Advice on New Wheels and Tires

[thiggins01]

Here’s a picture of two identical Rainers. The left is an unused spare, the right is the ballooning old one. You can see the difference.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by thiggins01

Here’s a picture of two identical Rainers. The left is an unused spare, the right is the ballooning old one. You can see the difference.

I can't see it. The difference in tread wear is obvious (especially the outer tread block row), but I don't see any difference that might be called ballooning. I'm not saying it's not there, just that I don't see it in the photo.

From the original description was expecting something like sidewall blistering, but apparently that's not the issue.

[thiggins01]

Note the flatness of the tread that contacts the road on the left, versus the roundness of the tread on the right. Sorry if you can’t see it. It’s not a sidewall issue, the entire tire ballooned and went out of round, causing the funky tread wear.

[gbaglo]

Wouldn't the side wall also balloon, not just the tread?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by thiggins01

Note the flatness of the tread that contacts the road on the left, versus the roundness of the tread on the right. Sorry if you can’t see it. It’s not a sidewall issue, the entire tire ballooned and went out of round, causing the funky tread wear.

I still don't see it. The tread wear pattern is more wear on the outer edges of the tread, which would be the opposite of "ballooning", and suggests inadequate inflation (or if only on the outer edge, then excessive positive camber or just hard cornering). The result (not cause) of that wear is that on the top of the tire (where the tread is not carrying load) the middle of the tread bulges out compared to the edges.

Out of round is very different from a tread surface which is not flat across. If you jack the trailer up so a tire with this problem is not touching the ground and spin it, is it not round? That lack of roundness itself wouldn't be apparent in a still photo, but it would create a pattern of wear that isn't even all the way around the tire (the opposite direction from across the tire)... and there's no sign of that in the photo.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Wouldn't the side wall also balloon, not just the tread?

The belts are the strips of reinforcing cord which circle around the outside of the tire, under the tread (not behind the sidewall). They keep the tread flat, so it looks like a modern tire, rather than just an inflated inner tube. A belt failure will cause parts of the tread area to bulge, not the sidewall.

[wjwoods01@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

The Yokohama tires are somewhat noisy - but they are also snowflake rated. That's why I am considering them as I have been caught in unexpected snowstorms before and could have used the extra traction on the trailer. I really don't like the idea of chains on the trailer.

Also, the snowflake rating gives it great wet weather traction - it tends to rain a LOT here in the gulf coast.

The Goodyear LT tires may end up the choice but it would be after consideration of the available tires rated LT in 15".

How do you get traction on a trailer?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by wjwoods01@gmail.com

How do you get traction on a trailer?

Traction is not just forward driving force; it applies to braking and lateral force as well. Is that what has you confused?

[wjwoods01@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Traction is not just forward driving force; it applies to braking and lateral force as well. Is that what has you confused?

Not confused at all. I would call braking and lateral force on a trailer tire grip, not traction, because a trailer has no propulsion of it's own.

[bborzell]

Well, traction control systems are designed to work on both driven and non driven wheels.

One might consider a brake controller for trailer brakes to be a form of traction control in that what the controller is trying to do is restore the laterally sliding tires to forward tracking and desirable traction as opposed to sliding to hell and gone.

You say tomato…

[wjwoods01@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by bborzell

Well, traction control systems are designed to work on both driven and non driven wheels.

One might consider a brake controller for trailer brakes to be a form of traction control in that what the controller is trying to do is restore the laterally sliding tires to forward tracking and desirable traction as opposed to sliding to hell and gone.

You say tomato…

Bit of a stretch but OK.

[JeffreyG]

Originally Posted by wjwoods01@gmail.com

Bit of a stretch but OK.

It's not a stretch. It's literally the definition:

Merriam-Webster:
Definition of traction
1a: the adhesive friction of a body on a surface on which it moves
the traction of a wheel on a rail

Cambridge:
traction noun [U] (WHEEL/TIRE)
the ability of a wheel or tire to hold the ground without sliding:

[oldwave]

I do my bearings and brakes every other year, I have a good trailer place that I've started using/. I replaced my 4 year old Carlyles with Hercules ST tires. So far so good.

[CharlesinGA]

Originally Posted by oldwave

I do my bearings and brakes every other year, I have a good trailer place that I've started using/. I replaced my 4 year old Carlyles with Hercules ST tires. So far so good.

Good luck on that, I had a set of Hercules ST tires that were dated in 2017, and the trailer had been stored inside most of the time after that (I bought it in late 2019) and in mid 2020 one came apart a few miles from home. I had replaced the original 2007 Marathon spare.... put the new GY Endurance on the ground. Got a new GY Endurance mounted to replace the failed one before continuing on the trip. After getting home, I pulled the wheels and found the Hercules in front of the one that failed had wires embedded in it from the failed tire (scrap), of the two on the other side, one had cracks in the bottom of the outer treads all the way around (scrap) and the other tire actually looked OK so it went on my local use utility trailer to replace a 1999 dated Uniroyal automobile tire with tons of weather checking. The Marathon spare went on the other side since that tire on the utility trailer had failed where it was parked in the yard.

Moral of the story is that the, not really old Hercules tires turned out to be China crap just like all the others China made tires in the world.

I have since replaced the wheels with new Sendel wheels and new 6 lug hubs and drums, and swapped over the Endurance tires to them.

This is a Bigfoot by the way. I first joined the forum researching awning locks and kinda stayed for the interesting stuff.

Charles

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by CharlesinGA

Good luck on that, I had a set of Hercules ST tires that were dated in 2017, and the trailer had been stored inside most of the time after that (I bought it in late 2019) and in mid 2020 one came apart a few miles from home. I had replaced the original 2007 Marathon spare.... put the new GY Endurance on the ground. Got a new GY Endurance mounted to replace the failed one before continuing on the trip. After getting home, I pulled the wheels and found the Hercules in front of the one that failed had wires embedded in it from the failed tire (scrap), of the two on the other side, one had cracks in the bottom of the outer treads all the way around (scrap) and the other tire actually looked OK so it went on my local use utility trailer to replace a 1999 dated Uniroyal automobile tire with tons of weather checking. The Marathon spare went on the other side since that tire on the utility trailer had failed where it was parked in the yard.

Moral of the story is that the, not really old Hercules tires turned out to be China crap just like all the others China made tires in the world.

I have since replaced the wheels with new Sendel wheels and new 6 lug hubs and drums, and swapped over the Endurance tires to them.

This is a Bigfoot by the way. I first joined the forum researching awning locks and kinda stayed for the interesting stuff.

Charles

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll keep a close watch on them. My tire place will rotate for free so I’ll get an inspection when I do that.

[scubasteveUSN]

Please tell me what brand the black wheels are and where you purchased them? Sharp looking!

Steve