Advantages of an ST Trailer Tire
The Very Real Advantages of ST Trailer Tires
When it comes to getting safe, quality tires for your pull behind travel trailer, you’re likely to get a lot of advice from well-meaning, if mis-informed, “experts.” “Car passenger tires and trailer tires are the same. Just pick some that fit your rims.” They aren’t the same, and the differences can be crucial to tire safety. “Go ahead and use LT (light truck) tires. They’ll work just as well as trailer tires.” They don’t. They’re not engineered for pull behind travel trailer duty. “Speed ratings don’t matter. You can go as fast as the conditions will allow.” Wrong, wrong, wrong—excessive speed is a big deal with tow behind trailers. “Load capacity is just a guideline. You can carry as much stuff as you can get on the trailer.” Nope! If you follow this advice, you won’t carry your load very far. The tire experts at Treadworld are here address the above myths, while giving you three really good reasons why using ST trailer tires with your pull-behind trailer gives you advantages you’ll appreciate. And then they’ll tell you why you won’t find any better ST Trailer Tires anywhere than Treadworld RubberMaster ST Radial Trailer Tires and RubberMaster All Steel Radial Trailer Tires.
What’s the Difference Between ST Trailer Tires, Passenger Tires and LT Light Truck Tires?
ST stands for Special Trailer. When you see ST in the name of a tire, you know it’s been designed and manufactured to reliably carry your heavy load as part of a tow-behind trailer. It wasn’t designed to steer, swerve or facilitate turning. ST tires weren’t designed to transmit power from an engine to the road, rather the tread design of special trailer tires is intended to provide easy-rolling low resistance to facilitate towing ease and better gas mileage. ST tires are designed to carry the load. Passenger tires are designed for ride comfort, traction, handling, and wear life, but they will bend and flex excessively under heavy loads. LT light truck tires typically have a significantly higher ability to carry a load than passenger tires, but they are also designed to supply traction, and some measure of rider comfort. ST trailer tires are engineered and manufactured for one singular purpose—to carry heavy loads. When a passenger tire or an LT tire is used on a trailer, it causes stresses and heat build-up the tire wasn’t designed to handle. Rule of thumb estimates unburdened by any of the aforementioned factors provide that, for maximum tire safety, you’ll want to change your travel trailer tires around every 10,000 to 15,000 miles, or every three to six years. Keep in mind that even if you don’t use your towable RV trailer often, the tires on your trailer can still endure wear and tear as types of weather, differentiating seasonal temperatures, and less than optimal storage conditions, take a toll.
Three Design Advantages of ST Trailer Tires
1. ST tires are designed with stiffer sidewalls. These thicker sidewalls are a cornerstone of the ST design that works with higher inflation pressure (PSI = pounds per square inch) to handle constant, heavier, vertical load pressure coming directly down on trailer tires. Plus, thicker, stiffer sidewalls are critical to preventing trailer sway as you’re traveling down the road.
2. ST tires are designed with a strengthened internal structure. This strengthened structure is critical to being able to carry heavy loads safely over long distances. Conventional wisdom is that ST tires have 10% more load capacity than similarly sized light truck tires and 40% more load capacity than passenger tires.
3. ST tires are designed with narrower tread patterns. The narrower, shallower tread patterns are engineered to facilitate forward motion and reduce wiggle, improving fuel economy and helping to dissipate heat build-up.
What You Need to Know About Your ST Trailer Tires’ Load Capacity
It’s important to pay attention to the load capacity of your ST trailer tires. Overloading your trailer will cause your ST trailer tires to wear out quicker due to excessive heat build-up, but that might be the best case scenario—not good but preferable to a blowout that can result in disastrous consequences at highway speeds. Knowing the weight of your loaded RV, then matching that level to the trailer tire load rating, is crucial to a smooth, hassle-free transport. Overloaded tires will squat, making them vulnerable to bulging, bubbling and worse.
The load rating of each ST trailer tire represents the maximum weight the tire is designed to carry, including the weight of the trailer plus the weight of the cargo, at a given inflation pressure. This rating capacity is identified by a letter (or number) on each tire’s sidewall. The higher the letter, the more load the tire can carry. Tire load ratings alone don’t tell the whole story. They work in conjunction with the axles and other suspension components, so you may have tires with high load ratings, but you also have to be sure you don’t exceed the axle weight ratings.
What You Need to Know About ST Trailer Tire Speed Ratings
There was a time when conventional wisdom was that you couldn’t drive pulling your trailer more than 65 miles per hour without drastically increasing risk of blowout. Some bias trailer tires may be rated for speeds even lower than that. To a large extent those rules still apply, but technological advances have created some exceptions and pushed that speed recommendation forward so you can now find trailer tires that are rated for speed in the 70 and even 80 miles per hour range. (See RubberMaster ST Trailer Tires information below.) Of course, it should go without saying that when you’re carrying a heavy load, it’s smart not to push the limits because excessive speeds result in excessive heat build-up, which leads to KABLOWEE!
The Most Important Part of Your Trailer is Our RubberMaster ST Trailer Tires
Of course we’re going to recommend our RubberMaster ST Radial Trailer Tires and our RubberMaster All Steel Radial Trailer Tires to handle for your heavy loads, on construction and agriculture trailers, livestock, horse and equipment trailers, mobile home and RV trailers—you name it. That’s because we know they offer the best in performance ride handling characteristics. They’re designed that way, and they’re manufactured that way. They have a load capacity up to 4,400 pounds single, and 3,860 pounds dual, depending on which of the many available sizes you choose. The dual capacity refers to tandem tire axles, and the industry standard recommends at least a 10% lower capacity for each tire as a precaution against one of the tandem tires failing—so the remaining tire configuration can still handle the load.
Like all Treadworld tires, the RubberMaster ST Radials are engineered to last, manufactured from premium rubber compounds, to strict tolerances, then tested to verify balance and uniformity before being X-rayed to ensure they’re perfect. Both of these RubberMaster Tires enjoy a speed rating of “M”, denoting safe operating speed. You’ll find trailer tire speed ratings on the tire. They run from A (3 mph) to Z (149 and over). “M” means these RubberMaster ST tires are rated safe up to 81 miles per hour, in ideal conditions.
You can’t go wrong with either RubberMaster ST Radial Tires or RubberMaster All Steel Radial Tires—both will get you safely from here to there. You can depend on the steel belted RubberMaster tires provide improved strength and durability, better heat dissipation, and superior puncture resistance. Both RubberMaster ST Tires, and all RubberMaster Tires, are covered by the Treadworld Ultimate Advantage Warranty, which covers you for one full year from the purchase date against manufacturing defects, as well as against damage incurred during regular road or field use.
When You Need Trailer Tires, Count on Treadworld
When you’re looking for the best travel trailer tires, camper tires, tires for your RV trailer, trailer wheels and tires, or spare trailer tires, count on us here at Treadworld to provide you with the high-performing, long-lasting trailer tires you want, in a wide range of styles and a huge selection of sizes. All our RubberMaster Trailer Tires undergo very thorough checks for quality. Easy ordering, fast shipping plus your satisfaction is guaranteed with our no-hassle Ultimate Advantage Warranty. Don’t hesitate to contact our tire experts via live chat, or email with any questions you may have, and to get the ideal trailer tires—or the perfect ATV tires, UTV tires, golf cart tires, lawn and garden tires, and many others—from our extensive selection.
