Tires & propane mods...advice?

[jesus_man]

My trailer came with the dreaded chinese bomb Castle Rock tires in a 225/75r15 flavor. I plan to ditch those the minute I bring the trailer home.

I know lots of folks recommend The GY Endurance tires. I am not entirely opposed to that, but I was also hoping to give it a more rugged look with something a bit more aggressive. Any recommendations? It has to be rated for 2500lbs or more.

Are there implications to upsizing the tires a bit? I want to stick with a 15" wheel, but I might like to go to a larger tire to gain a bit more clearance.

I also want to fix the short-cut FR made with my camper and replace the propane pigtail with a longer one and replace the cover that came with my TT because they cut a 4" hole in the back of it so the short pigtail would reach.

My question is, that propane fitting mounted to the nose is probably fairly standard in size correct? This is what I am looking at using as a replacement:
https://www.etrailer.com/Propane/MB-...75-48-MBS.html

As to the cover, are there better ones than the plastic covers that come with the trailer?

Thank you!

[Germanrazor]

Yep....ours just came home yesterday and we have CR tires too. Going to look to GY Endurance for the money. A lot of great reviews and the price is right as Bob Barker use to say!

[jesus_man]

Yeah, price isn't bad. I am torn between selling the whole tire & wheel package and putting on something black with better rubber, or just selling the tires.

[Geotrash]

I'm having Goodyear Endurance tires installed on our 2021 Alpha Wolf this week, though I have to say that the Castle Rocks have been solid for 1,000 miles of towing so far and don't look any worse for the wear. It's worth noting that under the new RVIA guidelines, manufacturers install tires with a larger margin between trailer weight and tire ratings. All the same, I'm swapping mine out anyway.

[Off Rez]

I had the CRs for about 3k miles and they did ok. But the center of the tread started cupping. After reading so many posts about catastrophic failures I upgraded to GY Endurance. They have been very solid and true.

As to going up in size, I did that as well as going up in load rating. Just make sure you have clearance on the wheel wells as mine started bumping when going over rough highway.

[debit]

I also increased the load range from D to E on my new Endurance tires. The TT sits higher.
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Ram 2500
Surveyor 251rks

[hkreck]

I've had the CR tire on my TT for the last two years and have about 6000 miles on them they don't look any worse for that travel but they are 3 years old and I plan to replace them this year before heading out on a long trip. Have been looking at the GY endurance and plan to talk with my tire man when I go to buy to see what he recommends.

[jesus_man]

I need to measure the existing clearance and get an idea of how much bigger I can go without trouble. I should probably find an easy way to get it to the max 4,999lbs. Perhaps have an "open house" but the guests have to step on a scale first?!?!

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by hkreck

I've had the CR tire on my TT for the last two years and have about 6000 miles on them they don't look any worse for that travel but they are 3 years old and I plan to replace them this year before heading out on a long trip. Have been looking at the GY endurance and plan to talk with my tire man when I go to buy to see what he recommends.

Right now it's more likely to be which one he can get. I put Sailuns on the daily-driver Tahoe because they were the only ones my guy could get.

[mnoland30]

The propane hose is standard. I assume you only have one propane tank. If you have two, they make a double pigtail with an automatic switching valve between them. I have two tanks, and my cover blew off on the road somewhere. I bought a vinyl one from Camping World, and it has lasted 4 years in the Southwest sun. Not a bad idea to tape up the hose or cover it with a wiring sleeve to keep the sun from making it brittle so fast.

I highly recommend upgrading the load rating. If you go on dirt or gravel roads, you need higher axle and tire rating to be safe.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by mnoland30

The propane hose is standard. I assume you only have one propane tank. If you have two, they make a double pigtail with an automatic switching valve between them. I have two tanks, and my cover blew off on the road somewhere. I bought a vinyl one from Camping World, and it has lasted 4 years in the Southwest sun. Not a bad idea to tape up the hose or cover it with a wiring sleeve to keep the sun from making it brittle so fast.

I highly recommend upgrading the load rating. If you go on dirt or gravel roads, you need higher axle and tire rating to be safe.

After having a full 20 lb. grill bottle and a 30 lb. trailer bottle both emptied by squirrels in the same week, I covered all the hoses in this product. It's a slip fit and if you cut the length carefully, only metal fittings will be exposed at both ends. Easy to cut with any saw. I probably used a hacksaw.

[jesus_man]

Thanks for the info. I will probably buy the 4ft pigtail and run with it for now. If we end up where we might be remote camping more often, I may consider upgrading to two tanks at that point.

The plastic covers prone to blowing off? I saw some fabric covers that looked appealing, but I worry how nasty they would get in dusty, rainy, etc conditions. Vinyl should wash off pretty easily.

[Hclarkx]

I switched from China Bombs to Maxxis on my 15" rims after one year. Went from C load rating to D load rating. Looked better, handled a bit better. After four years on the Maxxis I went to G/Y Endurance E load rating. All are OEM tire size, just higher load ratings. I thought the E load rating might look awkwardly large, but mostly they look stronger.

Supposedly wheels have a pressure limit. I could not find a pressure limit stamping on mine. But, higher load rated tires don't require higher pressure though they do allow higher pressure. Because my original C's were at 90% of their 50 psi max load rating and the higher load rated tires would have the same load limit at 50 psi, I raised the pressure to 57 psi (cold) to provide more load margin. I figured my wheels are probably rated 65 psi but in any event, going up 7 psi seemed safe enough.

[jesus_man]

Thanks for the feedback!
GY Endurance tout a 2,830 max load at 80 psi, which my GVW is 4,999, so that is somewhat of a safety margin.

Anyone have experience with putting LT tires on your trailer?