Dump Trailer Tires: Radial or Bias?

windyhill4.2 wrote:

Berlin wrote:In my experience a good - not chinese made - bias tire will blow out less catastrophically and less frequently than a radial for high speed trailer use. Radials get better fuel economy, bounce less, and wear longer, but, there will be a higher failure rate of radials in trailer service. Some of the equipment rental places swear by using LT radials on trailers instead of trailer tires - better quality, fewer failures if you want to go radial.

^^^^^
This kind of uninformed ,uneducated thinking is the same as the one about retreads on big truck tires..... Tire tread rubber collected from the highways has proven that tread loss on new tires is more frequent than it is from tires that have been retreaded. Most all tread loss & tire failures like blowouts are caused by UNDER-INFLATION,piss poor maintenance on the tires.
The only way one could claim more failures on radial trailer tires than the bias trailer tires is..... bias tires on frequently used trailers wear out b4 they age to the point of blow out.... radials last longer & if not on a trailer that sees high yearly mileage will last long enough to get old enough to fail. I would still rather run radials on my trailer & throw them away with decent tread depth than to subject myself to the disadvantages of bias tires bouncing everything to death.

I just bought a brand new trailer for my business,i made them install radials.I bought from a dealer who sells trailers from major manufacturers. My preference would have been to have bought from a family run trailer manufacturer in a nearby town.... BUT,when talking to them about a trailer,i asked about radials being installed.The old guy I was talking to informed me with his mis-informed,uneducated rant about how that radial tires were no good & would fail as soon as they warmed up. His mistaken claim was that the steel belts heat up & that is the end of the tire. I asked him if he runs radials on his car... NO, he runs bias ! Well,anyone that thinks bias tires are better needs to spend a few yrs in a semi pulling trailers with radials vs the bias tire equipped container chassis trailer...... then report back to us your findings.
The issue of LT tires being used on a trailer was brought up earlier & I explained then how the LT tire would not likely be available in a heavy enough load rating in the size the OP was posting about.LT tires usually have 16/32"+ tread depth vs 10/32"on the trailer tire. The deeper tread will run warmer,will wear more erratically,will likely run more miles b4 wearout,which will likely mean it will get even older than the typical radial trailer tire,putting the LT tire into that failure category.

coaledsweat wrote:Don't see radials on construction trailers.

windyhill4.2 wrote:

coaledsweat wrote:Don't see radials on construction trailers.

Construction trailer as in a jobsite trailer ?

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:Thank to all who put up a lot of good information - plus a few good discussions

I went with the local tire guys recommendation and put on 4 each Supercargo ST225/75R15 LRE. I also replaced the spare with the same. I was a bit torn about putting the money to balance them and decided it'd be a good idea to try and reduce any additional squirming that might go un-noticed. Right out of the shop I could tell the difference. Smooth trailing even trailing. I've hauled 2 big loads of wet blocked logs to my friend's house clocking around 80 miles in 2 round trips. Feels good loaded and I think it takes the bumps in the road easier. Unloaded there's a big difference.

All 4 OEM bias tires that were on the trailer were nearly bald. They'd bounce at slow or fast speeds. I checked the date stamps on them. All were from mid 2010. If they had usable tread or not, it was time (maybe past time!) to change. Next job is to grease up the bearings and check torque on the lugs. Also have to set up a new WDH shank. New tow vehicle sits a bit higher and the hitch needs more drop to keep the rig level.