the wife's Cherokee.

Older compounds were probably better. Made the mistake of putting cooper m/s tires on the Cherokee. Supposed to be a all season tire. Supposed to last around 50k miles. Little over 20k they were bald. Excellent in the snow, but never again.

That's a heavy tire !

I used to use Cooper tires until I moved north. The rubber on the tire I used was a harder rubber, which extends tread life, but reduces traction. The best "traction" tires out there are Winter tires, but they're soft and don't last long, which is why they're only intended for the coldest months in the north.

My Cooper tires used to get pretty close to their rated mileage even though I didn't pay "that" close of attention to it. Road conditions were always different, I didn't normally haul a load or pull a trailer, and my truck was built by Mitsubishi. Tires had every chance in the world to have a long life.

When I stopped using Cooper tires, it was when we made our first trip to Arkansas when Dad needed a pacemaker installed. Took an exit somewhere down there (Missouri, maybe?) and came to a stop sign looking for a quiet place to pull over and rest for a while. It was slightly sprinkling. We turned right, which was uphill - nothing much for the old 1994 Chevy 1500 with 4x4. Made the turn and went to stop at the other stop sign. When I let off the brake then, we slipped backwards! Tried it again, but this time using the old "lightly step on the brake at the same time" trick - same thing!! So then I shifted into 4-high (4-low didn't work on that truck) and STILL slipped backwards!!! Didn't stop sliding until the truck hit grass, which was only a couple of feet before we would have rolled over and downhill! :shock:

Finally got out of that situation, but sure did have me wondering. We had Cooper tires with still-decent tread, but the combination of the hard rubber, the light rain and oils on the road, and the steep slope were just too much for the loaded pickup. What was disconcerting was, NOBODY ELSE WAS HAVING THAT PROBLEM!! Not long after that, the rear seal on the truck started giving some problems, and by the time we made our 2nd trip there a couple years later, the truck ended up being parked down there. Loved that truck, had an awesome engine(!!), but didn't have time to fix it before returning here. So bought a used (but in AWESOME condition!) 1996 GMC Suburban 3/4T with 4wd and the General Grabber AT2 light truck tires. Haven't looked back since!

The next truck is our current 2004 Chevy 1500 4x4. Bought it with nearly new Goodyear HTS tires. Got the truck home for the first time and couldn't even pull our 16' trailer into the yard in 4-low because the tires kept slipping in the snow. Switched over to the Grabbers and found that they not only had better traction, but considerably less road noise as well.

Here's a couple of links that talk more about the Grabber. Oh, apparently it's supposed to be a 60,000 mile tire, but I go by performance and safety rather than life expectancy. When I think if life expectancy, I think of the vehicle occupants!

http://www.4x4review.com/general-grabber-all-terrain-tire-review/

http://www.fourwheeler.com/product-reviews/1309-biggest-little-tire-test/

If I get 30-35k miles on a set tires I'm satisfied. When they get noisy or I start hydroplaning they come off. Not smart running a set of tires down to the wear marks just to get 50,000 or more out of them.

When I lived in town and drove mainly highway I would usually get the rated miles or better out of good tires. I usually run my tire pressure quite a bit above what the door sticker calls for...that may or may not help. I always try to buy American, but I've found some of my Generals are made in Mexico.

Now I live off the highway on a small farm that is 8 miles from pavement one way and 6.5 miles the other way. So bare minimum I'm putting 13 miles of very rough gravel every day, probably closer to 30 miles/day average off pavement. My tire selection is much more aggressive than what I was using in town (General Grabber AT2's LT's on every truck we own), so that probably contributes to my lower mileage. I think I only got 30k on my F250, but alot of that was pulling a trailer.

Trailer tires are a different story. I think we have 5 trailers around the place: 20' stock trailer, 4x8 utility, 16' dump trailer, 18' bumper deckover, and 32' gooseneck deckover. We go through ALOT of trailer tires every year. I've tried LT's instead of ST's but I don't think they were a lick better for us.

My opinion is that trailers just murder tires. I probably got 20,000 miles out of the last set on the stock trailer, which was pretty good I thought. Dump Trailer usually seems to kill them in 10,000 miles, but alot of that is flats.

The tandem axle 18 foot deckover trailer wears ST205/75R15 tires. Even D-rated tires in that size are only good for like 2,100 lbs each. I probably only get 5,000-7,500 miles out of each tire with that trailer. Granted, 50% or more of those miles are on gravel and a good number of those miles are probably at max or over max load. That means I'm replacing tires like every 18 months or so. Best luck I have had is with Hercules brand trailer tires that the local guy carries.

I think next go around I am going to do an axle flip and run 16's. They are a heck of a lot more expensive than 15" trailer tires, but over the course of a couple years I should get my money back. Only thing that has kept me from doing it so far is that It will raise the trailer up 6" more or so.

Rember when Firestone had to recall those Explorer tires?
I had a customer come in and by a set of tires to get the Firestone tires off. I told him to keep the old ones because they were going to wright checks the tires that had already been replaced. He said no,he just wanted them gone. I kept them turned then in for cash and bought set set of Power Kings,8 ply. They are at least 18 years old and are not cracked, almost worn smooth. The way they are going they and the trailer are going the wear out at the same time. The reason is, I put on Bias tires on trailers not radials. If I was pulling it everyday I would by radials. And PK tires just hold up very well for trailers and gravel roads.

I don't get more than 30000-35000 miles on a set of tires. Doesn't matter what brand I buy. I do drive some gravel though. The local tire shops tell me Chevies with a Duramax are hard on tire tread on our gravel roads. I suspect Cummins powered pickups are the same way, I know my Cummins dually is hard on rear tread. The diesel's low end grunt spins them too easy. The wheels are stirring the gravel and the engine doesn't seem to be working hard to do it.

300,
Neighbor won't repair tire leak. You can what happens to a tire that's not properly inflated.

Go to any tire store. Mine has on display tires removed from vehicles that were ran underinflated.

well.. i bought my 3/4 ton duramax new in 2006. been running goodyear silent armour tires on it since. i get over 100,000 km. on each set pretty much . one set i got 135,000 km. i also pull 34 ft. goose neck when tractor hunting. and do rotate them. i am sure i get more than manufacturer suggests. truck has 360.000km and believe im on 4th set of tires. there is no dought tires have improved. those old bias ply's you would replace every 20,000-30,000 miles back then.

The problem with TRAILER tires is they tend to give out without warning. No signs of checking/cracking, just BOOM!

These are the TRAILER (ST rated) tires. Most are made in China. Need I say more?

With the exception of factory flaws (cheap tires that develop sidewall bubbles within a few weeks regardless of mileage) I generally manage to get 40k-50k on a cheap Chinese no mileage rating tire and about 5k over the mileage rating of a good quality tire. The age of a tire hasn't ever been a concern of mine. My daily drivers only make it 2-3 years on a set of tires and my toys/extra vehicles have tires that are around the 20 year old mark give or take. Since I work in a fleet shop I see my share of tire issues and the only times I ever see a set of tires not last close to the mileage rating are due to factory flaws, poor alignment straight from the factory (more common than you would think) and operator error. These vehicles see all types of road conditions and road surfaces and some off roading.