Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Trailer Tire Pressure
The tires rate a maximum pressure of 55 pounds. When I hooked up the trailer, the pressures were around 40. The trailer was less than a year old and the added 1,000 miles to Bodfish wore out the trailer tires (at least for the center treads.
New tires are mounted and I don't want to repeat the over inflation error.
Any suggestions on tire pressures? Current setting is 35 psi. Should I drop it lower to 30?
The local travel is only 30 - 50 miles so tire wear patterns won't be evident for a while.
Ants
Views: 329
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on
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Ants: The largest boat /trailer I pull is about 3000 lbs with a tandem axels. I keep pressures at 35 lbs.My tires have never "worn" out- they dryrot from UV exposure. A peapod I built several years ago (total boat/trailer around 500-600 lbs) was pulled from Maine to Montana(3000 miles) had pressure at 30lbs and no problems whatever. I did nail a rooster in Indiana and had feathers in the rig when we got to Montana. 30 lbs sounds good to me.
Good Luck .
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Permalink Reply by Ants Uiga on
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Thanks for the reply. A pressure of 30-35 seems right for me. I asked the installer to put in 35 psi. I checked it yesterday, the local guy thought he knew better and put 18 psi into each tire.
It is probably time to check with tire manufacture as to their recommended pressure for minimal loads. If they suggest something lower, I will post the result.
Ants
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Sounds like you/he might want to check your gages.
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The Tire and Rim Association specifies maximum loads per tire pressure rather than minimum pressure for uniform wear. The reply was at lower pressure uneven wear may occur to minimal load.
For the ST175/80-13 tire, the tire pressure and maximum load is listed:
25 psi has max load of 905 pound
30 psi has max load of 1000 pounds
35 psi has max load of 1100 pounds
40 psi has max load of 1190 pounds
45 psi has max load of 1270 pounds
50 psi has max load of 1360 pounds (50 psi is max pressure for tire)
So, based on the load chart, the tire installer extrapolated to 18 psi (I guess), but I am not sure I want to go below 25 psi.
No direct answer.
Ants
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Permalink Reply by Gregg Maddock on
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This thread brings back some fond memories. Once while traveling through Fort Bridger with my old 17' woody in tow the left tire on my trailer decided to keep heading north, while the rest of us (truck, Bill, me, boat and trailer) turned east heading to the Green River. I had put new tires on the days before but failed to tighten the lug nuts quite enough. Luckily this all happened within walking distance of a NAPA automotive store and a tire shop. The shop owners sold us what we needed except a coder (sp?) pin and loaned us tools. 45 minutes later we were on the road again. We used some barbed wire for the coder pin. We arrived after dark and had a great 4 day float on the Rio Verde.
Moral to the story is to not only check the PSI in the tire but also those lug nuts.
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Here is some follow-up information. For background, the boat and trailer weigh a maximum of 500 pounds, so the load at each tire is well under 200 pounds.
The current trip to the Wonderful McKenzie Fest was 2,500 miles. The tire pressure at leaving time was 16 (sixteen) psi. The low pressure seems to work for the weight. The tire tread seems to be wearing evenly and the tires have no impending baldness.
I never would have imagined that the low pressure fits a desired tread wear. The trailer seems to have a little more drag when it comes to gas mileage in the truck, but treadwear seems back to normal.
Ants
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