Trailer Tires on a Geo Metro ...

[some_other_dave]

There are specialty manufacturers who offer tires in "retro" sizes. Coker Tire carries quite a few of them. I know that Vredestien makes some sizes that are now hard to find as well.

-soD

[rmay635703]

Its too bad really, the best cars came with 10-13" tires.

[slowmover]

Outstanding, Barry!

ST tires are also never to be mounted on passenger-carrying vehicle, a warning you'll find all over the place. I value my travel trailer highly (and will switch away from ST tires, shortly, as the failure rate is unacceptable), but my life more highly. The lives of my passengers even higher still.

Premium, long-lived tires are the best choice, IMO as a few tenths means nothing compared to several tens of thousands of miles of longer life (where that choice is possible).

.

[Christ]

I tend to do exactly the opposite - put car tires on trailers. Usually in the 13'' variety, unless the trailer needs a higher load rating, then I go to 15''. Now I just need to find 15'' ring mounts to replace all the 14.5'' ones I have now.

[rmay635703]

I guess this thread brings me to a strange question.

My fathers enclosed trailer has 15" trailer tires, they are very old and in very good shape, we had one that had to be replaced because it kept leaking by the rim, we remounted an old tire from our buick after a good cleaning and dousing with rim sealant.

They have many miles, have always sat in the sun and are not weather checked and also have decent tread. They also have 4 ply sidewalls, I have not seen that in normal passenger car varieties.

My question is why is it when I go to buy a trailer tire it costs significantly more than a normal car tire?

This makes no sense if they are total crap.

I always thought trailer tires were
1. Bias
2. HD rated thick and heavy (for high weight ratings)
3. Designed for longer storage time.

Is this how old tires were or certain brands or what is the deal?

My father has an old trailer we use for brush and whatnot and the 8" trailer tires are over 35 years old and still work OK and look pretty good.

Just curious.

Also I have used trailer tires and space savers on my C-car, bad ride but they seemed to work good enough in that application.

Must be the influx of cheap chinese trailer tires or something making them garbage.

Cheers
Ryan

[CapriRacer]

Ryan,

There are a lot of questions in your post and inorder to answer them we need to start with apples to apples comparsions.

First, an ST trailer tire carries considerably more load than a comparably sized passenger car tires (Don't forget to reduce the Passnger car tire load rating by a factor of 1.1)

ST trailer tires are much more like LT tires - and if you compare the prices of ST tires to LT tires, you'll find the ST tires are cheaper.

But part of the problem is that there is very little overlap among these 3 types of tires.

Also, some trailers are used such that any particular tires will "work" - slow speeds, light loads, etc - but if you subject them to types of things passenger car tires are subjected to - eg 80 mph - trailer tires will fail in short order.

[War_Wagon]

I'd be concerned about liability just as much as safety. If you got into an accident, even one that wasn't your fault, and the insurance company found you were driving on tires not meant to be used on a passenger car - man you'd be up poop creek without a paddle. It's really not worth the risk!

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

I'd be concerned about liability just as much as safety. If you got into an accident, even one that wasn't your fault, and the insurance company found you were driving on tires not meant to be used on a passenger car - man you'd be up poop creek without a paddle. It's really not worth the risk!

What if my car was designed to use trailer tires (aka I own several that came with stock 4 ply bias )

[War_Wagon]

Hmmm. Well if you had documentation from the auto manufacturer that said those tires were appropriate for your cars, then I guess you'd be off the hook. But I don't think a low count bias ply tire and a trailer tire are the same thing. At least not today. But if you took a modern, mainstream consumer car like a Metro and put modern trailer tires on it, then I stand by my statement about being up poop creek. Don't get me wrong, I like the budget alternative to any solution, but when it gets into stuff like skirting the edge of "legally safe", man I'd rather err on the side of caution.

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

What if my car was designed to use trailer tires (aka I own several that came with stock 4 ply bias )

I agree with WarWagon. But I would add that your statement is absurd. No car would be designed for trailer tires. There is a reason they are called "Trailer tires" and not "Passenger Car tires". There are designations that preclude the use of trailer tires on cars.

There may be some tires that COULD be used on trailers - AND - could be used on cars - BUT - more likely the combination would be trailer and truck.

And one last thought: 4 ply bias doesn't say anything about the tire except its construction. That is not enough information to determine what service the tire was designed for.