Trailer Tire Help!

I need to get new tires on my trailer. The trailer sits at my lake property with the boat and in the winter the trailer sits on jack stand to get the weight off the tires. The tires are F78 14st. When I look online, most places dont show that type of sizing and when I called Les Schwab the quoted me $200 which seems outrageous. Unfortunately the boat is in a small town with only Les Schwab and Walmart. Anyone have any tips?

i pay $100 a tire on mine..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ST205-75D14-Load-Range-C-6-Ply-Bias-Trailer-Tire_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el124 7QQcategoryZ50071QQihZ014QQitemZ330196169591QQrdZ1 QQsspagenameZWD1V

Your old tires are 26 inch diameter so the ST205/75-14 is just right if the load rating is good. I think TireRack has Goodyear Marathons for about $82, so $200 each is steep.
The best trailer tires I've used were used competition rally tires. They were not DOT rated so you got them for free and you couldn't get a flat if you tried. You would have some trouble getting the right diameter for a boat trailer though.

boaters world sells f-78's for less than a 100 a piece

Les Schwab quoted me $200 for both. Sorry about that. I figured the tires would have been around $40 considering their nothing special.

Go with a 205/70/14 passenger tire, than you can get a set of 4 for $200 and your boat will pull like a champ. You dont need a 6 ply tire boats dont weigh enough and a passenger car tire is rated for at least 1500#

I would not put car tires on my Enzo trailer. Many of the wakeboard boats are approaching 4000#'s dry. Add fuel and gear weight is several hunderd pounds more. Cornering when backing on a dual axle trailer is very hard on the side walls of the tires. You need a quality tire especially if you are going to tow distances.

I have been using pasenger car tires for over 10 yrs. if you tow with a short wheel base vehicle and with out proper air psi yes you could tear a tire off a wheel. But with a 1500# per tire you wont be able to over load a tire with any comp boat unless you tow with your ballas full. I have to replace my tires this year due to rot after 6 years and I probaly have put over 7k miles on them. short and long hauls

P types on a trailer is just not smart. Saving a few bucks a tire for your 60K investment??? Dont do it!

due to dot regulations the passenger car tires are a safer bet for your boat becouse they are built to a tighter requlation. Also the Trailer tires are Bias ply and dont track as well.

P. Van,

Not sure where you've been for the last 15yrs but all 3 of my last boat trailer have had radial trailer tires. Softer ride, quieter ride, same side wall strength.

And not no, but HELL NO, car tires are not safer for a trailer.

Sorry, you're wrong.

Trailer specific tires, not passenger car tires, come on new boat trailers for a reason...

I dont think the 20's that came on my trailer from extreme boat trailers are trailer tires. I have had them for two years and have over 40,000 on them and just blew out the first one on sunday. They are rated 2000 a piece which is double the boat weight. IMO trailer tires are junk have never had good luck with them. Car tires are very durable and most people abuse the tires on there car a lot more than they do on a trailer.

How do the 18 inch and 20 inch rims that look like car tires work into this discussion. Are those low profile tires passenger car tires or are the trailer only tires??

they are car tires. I had an argument with a guy at discount about the rating and the fact that they are on my boat trailer. I have been on some rough dirt roads and have never had a problem. The reason I lost the tire last sunday is that I had hit a rock and took a chunk out of the side wall about six months ago. I chose to run it due to the fact I could not afford another tire and the spare had a long slit from a razor blade. The spare with the split is on there now and it got me home just fine. If car tire are that bad I would have lost that tire a long time ago.

Trailer tires have much thicker sidewalls than regular tires. I would think the lower profile tires like Dave is using would not be affected as much but if you use the same size car tire as your normal trailer tire you will get a lot more bounce, as well in tight turns where weight shifts heavily there is a chance the tire ply's might give out. Also if you dont use your boat often and it sits for a long time, car tires will become lop sided and never recover. If you're running stock wheels than use trailer tires for sure.

For those that dont know, trailer tires with have "ST" code on the side, where as car tires will have "P" or "LT" for Light Truck.



(Message edited by chpthril on May 13, 2008)

I saw this on another tire site and thought it was an interesting read....


Let me share with you guys a story on tires to be used on trailers, specifically bass boat trailers. Rather than get 40 different opinions from my local tire dealers, I called Goodyear in Akron, OH. Please remember, this was before the Explorer tire failure episode.
I asked to speak to a tech rep and my first question was, "Are you qualified to answer my questions about using passenger car tires (P rated) on trailers." I didn't mention bass boats or any specific type trailer. I kept it in a broad range of all trailers towed by most cars and vans, not commercial stuff like backhoes, etc.. Of course this is the company that makes the Marathon brand trailer tires.

It didn't take long for him to tell me that any of their passenger car tires that are rated to carry a specific load will work on a trailer like I was asking about. He even mentioned that a specific passenger car tire of a specific size (I don't remember the exact size) was rated to carry more weight than their Martathon tire of the exact same size.

I found that fact really interesting. If I remember correctly it was a "C" rated tire both in the P series and the trailer tire.....

The next question was about their warranty... Would it hold water if I used their passenger car tires on my bass boat trailer. HE said YES -- without a pause....

However, he suggested they would like to see at least a 10% cushion from the actual weight of the whole rig with all the goodies in the boat as you would be towing it down the highway. That meant if the rig weighed 2600 pounds (GVWR) as my typical 18 foot bass boat rig, you should install tires that have a combined weight total of the two tires to carry at least 2900 pounds or close to that number. For that reason I always weighed my bass boats sitting on the trailer to get an exact weight without having to guesstimate the weight.

Using tires a bit larger or more weigh carrying capacity is just good practice no matter what you install them on. Our '04 Dodge Durango has tires that far exceed the total weight of the vehicle even if I loaded it to capacity.....

For a couple of years I was buying used bass boats to spruce up and always installed new passenger car tires that fit that criterian. I'd weight the rig and then buy tires that would carry the weight plus at least a 10% cushion. Rather then just using the existing tire size as a guide. The weight number is stamped on the sidewall of every tire.

It all started when I bought an 18 foot bass boat with a 150 hp package from a local boat dealer and then took a trip to Florida from PA. The tires got so hot I could not hold my hand on the tread when we stopped for gas. This wasn't even in the summer time. It was early spring with cool weather and cool road surfaces. The bearings/hubs were only warm.... That told me the tires were under rated to carry that specific load.

So all this bunk about sway and weigh carrying capacity of passenger car tires not filling the bill on bass boat trailers is just that -- a bunch of bunk, IMO. I went to the HORSES MOUTH so to speak when I called the Goodyear headquarters to get the straight scoop.....

Only the pro's towed more miles than I used to tow all over the east and midwest without one tire failure.... Now if you want to talk about leaf spring failure, that's another story all by itself...