Trailer or passenger tires

[Kathy53]

Which is better to use with a light weight trailer? 10 or 12ft 79 plamor.

[Shadow Catcher]

After looking into the problems with trailer tires including a number of folks on this forum, and the fact that I could not find any not made in China I opted for a pair of Micheline Harmony passenger car tires. Compass Rose rode more softly and I did not feel at all concerned on our trip West.
You do need to be mindful of load rating but other than that I do not see a down side and I can go int great detail including a Good Sam Club survey that indicated a 30% failure rate on RV's.

[GuitarPhotog]

Passenger tires on my teardrop also, but there aren't many trailer tires for 15" rims, which is what my 1948 trailer uses.

Wearing out is less of a danger than "aging out." Those light weight tires may look good even after several years on the trailer, but if they are more than 5 or 6 years old they are due for replacement.

Ask me how I know about tire age codes

<Chas>

[rmef27]

Im a service manager for a national auto tire and service company.Ive been doing this for for going on 16 years and have been asked this same question several times.With a tear drop you can use either and be fine because load range wont come into play.The exception being of course if you were to build an extremely large tear drop with alot of weight involved.It would need to be pretty dang large though.If you take a p205/75r15 tire that I deal with alot the load capacity is 1598lbs per tire so thats quite a bit of carrying capacity for a teardrop.

That being said if you were to look at an equivalent size in a trailer tire,if it were a load range c you would gain a couple hundred lbs of capacity.Another thing that you get with trailer tires is that they are designed to track better.Meaning they are not suppose to follow grooves in the road and so on as much.Wether or not that is really noticable I cant say.I have towed on both and cant say that one is better than the other but if I had to choose I would personally go with trailer tires.

As mentioned before though pay attention to DOT PRODUCTION DATES.When you look at a dot code the last 4 digits will be in a slightly highlited or raised rubber area and the first two numbers dictate the week and the last digits are the year.If they are over 7 years old replace them.Even if they look perfect.If you cant figure out the dot code take a pic and shoot me a message of it to me and I will let you know what the date is.Hope this helps and if you have any questions let me know.

[pete42]

car tires are easier to find most roadside shops have them trailer tires no so much.
like remf27 says bigger trailers stick with trailer tires.
I have heard Carlisle tires to be very bad but I will tell you I pulled my 26 foot travel trailer years
to Florida and to the east coast using them without a problem.
they were replaced because they exceeded their DOT life which is widely accepted to be 5 years.

pete

[Kathy53]

My trailer is a 10 or 12 footer. It is a standee. What about using truck tires maybe the kind you would use on a small truck like a toyota or S10. Currently it has 185 70R 14 881 (I don't know what the 881 is for) on it For the spare it has 195/75R14. Doesn't the trailer tire have 6 ply like a truck has 6 ply. The person I bought it from thinks it weighs less than 900. I kind of agree as there is no frills on it. I can push it around as easy as my 670 lb teardrop. I want to keep the trailer as low as I can and be safe as I am pulling it with a 2000 outback. I can feel a little drag on it. That was going 55 driving it at 50 I didn't feel anything. I try going the speed limit when pulliing the trailer. Next year I maybe getting a taller vehicle but for now it is my outback.

[Martiangod]

I'm an RV tech and have worked on traiers for over 28 years, I put lo profile car tires on mine. a 10 foot standy.
My TTT is 3400 lbs, It just completed a 4000 mile maiden voyage with another 1500 lbs in it.
Not one iota of problem. Trailer tires are all chinese made now, they rot away in 2 years and are in my opinion unsafe when new, never mind after a couple years. Now go back 10 years or older when most tires were made in north america my answer would be different.
My low pros are rated for 1250 lbs each. On a single axel thats 2500 lbs load rating on a tandem like mine thats 5000 lbs.
Go a decent car tire, cheaper then trailer rated and better

[rmef27]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but almost all tires including car or truck tires are made overseas.Even with american owned companies.If you actually look at country of origin they normally are not from north america.

[rmef27]

Kathy you can definitely use 6 ply load range truck tires and be fine.Though in that size in 14' they may be a little tough to find in much other than a trailer tire.meaning they make passenger rated in that size in car tires but finding a car tire in a 6 ply in that load range may be a little tricky.They definitely have those in 6 ply in trailer tires that size though.Im just thinking off the top of my head here since Im not at work and cant jump on a computer to double check,lol.When I say car tire I mean car and or truck by the way.