Quote:
Originally Posted by smithmdsmith
...I ran p-metric tires on my 23 foot boat trailer...
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Herk,
I have learned a great deal over the last few months from your posts and the discussions you have participated in on this board and I really appreciate your contributions. I know your heart is in the right place. But, I must say you should read posts more carefully before responding.
I ran p-metric on my boat trailer, not my travel trailer. P-metric on a camper is a terrible idea, but mostly because of load ratings and sway...not because of twisting turns, etc. I could give you all kinds of anecdotal "evidence" from 20 years of experience with running p-metric tires on my double-axle boat trailer including backing it in and out of state park camp sites two or three times nearly every summer weekend while running at 85% of stated tire weight capacity.
In 9 months of camper ownership I have had 2 catastrophic (tread separating, steel belt shredding) tire failures of 3 year-old (per the DOT code) Goodyear Marathons. That is exactly 2 more catastrophic failures than I experienced in the 16 years that I ran p-metric tires on my boat trailer (and I didn't replace them until they were 8 years old and worn out). One of the Goodyear failures happened at 3 mph (yes, 3, not 30 or 300...it was a school zone). The other happened while sitting in my camp site. Both times, the air pressure had been checked that day (50 psi). In one case, I had driven about 8 miles at no more than 40 mph, and in the other case, the trailer had not moved that day.
I replaced all 4 tires with the Carlisle Radial Trail RH because that was all Discount Tire had in stock that would meet the load requirements for my trailer while still fitting in the wheel well.
My subsequent research of Carlisle tires has left me with little confidence in trailer tires as a whole. I will replace these tires in 2 years with a 185r14 D-load rated "van" tire. It is about 1/4 inch smaller in diameter than my current tires, has a higher load rating, and has a 106 mph speed rating (not that I intend to achieve such a velocity). They are marketed for use primarily on vans such as VW camper vans and those Dodge Sprinter type vans...both very heavy vehicles built to carry a heavy load with small tires...but are also marketed as trailer tires. My opinion is that if those tires failed as often as ST tires, there would be a lot of dead people filing law suits.
OP, I have put about 1,000 miles on my Carlisle Radial Trail RH tires without incident. I will put another 1,000 miles on them this weekend. I will not buy them again, but that is based on my experience with ST tires in general--not these specific tires.