Most People Don't Know This About Trailer Tires

Harbor Freight Folding Trailer Spare Tires. How much tire pressure do you need, and do you need a spare tire when towing? In this video, I discuss why 6 ply trailer tires need to be inflated to a much higher PSI than car tires.

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[ktkt]

I borrowed a friend's trailer for a long trip to the Southwest- my first experience with the trailer, a 700 lb load, towed with my small cargo van. It was a well built small utility trailer sold by Blaine's and better than the Harbor Freight brand- rated to 1500lbs gvw. My main concern was for stability on the highway before starting out, and the tires needed airing up (from from 25 to 75lbs--- a bit shy of their max of 90). It did well, even at 70mph. After 1, 500 miles, I had the bearings lubed- the mechanic only 'filled' them, rather than flushing them with new grease as they should have been. After a fellow traveler emphasized the care of bearings (he would never travel about 60mph), I flushed them myself. All went well, but I was lucky to have not had either bearing or tire issues on the 6000 mile trip. I often ran around 70mph. In hindsight, a spare would have been a good insurance policy.

[MrSubmariner]

I'm a truck driver. Can't even begin to count how may trailers I see sitting on the side of the road by itself because of a flat tire. I have 2 boats a camper and a utility/atv trailer. All have spares, jacks and lug wreches. You will NOT see one of my trailers sitting there waiting for someone to steal because of a flat. Never pull a trailer without a spare. Unless you are behind in your boat payments but up to date on your insurance.

[carpballet]

This guy just showed more concern for his trailer tires than half my city’s people combined for ALL their vehicle tires. Mad props as we used to say in 2019.

[ralphcantrell]

After my third scary blowout - two of which happened on crowded, multi-lane interstates in a big cities - I started using only Goodyear radial trailer tires. That started 15 years ago, and I have never regretted it. They were called Marathons, but now they have been replaced by the Endurance model, and I have used both without incident. Sure, they are much more expensive, but you really do get what you pay for. The Goodyears have never failed catastrophically, and they always wear evenly. They last at least twice as long as any Chinese tire too - radial or otherwise.

[dantrucker]

I’m here in Australia and I don’t understand miles like you guys in America. I run 40psi in all my trailers and I have to be honest your tyre pressure is so far out. You never run the maximum as your wrecking your tyres. You must have all tread width in contact with the road surface. I have been running current tyres on a 1200kg camper trailer at 40psi and I have currently have put 120, 000kms on my tyres with very good results. Even tread wear, minimal tread loss and still have about 80, 000kms maybe more left before I need to replace the tyres and mind you we have temperatures over here up to 50 degrees so road heat would be 80+ degrees and I’ve never had a blow out or puncture in any of my tyres.

[mrvoyagerm]

The sticker is pretty clear "the weight of CARGO should never exceed 1720 lbs". This does not include the weight of the trailer. Trucks are tagged with "Gross" (the weight of the truck and cargo) and "Tare" (the empty weight of the truck). The difference being the weight of the cargo.

[posteroonie]

The amount of sidewall flex depends on the trailer's load, so it's fine to run less than 80 psi if you're not a max weight. At less than max weight, use lower pressure for better tire life, less bouncing, and a bigger contact patch with the road.

Number one tip from me is to avoid using Chinese tires. I am a fleet mechanic. Our fleet has many trailers. Boat and utility. We have had bad luck with belts seperating in Chinese made tires. We put a new Chinese tire on the spare tire rack and about a month later the belts seperated on it. It had never been on the ground. Also had Hercules brand tires go bad and come apart on a full size Ford van. Spend a bit more and get tires from a company you are familiar with.

[tedbaxter]

I’m new to trailering. 14.6k lbs on my main trailer, I would hate to have a tire failure. I YouTubed the heck out of trailer tires and best procedures. I also talked to a couple of local trailer dealers/shops.
They agree with you, low tire pressure causes excess heat, heat is the number one cause of failure.
I run mine at 8O psi - I had no idea trailer tires require so much pressure.
Each time I stopped to fuel I did a walk about which included touching each bearing hub and tire tread to check for excess heat.
I found out one interesting thing: we were coming through Kansas, there was a substantial cross wind, the tires on the lee side were notably hotter than the tires on the windward side.
Thank you for your video!

[bobisonline]

Great info and video! I had two Wells Cargo 5x8 enclosed trailers, the first one was crushed by a 60' pine tree in an upstate NY microburst. I bought the same thing again and had no problems with tires until I felt they needed replaced and I purchased them from a small outfit where they had apparently been on the shelf for a few years. We used to travel up and down the East Coast 1200-1500 miles at a pop. I always monitored and maintained 50 PSI which was the speck for said tires. Pulling out of Valdosta GA had a sudden blowout in one of the tires. Put on my spare and continued on but this seemed to start a trend of future blowouts!

[johnhiggs]

Tread should be close to flat at the contact patch to maximize lateral grip and for even tread wear. Max inflation pressure is only for max loading. Adjust pressure for the load. By running pressure to high, you are heating up just the middle of the tread which can cause tread separation at highway speeds.

[thomabb]

Most tire manufacturers have inflation charts to tell you how much air pressure to put in the tire based on load. Your treat wear pattern indicates you are running too high air pressure. If you want to maximize your tire wear, find the applicable inflation chart and weigh your trailer.

If the manufacturer doesn't provide that info, you can use chalk and a clean level parking lot. Paint a chalk line abut an inch thick across the tire tread and drive around the parking lot a little. You can tell by how the chalk wears off if your tire pressure is too high or too low. I used this method to dial in tire pressure on the rears of my pickup. Door sticker said 80psi, but empty I should have been running 55psi. I got 20k extra miles out of those tires.

[ericzonkheim]

Good video.
FWIW, I have numerous trailers with many miles. I often tailor the pressure to loads, only using the max/near-max PSI for heavy loads and extended high speed/high temp travel, but reducing by as much as 50% for light loads. This gives better ride and more uniform wear across the tread.
That said, you’re definitely right, too soft = blowout. Better for most people to fault on the side of max recommended pressure, but for the motorist covering real miles in a variety of conditions, a few minutes of adjustment is worthwhile.

[Dancing_Alone_wRentals]

I could not agree with you just blew the bejesus out of my trailer tire. I even put the carnage in a recent video. Today I dismounted what was left of the tire, it looked more like Marti Gras beads or fringe lace than a tire. Your theory was my flaw, I let the air pressure go down into the 40s and 30s. My loads are sometimes light and my trailers only weight #330. Tires without air will hold them up. Great video! tHanks

[robertlomax]

Thanks for this information. I have the same trailer and it is over 20 years old with original tires and a spare I bought at the same time. Note to self: Replace all three tomorrow. This is the trailer that the deck folds and the tongue folds so that you can store it in a small space. Paid about $225 new and it came as a box of a gazillion parts and I didn't own a power screwdriver at the time. :(

[bobber]

I think it's also worth mentioning to keep the wheel bearings serviced. You figure the trailer tire being smaller diameter than the tow vehicle is going to run many more RPMs. I think when you see a trailer broke down on the side of the road, they look like they have one of two problems, a blowout or their wheel bearings burned up.
I think it would well be worth on longer trips not only care a spare tire but also carry a spare set of bearings and seal. In fact carry a hub already packed with grease and new bearings then that way the old one can be popped off and the new one on. I've had to remove many burnt on or I should say welded on bearing races on the spindle. Then shine up the spindle with abrasive cloth.
And if you don't want to take up the space of carrying a new hub with bearings make yourself up a spare tire carrier for the trailer tire and use the hub to hold the wheel.

[GearJamminSalmon]

Your video just showed something that all owners of the 4-lug, 1195-lb little-brother trailer need to know: their tires are Class B, rated for a max of 62 mph...not a good thing HF did for us. I updated to Class C (the ones you have), right off, allows for 81 mph max...and are stronger. This paid off for the hideous 800-mile (I counted 'em all, nothing else to do when driving it, LOL!) stretch of Interstate 80 between Evanston, WY and Lincoln, NE (WY is worse!). If you've driven it, you know the potholes can be hell. Class Cs are the only way to go on these trailers. Thanks!

[joehighsmith]

I've never ran any of my tires on any of my equipment at the recommended maximum pressure. Light duty stuff around 50psi, then depending on the intended load to more added pressure. Under inflated tires generate head which breaks down the side wall fiber. Over inflation seams to stress the tire more and they seem to dry rott faster, sitting in the dirt for long periods seems to promote dry rott faster. Heavy braking is rough on the side walls even worse under a load. The manufacturer side wall load rating is the extreme duty rating. My semi trailer has speed rated tires under maximum load to not exceed 55mph. It's a 90, 000 gvw trailer and I never haul anything that heavy so at half that weight I usually run 60 to 65 mph and haven't had any issues. The old timers used to say above 60 mph under a load start to create tire heat. They were correct. I've lost several tires at maxim load over 60mph. Pre trip your equipment before and post trip it after. It's better to catch things in a safe haven than on the side of the highway

[Sidebranches]

It’s easy to adjust your tire pressure for the load you plan on hauling. I have worked on all types of trailers for over 40 years

[pinkguy]

This is especially important on older tires. As the tires age, they will flex less. Well, they flex the same but they will crack easier. And I can tell you that when you run a tire low on pressure, you can put your hand on the tire after 15 miles and feel that it is heating up. That heat will weaken the rubber's bond to belts under the tread.