Dump Trailer Tires: Radial or Bias?

I'm looking for opinions from people with experience. Thanks in advance for your help. My 10,000 GVR dump trailer needs new tires. It's got ST225/75D15 on it now. I can't recall who, but someone recommended to stay with bias belted. If I remember correctly, they said radial sidewalls were too soft. From what I've read so far it looks like ST radials are plenty stiff in the sidewall category.

Another consideration is that I occasionally back the loaded trailer up over a belgian block curb. Cresting the curb must surely put a heavy momentary load on the belt. These tires have been on for 5 years and no problems yet, just worn down and getting old.

I'd like to move up from 8 ply to 10 ply. Trailer has 2 x 6,500 Lb Dexter axles on it. Price difference is too small to worry about when you consider the hassle of a failure on the road loaded with 4 ton of coal.

Excellent point Windy.

I personally hate pulling a trailer with bias tires..
Every pebble,every tar strip,every joint .. becomes a vertical bounce for a trailer equipped with bias tires,primarily when running lite or empty.

I think you will need to stay with the ST tire as it is very unlikely to find a 15" LT tire rated over 6 ply.

If your trailer gets very few miles & the tires always rot b4 wearing out & the price is greatly more for radials,then you might weigh all that b4 deciding .

If you use your trailer for longish trips rather than short hops....

GO RADIAL.

I just bought a new trailer to haul lawn tractors & other equipment.
It had bias,i insisted that radials get installed.

We have 4 gooseneck trailers. All have tandem 7500lbs axles with 17" tires. We run 14 ply radials (G rated).
Like Windy, we tried some bias tires over the years and have always gone back to the radials.
The G rated tires are a little more expensive and HEAVY. Lots of steel in them.
We need to curb our trailers from time to time (avoid it as much as possible) and have not had issues as of yet. The trailers weigh in the 10,000 to 12,000 pound range.

Thanks for the experienced replies. I whole heartedly agree with the bouncy nature of the OEM bias tires. Empty, it hops easily and continues the cycle once started for too long.

The dealer has the radial 10 ply in stock. To go with metal stems and the 10 ply radial, I'll be out $280 without replacing the spare which I didn't rotate and luckily haven't used. Bias would be $120 more because he has to order them.

He recommended replacing the spare because of the age. I keep the spare inside when not on the road. How often do you replace a spare? Peace of mind makes me seriously think about replacing it too. Longest run I've made is 10 hrs one way to northern NC. Recently, it's been mainly 2-3 hr runs one way.

Personally, I'd never buy another bias ply for anything. Radials have come so far that they very seldom ever fail now. They don't hop like bias will, nor do they hunt for a straight line like bias will.

Bought a set for a car when I was young and broke. Good thing I couldn't afford much booze then as they'd have been the death of me. They loved to track every crack in the road, and track hard! Would toss you from outside the lane to over the line in a split second. Traded them off for a well worn set of radials and poof...problem gone.

Wish someone would have warned me way back yonder but I guess that's called education.

For those younger folks who never had the misfortune of driving on bias tires,radials are a big blessing in another area...

FLATS... We had lots of flats with bias tires,any sharp stone could easily poke a hole..

Radials have been such a blessing in that area,very seldom does one have a flat tire anymore.

Probably an area that most don't think about & have never experienced is bias vs radials on a big farm tractor. What a vast difference in the ride,the radials took much of the shock out of the bumps.

I run a 7000 GWVR dump trailer and now buying Carlisle USA trail ST225/75-15 D bias. I do a fair amount of scrapping and scrap yards can be tough on tires. The Carlisle's have a flat rib tread and are made in the USA. I get them from Summit Racing.

I pull a 14ft. enclosed trailer(twin 3500lb Daytons) and it came with Bias plys. I wore them out and replaced all 4 with radials. The trailer was easy to haul with the bias tires but became even more so with the radials......it just sets there and does not bounce around at all. I have curbed it a lot as the streets here are crazy narrow at intersections.....no problems at all.

Kevin

windyhill4.2 wrote:For those younger folks who never had the misfortune of driving on bias tires,radials are a big blessing in another area...

FLATS... We had lots of flats with bias tires,any sharp stone could easily poke a hole..

Radials have been such a blessing in that area,very seldom does one have a flat tire anymore.

Probably an area that most don't think about & have never experienced is bias vs radials on a big farm tractor. What a vast difference in the ride,the radials took much of the shock out of the bumps.

You said it. We pretty much said goodbye to flat tires when we switched all the silage trucks from bias 10.00x20 tires to 11R22.5 radials. The amount of steel in those radials is amazing. I run radials on nearly everything.

My first experience with radial tractor tires was when my dad bought a John Deere 8850 that came with 8 Firestone 23 degree radials. They were the longest wearing and best riding tires we had ever seen. After that nearly ever set of replacement tractor tires we bought were radials.

I think the spare is ok. Never used and always kept out of the elements.

About your spare, the worst thing for tires is not using them. Sitting unused the rubber dries out, becomes brittle. Use causes the oils to heat up and saturate the rubber compounds. I would trust a worn tire that has seen regular use over a new tire that has been sitting for years. Maybe get another rim and keep one of the other tires as a backup spare.

I understand your point, but just let me add I have seen the previously described spare, I don't think it will be an issue.

I have seen far more small trailers with missing wheels and hubs than flat tires. While you are in the tire mode...repack the wheel bearings and make sure the preload is correct.

After it is back together and you use the trailer a little, give each tire a shake to make sure the bearing is still snug and re-torque the lugs.

I'm fairly sure I was gonna do that for Dave last time I had the trailer here....never got around to it.