say Larry,,just curious ,,do you have Goodyear tires ?
Yes, I have been running them since around 1996 on two different trailers and have probably put close to 60 to 75K miles including a grand circle of the U.S. (over 11K miles) back in 2004. We also made 6 to 8 400 mile roundtrips for football games for 10 years, a yearly 2K trip to Chicago for around 8 years, an almost yearly 2K round trip to FW, and an almost 3K trip up to Maine last year. With the exception of the flat I had last month, I have never had a blowout or another flat. I will say that I never go more than 60, always have my tires inflated to the max., and pay close attention to try as best I can to avoid some of these potholes on the Interstates. Except when on trips, my tires are never stowed where the sun hits them and I always have them loaded to within 100lbs to 200lbs of their max load rating. I always hit a set of scales on a trip and I have even done a side to side wt. measurement. Three times I would consider replace tire(s) out side of tread wear or visible issues such as bulges, even minor checking/cracking (this would include even a couple of cracks even minor) would be:
1. If I thought I had run it underinflated or overloaded. In as I mentioned I did replace two tires that were made in March 2006 last month, because of the flat I had. Thus I no longer trusted the other tire on that side. So I bought two new ones in Jackonsville and replaced the one that went flat and the existing one on the that side and kept the spare as the spare.
2. If I hit a significant pothole that I think might have damaged the tires on that side.
3. Before a really long trip like the 11K one and the one to Maine I mentioned. I did this for the 11K trip along with taking an unmounted tire with me in addition to my mounted spare. I didn't do anything for the Me trip since the tires were barely 3 years old at the time. I might replace a 5year old tire for like the 11K trip, but would feel comfortable using a 6 to maybe 7 year old tire for something like even the Me. trip.
We are planning on a long trip down to Key West next year and I might just replace the two that weren't replaced this year which would be just close to 5 1/2 years. This would be mainly for insurance and to avoid the hassle of doing something on the road and the place I got my tires in Jacksonville gave me a very good price including upgraded HP valve stems the right length and were very quick.
I also keep a very accurate record of towing miles and how old and how many miles are on which tire and I never rotate or have them balanced. Unfortunately I didn't save the records for the previous trailer that I used the GYs on from 1996 to 2007, but seem to remember getting generally in the neighborhood of 24 to 36K miles out of each tire. I can't remember the time each tire was used, but my guess would be it might be less that 5 years, but most of the time I have used tread wear which is probably do to how heavy a load I have on each tire for almost all my tire replacements. Since using the GYs I have never had a bulge, or lost any tread, but I regularly use 303 on them and give the insides the best squirt I can at least once a year.
I feel a lot of tire problems are from towing too fast, and damage from either hitting something like a pothole, underinfation, or overloading them due to having a flat or running one side on a side underinflated and not replacing the tire on that side that didn't have the issue. Damage can be done very quickly to a tire and then that tire should no longer be used, except as a spare.
Larry
