Finally Got Rid Of Those POS ST Tires On My Trailer

When I bought the boat about 4 years ago, the trailer tires were "new". They were new to the trailer maybe, but those 8 X 14.5 ST tires were born over 8 years before they were put on the trailer. We made it the 2,000 miles home from Las Vegas to SC, but I replaced those old tires immediately due to the severe weather checking.

 I bought 4 new DOT rated tires thinking the DOT rating would give me more reliability.

The replacement tires showed signs of wear after about 3,000 miles, and I had plans to tow the boat to Lake Powell which was 2,000 miles from home. I bought 4 new 'highway' tires and stuffed them in the bilge for insurance during the trip to Powell.

New trailer skins in bilge.

 By the time I got to Powell the tread was gone on the DOT tires. I had the new 'highway' skins put on the trailer for the trip home.

Gettin' new skins put on.

 I got roughly 5,000 miles out of those DOT tires.

Well now I'm getting ready for a trip to Florida and I discover a tread separation on my 'highway' tires. This was after about 5,000 miles.

Tread separation and thin tread after only 5,000 miles.

 Further examination showed the tread was completely gone in sections of the other ST tires. This amounts to about $140/tire every 5,000 miles. We surely wouldn't put up with this on our passenger vehicles.

I needed tires that were rated for 3,000#. My boat and trailer came in at just shy of 12,000# but there's 1,200# tongue weight. The tires only need to support a load of a little less than 11,000#. The only non-ST tires in that load range were 16" LT tires, like the tires on my one ton van.

I've got 120,000 miles on the van and am on only the 3rd set of tires. I need the same tires on my boat trailer.

 I learned that there were 16" rims available for my trailer but I had about an inch of clearance from the fender with the 8 X 14.5 tires and the fender was almost touching the boat. If I was going to consider 16" tires that were 2+" bigger in diameter, I would have to do something to the suspension to give me more tire to fender clearance.

Fender can't be raised to accommodate larger diameter tires.

The 'real' tire will need more fender clearance.

 I thought about reversing the shackles or having a longer hanger welded to the frame to give me the clearance I needed. Shorter shackles might have been an option but I already had the shortest shackles available. Then a fellow boating buddy suggested a longer equalizer, and sent me a link to an equalizer that was 4" taller than the one I was using. It was just the ticket.

This is the old equalizer and ST tires. The angle of the equalizer was because I had jacked up one axle.

Old equalizer removed. New equalizer below old one.

The new equalizer installed giving me ~4 more inches of tire to fender clearance.

The new rims were about $50 apiece with free shipping. I placed the order at etrailer (https://www.etrailer.com/) on Sunday and the rims arrived on Wednesday. The equalizers were about $25 for two from etrailer and even though I ordered them after the rims had shipped I got the equalizers with the rims because I emailed the folks at etrailer and asked if they could combine the shipments - they couldn't but expedited the equalizers.. The tires from Walmart came in at less than $500 for 4 brand new "E" rated tires mounted on my new 16" trailer rims - these are the exact same tire I use on the van. I also sprung for 4 new shackle bolts at about $20 total. And now I have REAL tires on my boat trailer.

New REAL tires on my boat trailer - SWEET!

Both of these tires are brand new. The one on the top is an ST tire with pasty shallow tread. The bottom tire is the real thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update as of 4-2015

I've been challenged many times about using non-ST tires on a trailer, but have yet to hear of anyone that was sorry they they went to passenger or LT tires on their trailer.