Need some tire/rim education please

Dani

Dani

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So, I have inherited Steve's little travel trailer. 24 ft and it is the one we used the first year we were in MT and we used it as turkey and quail camp a few times. The problem is there is no spare tire and last turkey season we blew one of the tires bringing it back here to my house at the end of the season. Spectacularly blew it. So, I would like to have a spare for the trailer.

A perhaps not so much of a problem, other than potential jerkwad problem, is that someone either lost their spare tire or dumped it in my ditch in front of my house. I am leaning towards giving the benefit of the doubt since the rim does not look too bad and the rubber is still useable as a tire and it is still inflated. Buuuut finders keepers.

Sooooooo knowing nothing about tire and rim interchangeability or even what to begin searching for in keywords, I figured I would come here for some help. Here are the pictures with the tire numbers for the found spare and a tire on the trailer.

i-Pp3S8BV-X2.jpg


i-Ps3kxcZ-X2.jpg


R14 is on the trailer currently and D14 is on the found spare. Can I use the found rim and put an R14 tire on it? What do the R and D codes mean?

Is there a tires for dummies sort of link that can help me understand tires so I know what I am looking for when I go to get some?

Thanks

Dani
 
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R is radial, D is a bias ply tire. Biggest thing to check for is load rating. You wouldn't want to put too small of a load rating on a bigger trailer
 
Dani,

It would appear that the trailer rims and the "found" spare rim would be the same diameter. The bolt pattern may or may not interchange. Easiest way to check is to actually see if the "found" spare rim will bolt up to the trailer axel.

Please do a bit of research on DATE codes (link) I suspect ALL the tires are "out of date" for recommended tire service life. The tires should be no more than 6 years old. Even with tread left, the rubber compounds break down and tires just are not safe to run past the 6 year service life. Yep probably plenty out there on the road, but do your self a favor and check the date of manufacture.

Keeping "fresh" tires on the road will save you many headaches not to mention the safety factor if a tire blows at speed.
 
Thanks Kyle.

Dave, I checked the date on the trailer tires and they are five years old. I will be keeping an eye out for sales on tires.

The spare and the trailer are all five lug rims. I will need to jack the trailer up to verify the found rim will fit but it at least has the same number holes as I have lugs.
 
Dani,
When you jack up the trailer, grab each tire and try to wiggle it side to side. If a tire is loose the bearing may be shot and need to be replaced.
 
Always wise particularly on a trailer to go up a load rating if available in your tire size. Will extend tire life longer but may ride a little firmer. If you don't want to jack up trailer measure between center of wheel studs to see if pattern matches yours.
 
Dani said:
So, I have inherited Steve's little travel trailer. 24 ft and it is the one we used the first year we were in MT and we used it as turkey and quail camp a few times. The problem is there is no spare tire and last turkey season we blew one of the tires bringing it back here to my house at the end of the season. Spectacularly blew it. So, I would like to have a spare for the trailer.

A perhaps not so much of a problem, other than potential jerkwad problem, is that someone either lost their spare tire or dumped it in my ditch in front of my house. I am leaning towards giving the benefit of the doubt since the rim does not look too bad and the rubber is still useable as a tire and it is still inflated. Buuuut finders keepers.

Sooooooo knowing nothing about tire and rim interchangeability or even what to begin searching for in keywords, I figured I would come here for some help. Here are the pictures with the tire numbers for the found spare and a tire on the trailer.

[.img]https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Pp3S8BV/0/70963958/X2/i-Pp3S8BV-X2.jpg[/img]

[.img]https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Ps3kxcZ/0/847bbab8/X2/i-Ps3kxcZ-X2.jpg[/img]

R14 is on the trailer currently and D14 is on the found spare. Can I use the found rim and put an R14 tire on it? What do the R and D codes mean?

Is there a tires for dummies sort of link that can help me understand tires so I know what I am looking for when I go to get some?

Thanks

Dani
Click to expand...

Hi Dani,

You have gotten some info. Since it's a travel trailer I'd look for something like these.

https://www.etrailer.com/Tires-and-Wheels/Goodyear/724864519A.html

The reason I say this is these are designed for travel trailers, stock trailers...etc. These are 8 ply tires which have a much stronger side wall. Chances are if you were to go to your local Walmart you won't find any one that thinks to ask questions and you'll get 4 ply car tires. Also I'll suggest getting some tire covers. The sun does a number on tires and shielding them from the sun will greatly extend the life of your tires.
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I believe our camper has Carlisles we got from Pep Boys at a fairly good price. But I will check this weekend to make sure.
 
Definitely get trailer service rated tires that are rated for At least the maximum load on your trailer. For a single tire I would buy from a local tire dealer, they can always order one if they don?t have it in stock and you would have it in a couple days.

The last set of tires I purchased were from Tirerack dot com. I ordered four tires mounted on new rims that were delivered by UPS. I just had to install them on my trailer and the cost was only a few dollars more than just the tires ( free shipping). If you go that route you will need to know the hole pattern for the rim ( there are guides online on how the measure this).
 
Don?t know if this is what you are looking for. The 14 refers to the rim size and can?t be changed. The other. numbers refer to with of the tire in mm and the ratio of the tire height to width. You can sometimes juggle tires around that are the same umbers but you will want them to be the same overall height.

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2012/12/how-to-decode-tire-size-and-other-data/index.htm

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a16580427/how-to-read-a-tire-sidewall/

https://www.tireindustry.org/reading-tire-sidewall

Mark
 
Thanks a lot y'all. You guys have really helped me out.

I'll check this weekend to be sure the rim fits the trailer and I'll check out the bearings.

I wanna get this badboy ready for turkey season so I have a month to get finished with all of my stuff.
 
Tod,

I bought Steve's 2018 Chevy 2500HD Silverado so I am not worried about being under powered vehicle wise. I definitely would be if I were using the FJCruiser (which is now pushing 230,000 miles...gotta love toyotas).

The trailer is a 24' Coachmen Shasta and I think you're right about the about 6K GVWR.

Dani
 
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Well, no question you are good there in that case with the 3/4 ton. I was wondering about the FJ, it may be rated for close to the trailer weight, but iffy. Great!

For tires, you have got a lot of good info. The thing I'll say about camper tires is that I'll never run ST tires and use LT tires. LT tires are better built and hold up better. Some will say that ST tires are specially designed for trailer's needs, I say that they are specially designed to be cheap. Spend time on a camper forum and you will see blow out after blow out of ST tires. Running gravel for any length of time an LT tire will shine with it greater cut resistance. It can be a little tougher to find LTs with the proper specs, but it is worth it in my opinion. When I upgraded to LTs, I had to buy new wheels, but mine were looking a little ragged anyway and the price is pretty minimal.

Wheels vary in: 1) diameter, 2) bolt pattern AND (not mentioned) 3) width. Looking at tire specs there will be a range of width wheels that are OK, so something to check too. If you want some help thinking about LT tires, let me know. If you aren't going to tow much, I'd just get STs, but if I was going to do some longer trips, think about it.
 
That's interesting Tod about the ST vs LT and something I am interested in exploring for the trailer.

It will be tougher and I may need to stay closer to home (not going to MT every year but maybe trips to KS or NE or SD or OK most years) but I do want to continue to travel for bird hunting. The it will be tougher part is that I only earn three weeks of vacation a year (and not all at once) and I will now need to worry about travel time on both ends of my trip. That wasn't something I had to worry about when Steve was alive. If having better tires on the trailer will save me a load of headaches later, then I am all for that.
 
That's interesting Tod. I hadn't heard that before about st vs lt tires for trailers. I appreciate your knowledge and experience on the subject, but it really goes against what I'm seeing from other sources like
https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=219

Not doubting your conclusions but guess I need to do more investigating for my own edification.
 
Pete,

If I'm reading that correctly, it isn't saying that the LT tires are inferior to the ST tires. It's saying that the P rated tires are inferior for towing purposes. P would be passenger rated for like cars? Am I reading the article correctly?
 
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Pete McMiller said:
That's interesting Tod. I hadn't heard that before about st vs lt tires for trailers. I appreciate your knowledge and experience on the subject, but it really goes against what I'm seeing from other sources like
https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=219

Not doubting your conclusions but guess I need to do more investigating for my own edification.
Click to expand...

The industry is trying to sell cheaply made tires that have a larger markup for trailers. Look at the weight of an ST vs an LT size for size - there is a lot more rubber in an LT. Look at the speed ratings of and ST, much lower than an LT. Hang out at an active RV forum and watch the reports of ST failures roll in. LTs have a LOT more tread and last longer.
 
Dani said:
Pete,

If I'm reading that correctly, it isn't saying that the LT tires are inferior to the ST tires. It's saying that the P rated tires are inferior for towing purposes. P would be passenger rated for like cars? Am I reading the article correctly?
Click to expand...

LTs come standard on some campers. I've never heard of P rated tire on a camper and generally it is recommended against to use a P rated.

Finding an appropriate LT is often tough, I spent the last 20 minutes looking for a good substitution for you in an LT adn didn't find one. Usually you need to tweak the size slightly to get one to fit, keeping load capacity in mind.
 
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