New Tires Needed?

[fam5mel]

This is our fifth year for our Solitude 2930RL. Time for new tires. The only tires dealers seem to carry in my location seem to be Trans Eagles. Lower grade tires. Looks like I will order them and have them mounted. Recommendations where I can order them online? I found Hercules tires online but don't know anything about them. Anyone had them. I was leaning towards Sailuns until reading some of the recent post on here about tread separation. Other recommendations? I notice the factory Westlakes were not balanced. Do the new ones need to be balanced?

[Hoopy Frood]

If your trailer takes a "G" rated 16" tire, you simply cannot go wrong with the Sailun. The tread separation issues were with the tires newly produced in Vietnam a couple years ago. There was a recall and the tires have been back to their excellent ratings. You can't go wrong with the Sailun, providing you need a "G" rated 16" tire.

[huntr70]

Generally, most trailer tires are not balanced, but those of us that do have experienced smoother towing.

Actual experience may vary.....

[Nuffsaid]

I sell tires, and my warehouse carries Hercules, Carlisle, Sutong ans Samson as well as Hankook, Cooper, Michelin, BFG, General, Continental and a few others. I just replaced the tires on my Solitude and I decided on Hercules 901 Load Range G. When I removed the tires I ran into an issue with the factory Solitude aluminum wheels. They are a PIA to remove and install 14 ply tires on! I ended up buying a new set of Ultra trailer wheels and mounted the Hercules 901's without issue. I repurposed the factory Solitude wheels and installed them on my flatbed deck over trailer that I haul my Jeep on. Installing a 235/80R16 on those wheels was tight, but not anything like the 14 plys. Wheel design has a lot to do with ease of mounting and dismounting tires. The Hercules 901 has a higher load rating than the factory Westlakes. The Westlakes were rated at 3960 lbs going off of memory at 110 psi. The Hercules are rated at 4400 at 110 psi. Both are load range G. Not sure why the difference, but I looked for a tire with a deep tread and the 901 I believe was 14/32nds and the tire has a good warranty. I have about 1200 miles on them so far and no issues.

[jleonard]

I always have tires balanced. If it rotates, it should be balanced in my opinion.

[Steven@147]

We put on Sailun "G rated" "Max load 4080 @ 110psi" tires as well. Purchased them online from Simple Tire then had them shipped to a campground. Took the tires off two at a time and got them mounted. Now granted I had to take the rims tires to a semi tire repair shop where we were to get them changed. The tire side wall is too stiff for most car pickup tire shops to handle.

On our trailer I installed Centramatic balancing plates. They have been around a long time mostly used on semi trucks and trailers. They seem to be a much better way of balancing the tire/rim/hub all at one time. The Centramatic balancing plates for our Solitude are part number 300-318A.

As for balancing. Tires IMO should always be balanced, it will make them last longer, run smoother.
Now after several tire replacements on our RAM pickup using places like discount tire, they could not correctly balance a tire to save themselves. I don't trust them anymore to properly balance the tires.

After the last go around with discount tire changing our Ram truck tires, the idiots had stick on weights nearly all the way around the rim. I forced the store manager to rebalance the tire. They are just idiots balancing tires. Centramatic also has balancing plates for our Ram truck but I have not purchased them yet.

[Second Chance]

The issues with Sailun tires was back when they moved a factory - they got the problems ironed out. We're on our second set of Sailuns (previous Reflection and current Solitude) and have had zero issues with them. Any tire dealer worth their salt can order them for you - or you can order them from SimpleTire or someplace and pay to have them balanced and mounted.

Rob

[Hoopy Frood]

I sell tires, and my warehouse carries Hercules, Carlisle, Sutong ans Samson as well as Hankook, Cooper, Michelin, BFG, General, Continental and a few others. I just replaced the tires on my Solitude and I decided on Hercules 901 Load Range G. When I removed the tires I ran into an issue with the factory Solitude aluminum wheels. They are a PIA to remove and install 14 ply tires on! I ended up buying a new set of Ultra trailer wheels and mounted the Hercules 901's without issue. I repurposed the factory Solitude wheels and installed them on my flatbed deck over trailer that I haul my Jeep on. Installing a 235/80R16 on those wheels was tight, but not anything like the 14 plys. Wheel design has a lot to do with ease of mounting and dismounting tires. The Hercules 901 has a higher load rating than the factory Westlakes. The Westlakes were rated at 3960 lbs going off of memory at 110 psi. The Hercules are rated at 4400 at 110 psi. Both are load range G. Not sure why the difference, but I looked for a tire with a deep tread and the 901 I believe was 14/32nds and the tire has a good warranty. I have about 1200 miles on them so far and no issues.

Do you balance trailer tires? And do you use a lug-centric adaptor? I could not find anyone who would balance my trailer tires lug-centric. I finally ended up also going with the Centramatic.

[goducks14]

I put Sailuns on my TT. It came with 16" rims and GY Endurance. 235/75/16. Overkill on a 9500 lb TT but the price difference between GY Endurance alone was much more than the overall cost of the Sailuns with mount and balancing. Bought from Simple tire and took 2 at a time to a local tire installer.
I bought them around March last year 2023. Date codes were only a couple weeks apart. Two were made in the last weeks of Dec 2022 and two were made in the 1st couple weeks of Jan 2023. Really impressed with Simple Tire. I also bought some tires from them for an Overlander style trailer I built for my son.

[Gronk1]

"The wheels on the coach go round and round, round and round...."
Truck wheels are balanced, so why not trailer wheels? I have Sailuns also, bought from Simple Tire four years ago with no problems.