Questions about Westlake 16 inch tires

[Jeb Ogburn]

Redapple63, thanks for the reply. Like any thing you research, reviews are always seem to be mixed. Some you have to take with a grain of salt and some with lots of credits. Last 5th wheel trailer we had we had wrinkled both side with different types/brands of tires. So this isn’t anything new, just frustrated that mfrs can’t find a “percent match” for Rvs.

[Skilletface]

Some of the best advice that I’ve read here is air pressure before, during, after each trip and visual inspection at every stop. Air pressure is the life of any tire. And then there is the scuffing issue, by that I mean how tight of a turn are you making while backing up or even spinning around. If your turns are so tight that the sidewalls are rolling over and making contact with the ground and leaving a scuff mark you are breaking down the belting in the tire.
Here is the methodology that I put into tire pressure:
Always stick to manufactures min-max recommendations
Start off the maximum PSI and then observe how much of the tire is striking the ground at one of your stops, if the outer edge of the tire is not striking the ground (you’ll notice a color variation) adjust psi down in 2lb increments until you observe a good even wear in the tread. Once you feel you’ve found that sweet spot for your rig then get a cold psi reading and there’s YOUR set point.

[Jeb Ogburn]

Skilletface, I totally agree with you on the tire pressure readings at all times. These Westlakes having rating of 4080# @110psi, I run them at 105# based on my older style trucker style pressure gauge. Not knowing how accurate this mechanical style of pressure gauge is, I error on the low side. Having all kinds of trailers from bumper pulls to 40ft floats, that is the first thing I do is tire pressure checks.
I do like your idea of finding the “sweet spot” of loading the tires based on tire wear. Would this change from trip to trip based on how trailer is loaded, from a weekend trip to 2-week long adventure trip?
This recent trip is only @250 mile trip from home. With the blowout on Sunday, I’m leery of the trip home tomorrow. Since I had planned to replace tires this spring, I’m bitting to bullet tomorrow and replacing all 5-tires with Sailum S637 ST235/80R16 LRG (same size and load rating as the present factory Westlake that are on there now).

[Skilletface]

Jeb Ogburn, Sorry you had tire problems on this trip. Using the method I described above is only a general practice to find the sweet spot for your rig once you find a PSI you are comfortable with, the few extra hundred pounds added should have little impact on tire inflation. The only exceptions would be running totally empty verses maxed out or adjusting two or three pounds up or down based on expected temperatures.
A tire can gain 10-15 psi easily on hot asphalt.

On a final note; you may find yourself actually running the tire pressure 10-15 lbs lower than the maximum cold psi recommended for the tire (I know I just sent someone into a tail spin) just let tire load show you what to set the psi at. You are looking for a nice even tread to ground contact across the face of the tire.

[Cajun Couple]

Almost 3 yrs on our Westlake 235x80x16 G rated 14 ply's. They've been OK so far and can't complain. No flats and tread is still good.

[Cajun Couple]

Jeb Ogburn, Sorry you had tire problems on this trip. Using the method I described above is only a general practice to find the sweet spot for your rig once you find a PSI you are comfortable with, the few extra hundred pounds added should have little impact on tire inflation. The only exceptions would be running totally empty verses maxed out or adjusting two or three pounds up or down based on expected temperatures.
A tire can gain 10-15 psi easily on hot asphalt.

On a final note; you may find yourself actually running the tire pressure 10-15 lbs lower than the maximum cold psi recommended for the tire (I know I just sent someone into a tail spin) just let tire load show you what to set the psi at. You are looking for a nice even tread to ground contact across the face of the tire.

Another former tanker yanker here too Skilletface!

[BobinICT]

I have one and a half year old load range D. Should I be good to go for a couple of years you think? From limited information from the previous owner thay have from him, about 4700 miles on them. Thank's not counting the drive from the factory to Kansas.

[Jeb Ogburn]

Morning fellow campers, after much debate and some serious thoughts, I just couldn’t trust the other West Lakes so I bit the bullet and had all new Sailum S637 mounted on the Solitude yesterday before making the trip home (even the spare). Right or wrong, IDK? I’ll just have a better piece of mind over the next 2-3 years. Plus, driving through 3+ hours of rain yesterday evening/night, I sure didn’t want to have another failure in that mess. Y’all have Happy New Year and safe travels whichever direction you’re headed!

Skillerface, btw, you didn’t put me into a tailspin! LOL! If there was one single way to properly inflate ST tire with out failures, everyone would be doing it and someone would be genius for figuring it out! I will be trying your method on our next outing.

[CoChris]

..... Right or wrong, IDK? I’ll just have a better piece of mind over the next 2-3 years.

That right there says you made the correct decision!

Chris

[Jeb Ogburn]

That right there says you made the correct decision!
Chris

👍🏻 Let’s hope I did! Only time will tell!