The 94 is on its way home!

It will be cool to see pics of the new boat!

My brother picked up my boat for me, and me purchasing a trailer spare was a requirement for him to agree. You can get wheel/tire pre-mounted, but I guess I'm a little late with that info.

I was surprised at how high the pressure is supposed to be on the trailer tires. I think mine calls for 45psi or more.

Congrats on the new boat!
Hope the rest of the trip will be way easier...

Yes, do post pictures a soon as you can, we love them here

I'm with Pete, it's either underinflation or just too light duty tires that are the problem, not that they are automotive.

It was THAT tire. The sun kills them not mileage.

Hey, I hope thats the worst thing that happens on the trip!

Congrats on the boat - welcome to the club, I'm in eastern NC
and we boat at Lake Gaston NC theres a bunch of guys in this area.

White Lake is coming up the last weekend of April,come on down!

Good luck on the rest of your drive! I look forward to seeing pics.

My tire story happened in the driveway....




The tires where dry rotted from sitting in a field and one blew up after sitting in the sun (over inflation)! It was exciting when standing in front of it and the bucket between me and the tire about took an eye out (literally)

I was wondering about the tire comment too, but wasn't sure until others commented. My trailer came with car tires. I had to replace one, so to match, I matched the car tire. Several years later ditto with the other tire, so despite hearing the admonishments of car tires on here, I have had them for 8 years. About 10 850 mile trips back and forth to NC and no issues.

Well not entirely true. My first NC trip after buying the boat, I had a tire virtually disintegrate on I-95 in CT approaching NYC area. I attributed it to under-inflation (I never checked). I had no spare (last time I made the trip without a spare) but had the tools handy to get it off. Less than a mile down the road, an exit ramp. At the bottom of the ramp a car dealer who referred me to a tire shop around the corner. Fixed me up and in under an hour I was back on the road.

Congrats on the boat. Would love to see pictures. Automotive tires are not bad. You just have to make sure you get a proper load range for the weight and speed.

Allen

It is more the load rating than the trailer vs automotive thing, but in general automotive tires have lower ratings. The guys on here talking about auto tires working out for them are generally running smaller boats on older lighter trailers.. so it is no surprise they have not had many problems however thier experience is not relevant to a 1994 SN and trailer. Auto tires are rated for less air pressure because they are rated for less load and you need less pressure to maintain a contact patch of a reasonable size that won't cause so much deflection and the associated build up of heat and stresses that will cause the tire to blow.

Bottom line - dont overload your tires and keep them properly inflated!


If not, then kaboom!

FYI - most cars do not weight as much per wheel as your boat and trailer combo - once you get into 3/4 ton and above vehicles you also end up with much higher pressure/higher load rated/higher dollar tires.

Many of the general use trailer axles you see around are rated at 3500#. A 205/75R14 tire load range "C" can carry about 1860#. Obviously, some axles are heavier duty (5200 lbs, etc.) but then you have got to find tires that can support 2600 lbs (225/75R15 load range "D" = 2540# @ 65psi). Horse and cattle trailers use load range "E" and higher. Those are like rock. Most boat/utility tandem axle trailers that I have seen have two 3500# axles for a 7000# trailer rating.

The biggest difference between car tire and trailer tires I have been told is in the sidewall. A car tire has to be able to flex when the front wheels turn or when you go around a bend to keep maximum tread contact with the ground. Trailer tires have a much stiffer sidewall to protect the tires from curbs, etc. and to reduce trailer sway (which can get excessive with a car tire).

Many tire shops will not put car tires on trailer wheels unless you just bring in the wheel by itself and tell them it's from a car.

Article on trailer vs car tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=219¤tpage=136

Congrats on your new boat. Would love to see pictures hah.

Interesting. My dad and I were just laughing about the original tires he has on the EZ-Loader trailer of his 1977 Glastron, wondering how long they will last. I think this is finally the year he is going to step up and buy some new trailer tires.