A boat trailer tire story
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:32 pm
Well yesterday when I stopped in Georgetown, KY on my way home from the lake I noticed a chunk out of the side of my tire. Here is a pic of the tire at Murphy USA while I was fueling up.
I then drove around 50mph the rest of the way home and when I backed the boat in I noticed it was much worse than I thought as the side was just a hint of what was going on.
Here is a pic of what I saw when I got home...
Today I pulled the trailer at about 35mph to my hometown tire guy and got new tires on the trailer. I too upgraded on the load rating going from Load Range D tires to Load Range E. The old tires were LoadStar and the new are Tow Master. And like Cougar states ( at http://lakecumberland.com/forum/viewthr ... #pid345808 ) about going from C to D there was a bit of a size difference with the same size rating when going from D to E but they still fit with clearance for a little bouncin... When I saw the tire I immediately thought of Waterwings post in another thread ( http://lakecumberland.com/forum/viewthr ... #pid373011 ) that mentioned trailer tires should only be towed at about 65mph. (most of the time I tow between 75 and 85mph with a couple spurts faster here and there to get around someone being odd) But then after seeing my tire guy he said they did pretty good considering they were manufactured in 2003.
Yep, I'm pretty sure I'm about as lucky as you can get in this instance... Whew! Hope these last just as long and turn out to be much tougher. Could not find any made in the USA load range E trailer tires...
By the way before EVERY trip to the lake I check for dry rotting etc. I did not see any cracks etc. before heading down but as you see something gave way on the way back.
Oh well all is good and I'm still savin money over a slip! lol 
- 0619111858a (Medium).jpg (90.33 KiB) Viewed 4571 times
I then drove around 50mph the rest of the way home and when I backed the boat in I noticed it was much worse than I thought as the side was just a hint of what was going on.
Here is a pic of what I saw when I got home...
- 0619111920a (Medium).jpg (105.6 KiB) Viewed 4571 times
Yep, I'm pretty sure I'm about as lucky as you can get in this instance... Whew! Hope these last just as long and turn out to be much tougher. Could not find any made in the USA load range E trailer tires...
By the way before EVERY trip to the lake I check for dry rotting etc. I did not see any cracks etc. before heading down but as you see something gave way on the way back.
Oh well all is good and I'm still savin money over a slip! lol