How to Choose the Best Tires for Your Towable RV
How to Choose the Best Trailer Tires for Your Towable RV
With your towable RV, the safety and quality of your ride starts with your RV trailer tires. You need tires for RV that are up to the responsibility of smoothly transporting your travel trailer RV, whether you’re hauling a teardrop camper, a toy hauler, an Airstream camper, a popup camper or one of the many pull behind RVs. Your tires need to be extra strong, and they need to be able to stand up to the extra heat build-up that comes with carrying a heavy load. The tire experts at Treadworld are here to help make your best selection by providing you with tips relating to tire size, load capacity and range, and sidewall strength to help you choose the right RV trailer tires for your family trip.
Selecting the Right Tire Size for Your RV Trailer
Your RV owner’s manual is a good place to start your search for the best RV trailer tire size, and may offer you a couple of acceptable size options. Keep in mind that size is only part of the requirement for RV safety, and the fact that a tire fits on your wheel doesn’t make it your best choice. Keep reading to find out what we mean. Correct tire sizes are determined by wheel diameters and widths. The tire size can be found on the sidewall of the tire, and includes three pertinent numbers. For instance, ST225/75R15 is a common trailer tire size. The ST stands for special trailer and tells you the tire is designed with stiffer sidewalls to hold up to use on a trailer. 225 is the width of the tread in millimeters, 75 is a ratio representing the height of the sidewall as a percentage of the tread width (the aspect ratio), and 15 is the size of the rim this tire will fit. In inches, the tire is roughly 9 inches wide, 28 inches tall and mounts on a 15-inch rim.
What You Need to Know About Your Towable RV’s Trailer Tires’ Load Capacity
Overloading your RV will cause your travel trailer tires to wear out quicker, yes, but more importantly, an overloaded RV trailer can lead to disastrous consequences when combined with highway speeds, creating a situation that breeds blowouts. Knowing the weight of your loaded RV, then matching that level to the load rating of your tires, 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 camper trailer tire represents the maximum weight the tire is designed to carry, including the weight of the RV, plus the weight of the cargo, fuel, passengers, etc., at a given inflation pressure (PSI = pounds per square inch). 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. Here's an easy real-world example. If, for instance, you had four ST225/75R15 RubberMaster All Steel Radial Tires on your RV trailer with a ply rating/load range of 12/F, inflated to an optimal 95 psi, you could depend on those tires to each support 3,080 pounds when used singly (2,630 pounds when doubled up), so overall, your loaded trailer could weigh 12,320 pounds. That’s in theory. In practice, you never want to maximize the allowed weight, and a common rule of thumb is that the combined capacity of all of the tires should exceed the actual loaded trailer weight by 20 percent.
Sidewall Strength of Travel Trailer Tires Matters
Another corollary of the load rating equation is sidewall strength. Sidewall strength as used here refers to the toughness of the sidewall, not related to a cut or impact, that causes the tire to lose air. Often when a tire loses air when traveling at a high rate of speed, it’s due to a failure of the sidewall plies, which can be caused by excessive heat, leading to a loss of strength and even melting, leading to a blowout. This situation can be the result of under-inflated tires, for instance, which can lead to heat build-up due to excessive flexing and bending. Sidewall plies are a continuation of the same body plies under the tread's centerline. A higher load range tire has a stiffer sidewall. The farther up the alphabet, the stronger the sidewall—a tire with a D load rating is typically going to have a tougher sidewall than a tire with a B load rating. RubberMaster Trailer tires listings provide you with the ply rating of each tire, to give you an idea of the strength of the tire construction relative to other ply ratings. That rating doesn't necessarily mean that the tire is manufactured with the specific number of plies or layers indicated by the rating number—as it did in years past before technological advances allowed more strength with fewer actual plies. The strength or ply rating of the tire is positively correlated with the load capacity each tire can handle. A higher ply rating results in a stronger tire that can handle a higher load capacity.
At Treadworld, You Get All the Info You Need to Select the Best Tires for RV
Failures of any kind are unacceptable with a pull behind travel trailer, but blowouts can prove to be especially catastrophic. Avoiding on-the-road tire failures starts with making the right choice of tire. To make it easier for you, here at Treadworld, we give you all the pertinent details you need to make your best choice. That information includes RV tire size, ply rating/load range, section width, PSI, speed rating, outside diameter, load capacity single/dual and tread depth.
When You Need Tires for Your RV Trailer, 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 are manufactured to strict tolerances from top rubber compounds, then triple-tested for quality, balance and uniformity before being X-rayed to be sure they’re perfect. Easy ordering, fast shipping plus your satisfaction is guaranteed with our no-hassle Ultimate Advantage Warranty. We make changing trailer tires easy. 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.
