Replacement tire suggestions?

[mrclean1010]

Anyone have any good suggestions for replacement tires for their Rockwood TT? I have the Loadstar 205/75/14. I am not seeing to many choices in this size. I want something I don't have to worry about.

[Rsgtivr6]

The best reviews I have seen have been Maxxis M8008's, or Khumo Radial 857's. The Khumo's are load range D and on Tire Rack for $127/ea. You would have to check a local for Maxxis. I know Discount Tire sells them up here, but I don't remember what they ran.
I have seen mixed reviews for the Goodyear Marathons. Some love them, some hate them. I have also seen some good reviews for Towmax. The ones I specificaly will stay away from are Carlisle, Trail Express or other off brands. Almost always hear they are garbage.
Just my $.02

[mike2tall]

Has anyone heard of or run Greenball tires? One of my local tire dealers has used them for eleven years and swears they have not had any problems with them.

They are made in New Zealand. When i do a google search i don't get much information other than Michelin and BF Goodrich come up.

A set of four, load range E runs $490 mounted, balanced and road hazard. Load range D runs about $5 a piece less. I would have to change wheels to run E load range. These are 15" tires.

[mike2tall]

Here is a link to their website. http://www.greenball.com/about.html
Pasted this with my phone.

I'm not so sure about them. I see they make several brands.

[mrclean1010]

Thanks for the suggestions. I ordered some Kumho 857's after reading nothing but great reviews online. They were actually a little hard to find in a 205/75/14, but America's Tires carries them, $137 a piece.

[amxpress]

Be sure to have your new Kumho tires balanced and install steel valve stems.
Good luck.

[MilCop4523]

Greenballs are a solid tire used by a lot of dealers (tire) in NB Canada. However 2 I spoke with urged the KUMHO 857s. So I put them onto our 2012 trailer. Loadstars were not an option...

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by amxpress

Be sure to have your new Kumho tires balanced and install steel valve stems.
Good luck.

And a TPS system of some sort to protect your investment.

[bob213]

I hope you measured because the Kumhos are alot bigger than the tire you had. The Kuhmo is not an ST so the aspect ratio is different. 195/75/14 is the replacement size for your 205's. I don't have room for a larger tire on my trailer, I hope you do.
Can your rims handle the extra psi of a load range "D"?
50lb PSI to 65 lb PSI is a 30% increase. Make sure your rims can handle that.
I have them on my boat and they are a great tire!

[7s6m7i6c]

I got a good deal on etrailer.com for a Loadstar spare plus a mount and cover. Fast shipping and took just a few minutes to install. Seems like a quality tire and the pressure was correct when it arrived.

[Fire Instructor]

Originally Posted by amxpress

Be sure to have your new Kumho tires balanced and install steel valve stems.
Good luck.

Better to use brass than steel for the valve stems.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Fire Instructor

Better to use brass than steel for the valve stems.

I have the brass ones and I wish I had the steel ones. The brass ones still have a rubber boot at the bottom that allows flexing when used with a TPMS.

The steel ones are rigid right to the rim.

[Fire Instructor]

Interesting.... My tire dealer talked me OUT of the steel valve stems, as the rigidity is fine as long as all that's on there is a tiny plastic valve cover. Put the weight and torque of a TPS sending unit (even at only an ounce or two), and you create an inflexable lever-arm, prone to evetual failure. I used the same brass-stem, rubber seat stems that Firestone uses for the high-pressure GM truck wheels.

[bob213]

I tried to go with steel bolt in valves and my tire place did not have one that would work in the rims that come with the new Surveyors. I'm not saying they don't make one, he didn't have one. He did express the same thing that Fire Instructor said about being too rigid. I don't understand or really agree, but he said he thought the brass high pressure would be better in the long run. We will see. At least now if one lets go myTPMS will let me know.....

[mrclean1010]

Bob213,

I have not picked them up yet, but I did order the same size that I had in the Loadstars, (205/75/14). Are you 100% certain that I need he 195's? Will they sit about the same height as the 205's I currently have?

Also, how do I verify if the rims will handle the additional PSI? They are just the stock aluminum rims that comes on the Ultralights. I didn't realize it would be this difficult to upgrade my tires.

[Rsgtivr6]

With the Khumo, overall diameter is 27". With a standard (using GY Marathons as the example) ST205/75-14, the diameter is 26.1". You gain a half an inch height, I doubt that will make a huge difference, but you may need to adjust your WDH height if it does effect it noticeably. By comparison, the 195 is 26.2" overall so it would be the direct replacement for a standard ST 205/75-14

[Rsgtivr6]

Also, if it's a tandem, remember that you will lose 1" of gap between the tires. Not sure how much that will effect anything, just putting that out there...

[Herk7769]

The rims are stamped on the brake side surface with the PSI rating.

The easiest tire to check is the spare.
My steel rims came stamped with 50PSI max.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...rims-6959.html

Has lots of info. One link is not working, unfortunately. If someone previously downloaded it, please repost in the files section here.

[Fire Instructor]

Originally Posted by mrclean1010

Bob213,

I have not picked them up yet, but I did order the same size that I had in the Loadstars, (205/75/14). Are you 100% certain that I need he 195's? Will they sit about the same height as the 205's I currently have?

Also, how do I verify if the rims will handle the additional PSI? They are just the stock aluminum rims that comes on the Ultralights. I didn't realize it would be this difficult to upgrade my tires.

I also replaced my Carlisle 205/75/14's with Kumho 857's. Based on my research, I ordered the 195/85/14's for the "aspect correction", between the 75 aspect (North American) and 85 aspect (European). Not sure that I can explain exactly what that means, but anyone that I talked to that really understands tires said that this was the correct move....

When I installed them, I jacked the trailer and took them off one side at a time. The height needed to take the tire off had to be raised, just slightly, to get the new tires on, but the gap between the tires on the two axles seems to be the same.

Also, the tire people that I spoke to all told me that the 50 psi steel rims would be fine at the 65 psi that the Kumho's require, as long as I upgraded the stems to a better quality valve-stem; something that I had planned to do anyway. I am fortunate that my Fire Chief is a 20+ year manager for Firestone, so he was a big help in discussing and researching, though in the end, I was able to get the Kumho's through Tire Rack at a better price than he could through his suppliers....

You are correct on your assessment of the difficulty and confusion to do this correctly! It's much more difficult with the 14" wheels, as there are so few reasonable options! And the way that the axles are spaced, I'm doubtful that I could have made 15" wheels and tires work.

[bob213]

The above measurements are correct. Hopefully for you, it won't make a difference. On my new Surveyor Select the wheels are so close together that I can not afford the 1" increase.
my rims are stamped 1900 lbs. but no PSI max. The tire dealer I talked to also thought they would handle the 65 lb. PSI with high pressure or metal valve stems.