My other question is about WDH?Sway. I hope no one has ever had a blow out, but was the WDH a hinderance or help?

Will be towing with a 19/20 F150, V8 (Texas Edition) with factory tow package. E2 WDH

Yeah, I have those Westlakes too on our HRE 195 and they've done over 10,000 miles in a year (including gravel/dirt) with no problems.  They look like they could go another 20,000 miles.

Not so sure about other OEM brands that seem to have "issues"...

Over the past 10 years we have traveled over 36,000 miles on the originals that came with our 177, Tire King (china) load range 'C' retired after 7 years, built in 2009) and currently Hartland (china) Load range 'C' built 2015.  Granted the 177 is lighter than most others at 2440 empty and 2851 loaded with a full FW tank.  Will be going to a Carlisle load range 'D' next time at Discount Tire.  Have kept a close eye on tire pressure (50 psi) before going out in the morning and have had no issues.

  Have noted a number of tire failures on the FB site for R-Pods, but rarely is it mentioned if they had kept the recommended pressure in them or not.  Also see a lot of mods, including hardwood flooring, that jack up the weight to the degree that in some cases the weight limit stated on the tire is probably breached by the time all the 'nuts and bolts' are added for a trip down the road.  Finally speed is another factor as I have witnessed a number of 'Jehu's or Ben Hurs' that are cruise down the interstates pulling their TT at scary speeds, easily in excess of 80 mph. 

Do your homework, keep an eye on tire pressure, weight, and the speed designation on the tire and you will be fine.  Even gye have been known to blow apart or have belts shift due to manufacturing defects or owner oversight by not monitoring tire pressure.

That said, they are an odd size, and direct replacements are not available in the after market. When it comes time to replace these in 2022 or 2023, we will replace them with a 15" load range D tire.

I'm 98% sure ours are LR "D".

Yup...found my earlier post:

They can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true!  Right? 

The OEM tires on a 180 ARE just barely enough.  But they are enough.  And I don't think they are China Bombs.  Their rating is equal to the axle rating.  We have no idea what factor of safety they have over rating, but you can be sure they have some.  This summer, my tire store said trailer tires got scarce.  So, I would run them, but respect their speed rating (65 MPH, I think), load rating (weigh your trailer and tow vehicle) and be sure they are always at recommended pressure, cold.  Expect the pressure to go up as much as 5 psi when hot, but never air down a hot tire.  Replace them when they are getting old or worn and spend the savings on hoses and cables. 

I changed mine at the recommended 5 years and they looked great, but the cost of repairs from a blown tire exceed the cost of tires, so I replaced them.  I went with a Load range D Carlisle radial.  I got a bump in load capacity and speed rating, both a comfort, mentally, but not a usable difference. 

Since retiring we moved to Arizona where we can get "warm" summers, so protecting the tires is a high priority.

Happy trails....

+1  100%  Even though I have traveled with china tires for the past 10 years with over 36,000+ miles on 2 sets of tires with NO issues I have always noted a fair amount of flex on the side wall with the "C" rated tire.  This spring I plan to upgrade to the Carlisle "D" tires as my Hartland tires hit the 5 year anniversary mark last November.

However, as one tire guy explained to me:

"Tires are a tough product to differentiate. They all look the same from the outside, and it's what's inside that counts."

For example, with a product that I am personally familiar, escalators, the quality difference between the international brands and knockoffs is substantial despite the fact that the knockoffs are often copies of the major brands.  The knockoff manufacturers don't have the technical capacity to design the equipment.  Often they cut corners to offer a lower price and they source parts from questionable manufactures that look okay until you do some destructive testing and find the metallurgy seriously lacking.  If you want to see some videos of the consequences of going cheap on escalators, do a YouTube search.  I won't post the links because they are way too graphic.

The same situation exists with tires.  There are lots of shortcuts that can be taken building tires, from poor rubber compounds that can't withstand the heat, to poor layup on tire mandrils, inadequate cooking of the tire, and poor sourcing of the components.  Those tires all look the same to the casual observer, but when put to the test the failure rates are uncomfortably higher.  Having defended tire failure cases, I will never buy cheap knockoff tires.  The cost difference is just not worth the risk.

Though product liability exposure is a deterrent to the production of inferior tires, or other products for that matter, it is no guarantee that crappy tires don't enter the market place.  And, if the tire producer is off shore, it's often not possible to sue them for the consequences of a defective tire.  The retailer is stuck with the responsibility and in some instances does not have adequate insurance or other assets to pay for the consequences of a catastrophic accident.  When you buy your cheap tire at Joe Bob's Tires and Trailer Service, you my find that Joe has limited insurance and is on the edge of bankruptcy.

As for whether manufacturers add to costs to make a better product, that happens all the time.  That's one reason cars cost so much more now than they did 60 years ago.  But the cars of today typically last 5 or 6 times longer.  A car with 50K miles in 1960 was considered beyond the mid-point of its service life while today, a car with 50K miles is considered praticaly new.  Of course, manufacturers try to cut costs all the time, but usually they try to do it without sacrificing quality.  All the marketing in the world didn't save the US auto industry when they turned out crummy cars.  They lost market share to quality vehicles like Toyota, until they raised their standards and costs and started to compete with highly reliable vehicles.

Bottom line, regardless of the country of origin, if you buy cheap trailer tires, you get cheap trailer tires that are not as safe or reliable as others on the market.  Or another way to look at it, when you buy an electric power tool at Harbor Freight you won't get the same quality as buying a Makita, Skil, or Milwaukee despite the fact that they're all made in China.  

Originally posted by lostagain Rubber compounds in tires are usually proprietary.  Tire rubber is not a fungible.  The chemical engineering that goes into tire rubber can make the difference between a tire that can withstand the heat and flexion a trailer tire experiences or doesn't.  The higher quality the rubber the more reliable the tire.  The same is true with the adhesives and the vulcanization process in building the tire.  A manufacturer can use lower or higher quality adhesives and shortcut the vulcanization process, thus producing a lower quality tire and saving cost of production.

+1  Recently found that out with snow tires we have purchased with the Michelin Latitude X-Ice label.

Have used these on our vehicles for a number of years for winter use only until a neighbor of mine who drives a 1999 Lexus came up my drive last summer with that very tire on his car.  I asked him, "Did you forget it is summer?  Why are you still driving with those snow tires on in the middle of July?"  His response was that he uses them year round and when he asked me how many miles did I think he had on them I wasn't even close as he claimed he had nearly 50,000 miles on them (they still looked in very good condition) and they were 7 years old.

So I figured that is good enough for me.  No longer wanting to advertise for Goodyear, I got rid of them and had the Michelin Latitude X-Ice installed on my F-150 last October.  I plan on running them year round and will see how many miles they are good for.  The old traditional snow tires I used to purchase would usually get maybe 30,000 miles before replacement.

But another word about Michelin (as I am not advertising for them).  On a 1997 Grand Caravan I used to own many years ago I had a problem of not being able to go up my driveway with as little as 2" of snow, and that vehicle had front wheel drive.  It had Michelins on it and they were nearly new with not even 20,000 miles.  They were an "A" rated performance tire and therein was the problem.  The rubber was so hard, even though the tread looked almost brand new, that the tire would only spin when traveling uphill on a snow covered black top drive.  They were replaced with a different tire by another manufacture and the problem was corrected.

It is true that many name brands market to consumers concerns and fears and emphasize that their product is more reliable.  On the other hand unknown companies entering a market, such as tire manufacturing, are not necessarily putting safety and reliably as high as the majors.  They are not experienced in the chemical engineering of rubber and may be more likely to make compounding mistakes.  When radial tires were first introduced to the mass market back in the 70's there was a huge learning curve that all manufacturers had to go through.  The old Firestone 500 was famous for heating up and having tread separations, due to improper rubber compounding, fabric layup, and carcass design.  There were many accidents due to the failures.  For unknown tire companies, who knows?  They may make an absolutely bullet proof trailer tire, but the odds are not in your favor.  

So it all boils down to your tolerance for the risk of a tire failure.  If you are prepared to take the risk to save a few bucks, that is a philosophical choice that one is free to make, provided one is ready to accept responsibility for the consequences.

Regarding Harbor Freight power tools, they look pretty much the same when you take them out of the box, just like a tire.  It isn't until you do destructive testing that you find that they are not in the same league as Skil or Milwaukee.  Of course it's impractical to do destructive testing on tires or power tools, so when you buy them you make a conscious decision, in part because of marketing hype, which will serve your needs better and be more reliable for the time you plan to use it.  

51 inches of snow in three days here in Idaho.  Skiing yesterday at Sun Valley was amazing!  Wood River Pod isn't going any where until spring break, which means I need to keep it clear so that I can get it out in March.  Snow blower got a workout yesterday.  Today I'll clear the roof.

Happy New Year!   

As I have said before, buying trailer tires is a calculate risk that one takes with really no functional data.  All you can do to protect yourself and others, is to buy them from a well known manufacturer or a very solvent retailer in the event you have a tire failure that results in a catastrophic accident.  If you want to buy a tire made by an unknown manufacturer from a retailer of doubtful solvency, just keep in mind that if something bad happens you may be SOL.  For some, saving that few bucks of price difference is worth it, for others, they are not willing to take the risk.  The $40 or $50 buck you save may be penny wise and pound foolish or it may be well worth the savings.  It's all just a gamble.  For myself, though I live in Nevada, I don't patronize the casinos.  

So those Carolina made in USA by union labor moccasin toe boots I bought to work on Habitat for Humanity houses were a giant waste of money when I could have bought something that looks similar at Wally World for half the price.  No thanks, my friend, I'd prefer to spend my money supporting union shops in the USA.  And, I'll give you ten to one odds that my union made boots will last more far, far longer than those Wally World knockoffs.

More often than not, you pay for what you get.  It's not unreasonable to buy the cheapest widget you can if it meets your needs, but when it comes to life safety issues, like tires, you may want to dig a little deeper before choosing your tires.  A bad choice can be fatal not only for you but also for the innocent bystander.

Yes, it's time to move on.

I think you can't go wrong with them.  I took a walk around my stuff today, I have two flatbed trailers, a Pod, numerous pieces of lawn and garden equipment and have owned numerous types of tow behind stuff (car haulers, etc.).  All of them have Carlisle tires.  Used them for years.  I consider them a leader in the specialty tire business.  D is good choice.

+1  I will be getting 3 new Carlisle "D" tires for the 177 this spring.   Carlisle has been around the block and have proven to be a leader in quality tires w/o getting political and I like that.  It is for that reason I got rid of my Goodyears.

It's not you.

As for crossing chains, the more common view seems to be that they should be crossed, but when the chain attachment points are only inches apart, one wonders whether it really makes a difference, a good question for the engineers and physicists to evaluate.

Should the trailer brake emergency (i.e., breakaway) cable be attached to the tow hitch or to somewhere on the truck frame, given that entire tow hitch assemblies have been know to detach?

Discuss. 

Mine attaches to the tow vehicle. I clip it on to where the chains clip onto, using a caribina

For future reference it is better to start a new post rather than add a subject to a post after 5 pages of debate.  If member has a question about chains, chances are they won't look in a tire post for reference.  Again IMHO.

Indeed, just get the 2 of your choice, be it Westlake, Cooper, Carlisle.  They are all good choices IMHO.

My second set of black round thingies (since purchase of our 177) turned 5 years old last year so will be in the market this spring for a set of Carlisle or Cooper "D" range.  My current Hartlands are "C" as that is all I have ever had but have heard great things about the "D" range tire for stability and improved gas mileage.  Just took a peek at my original (when the 177 was purchased - January 2011) spare tire - a Tire King "C" manufactured 03/10.  Still looks new as it has always been covered but . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  probably a good idea to replace that one too.

I do take the tire age issue seriously, and here's why. Tread dept doesn't tell the story.  This tire was a spare, on the back of my old SUV, for nearly 19 years -- original equipment, never used, looked perfect.

Then one day I had a flat front tire (sitting in my own driveway).  Swapped this spare into position. As I remember it, the spare was having a little trouble holding full pressure. I headed down the highway to a tire dealer to get everything looked at when KABOOM!