Trailer tires

[Willie B]

I fell blindly at great expense into being the owner of an Economy 9 ton triaxle trailer. My son's buddy started the project in my garage. After adding 2000 Lbs of steel the manufacturer felt it shouldn't have, he lost momentum. I finished. Several years later I bought whatever I hadn't already bought, and some I already bought. It has been plagued with soft tires. Park it for a month, at least one tire is off the rim. This is never easy, as it is parked some distance from tools, seating a tubeless tire on the rim in a hurry wastes too much time. two, now three at a time I have bought new tires, on new rims with tubes. All six rims, and tires are less than two years. Put three new on Saturday. 100 miles later, on Sunday, carrying 12000 LBS I had a blowout in one of the new tires.

The dealer had lots of reasons it blew. Tubes cause heat, tires are twice as hot inside as outside, rough roads can't be traversed with trailers, (I was on route 7, the major highway in western VT) I was driving too fast, (50 MPH). These rims are a bad angle.

The blowout was spectacular! The car passing me at the moment must have suffered heart failure, or at least soiled underwear. Inside the truck cab it was loud as a cannon!. The steel rings buried in rubber against the rim were separated from rubber. Maybe 1/4 the circumference of the sidewall had blown off the rim.

I checked temperature immediately. None of the six tires were hot to the touch. all were equal in temperature, I'd guess 110 degrees F.

Was it a defective tire? Are tubes as evil as they say? Are the others soon to blow like this one?

Willie

 

[Jonas302]

Tubes do cause some heat but not totally evil were they trailer type tires in my experience they are more failure prone than LT tires I hope he took it back for full credit as it was defective even if some of his reasons were contributing factors that should never happen

 

[Willie B]

They are 14 ply rated trailer tires 8.00-14.5 Double Coin I believe rated at something like 3400 LB per tire.

We had a long standoff where everybody was pretty much silent. They must have had little to do yesterday as I had the undivided attention of four employees for about an hour. Ultimately, one employee put a new mounted tire in my truck, another handed me a slip stamped no charge.

Time will tell if it happens again.

Willlie

 

[alskdjfhg]

Who made the tire?

I've had and seen strange failures with Chinese tires specifically.

 

[Willie B]

Who made the tire?

I've had and seen strange failures with Chinese tires specifically.

Double Coin

 

[alskdjfhg]

Double Coin

Ahh ok, id seen you mention that, but wasn't familiar with the brand.

Google says they are a Shanghai operated Chinese manufacturer, so i wouldn't rule out random defective tire falure.

Latest one like this I've had fail was when a BRAND NEW tire blew the sidewall out when driving through the field after hitching up.

I'm no expert though.

 

[old-iron-habit]

8 by 14.5 tires? Is this trailer made with trailer house axles? Them are the only 14.5 tires I have ever seen. They are designed for a one time delivery. Years ago thousands were used for equipment trailers and none of the tires held up.

 

[Willie B]

8 by 14.5 tires? Is this trailer made with trailer house axles? Them are the only 14.5 tires I have ever seen. They are designed for a one time delivery. Years ago thousands were used for equipment trailers and none of the tires held up.

I don't think so. Any house trailer axles I've seen are wider. Mobile home tires are labeled MOBILE HOME USE ONLY. Trailer manufacturer is Economy. I think it is 1985 vintage.

Willie

 

[old-iron-habit]

Looking on goggle I see a lot of commercial rated 14.5 trailer tires so I guess they have found a market for them. I have 15", load range G tires on my tandem gooseneck running 12,000 lb Dexter axles. I am not happy with tire wear and performance either. I am looking for 19.5 wheels to switch them to. There is a post on here somewhere where the guys running them are claiming double the mileage with less issues. Makes sense with 100 lbs of air and less sidewall to generate heat. Should roll easier also. My 19.5s on my F-550 easily run double the mileage of what my trailer tires get plus I am always getting trailer flats complete with a couple massive blowouts like you did.

 

[JD8875]

14.5 tires suck! I had a trailer that ran them, I switched them out to 15" 10ply and haven't had an issue since. I ran everything from 7.00x14.5 takeoff trailer house tires to high dollar 9.00x14.5 "lowboy" tires. None of them ran more than 1000 miles. The best thing I did for 14.5 tires was to carry a cordless impact in the truck so they were easier to change. I had several blow out but usually they would develop a large bulge on the sidewalls and then delaminate. I heard all the excuses. Even started checking temps with an infrared thermometer. Slowed down my speeds, adjusted my loads, none of it mattered they'd still come apart. They were all junk.

Good luck.
John

 

[Willie B]

I put less than 1000 miles per year on the trailer. I'd like them to last more than a day.

Willie

 

[Old Doug]

Me and my brother built 5 trailers useing trailer house axles and i have owned a factory built trailer that used 14.5. I never ran a tube in one before. I dont have any thing aginst them but we stoped useing them because of we couldnt just get a tire any were. We never ran alot of air in them ether i think we ran around 50 or 60 PSI. I dont think they are a good tire for golng cross country more something for short trips. The last trailer my brother bought had 14.5s and he replased the hubes with ones to take 8hole rims.

 

[Willie B]

Tough decisions. I've got an unspecified sum of money in this trailer. My young friend bought it. I think he paid $1,000. He used my garage, welder, tooling, and supplies to add lots of features; tool box by enclosing the I beam A frame, square tube head bunk to place the loader bucket lip against. It is equipped with receiver hitch to slide an electric winch into. He added a massive rear rectangular tube, and stake pockets all around with rub rail. All these add ons had plasma cut holes for oval LED lights. I kidded him it was going to be over GVW rating before cargo.

He lost momentum, or ran out of money. I needed the garage bay back. I could see where I could make good use of the trailer, so I finished it. Lighting, brakes, wiring, and paint. He had already bought new tires. I decked it with two layers of pressure treated 2x12s. I used a liberal layer of Texico Compound L Rustproofing Grease.

As soon as it was finished, a neighbor of his borrowed it. Carrying little load with the brake control turned all the way up, he turned the tires hexagonal. I've bought a second set of new tires with wheels since, the last three a week ago. They are the style that uses little blocks that wedge between the brake drum, and wheel. The original wheels (tubeless) got rusty under the blocks, and one by one leaked.

Its legal owner moved out of state. He recently announced his intent to sell the trailer. I paid him three thousand.

I've got more money in it than it's worth. Now I'm faced with refitting it with different tires.

I've discovered the spring hangers are not adequate. They are each a piece of 1/4 x 3 x 12 flat steel bent into a square cornered U, welded to the underside of the I beam frame. Each of eight has been crudely repaired. It needs a major upgrade.

I'm thinking 2.5" 3/8 wall square tube run 10 feet long with 16 pieces 1/2 x 3 x 5 with bolt holes for spring eyes. That'll be more rugged than what's there now.

The square plates on the U bolts are rusted paper thin, so they'll have to be replaced with new U bolts.

A new trailer would have been cheaper, but it's too late now.

Willie

 

[oceanobob]

Perhaps a new trailer would appear to be less money, but when I investigate a new trailer, I usually visually determine that a few thing$ could be done better/$tronger.

Sorry to hear about the tires.
RV folks say never park the tire directly on the soil or ground: they usually have some form of a pressure treated length of heavier lumber (3x or 4x) with beveled ends and then a layer of rubber mat with ribs like a heavy duty door mat. That was too much effort so I added some medium gravel (w no fines) although weather here has pretty much eliminated rain as a feature.
*
In civil/geology, they sometimes show the ground as a wick for groundwater and perhaps this invisible vapor allows the tire to be damp or wet as the air (the drier media of the two items ergo soil and air) can't pass under the tire when directly on the grade.
*
As to the type of tire I have read where equal rated bias ply tires last longer in a low use application because under the same size same load, the specific radius of flex on the casing rubber is less than that of the radial. The principle invoked being the more flex, the more the damage from the storage. I run 16" LT radial tires and they end their days from the work truck by mounting onto the trailer.

My experience in the "tire termination of use" has been quite dramatic: the most memorable was the nice sunny but cool day I was passing the army reserve center. The highway is multi lane, smooth concrete etc. The boom sound in the cab of the truck was so loud I concluded they had shot off a howitzer cannon! Until I looked in the rear view and saw the pandemonium. There wasn't much to clean off the highway nor left on the rim. FYI the tread and appearance of the tire completely belied the surprise. And air is checked with a gage on all tires prior to every trip.

 

[Willie B]

Usually tire failure is in the form of wear. A triaxle trailer scrubs tires bad. One inexperienced driver with the brake control set too high makes a series of flat spots. The old rims, likely thirty years old leak. No old tires on it at this time. The tire that failed catastrophically was 1 day old. The installer said he put 120 LBS pressure in. That may have been too much.

I'll hope it was a one time thing.

Willie

 

[doubleh]

A Relative who worked at Cooper US said that the Chinese don't like to buy carbon black. Its one of the major bonding components in the rubber.