LT Tires on a Vintage?

[aluminitus]

Hoping to get some advice here! We are about to start fulltiming and have trailer tires on our '62 single axle Tradewind. Right now she weighs in at 3900 to 4000 lbs and I am concerned about having standard trailer tires on.

The current tires are Load Star with a max weight capacity of 2540 and (I think) a max speed of 55 mph. The wheels are 15".

I am thinking about switching to light truck tires and would appreciate recommendations on what brand and whether I should do it or not.

[r carl]

RY215 Commercial Light Truck Tires | Yokohama Tire Corp.
Here you go, great tires!

[xrvr]

I think some of the vintage had light truck tires standard? Jim

[aluminitus]

Carl - Thanks! I like those tires, but with the trailer weighing almost 4000# and each tire only carrying a max of 2040#, that is cutting it a little too close.

LT tires don't seem to be rated to carry enough weight for my application, so will I have to stick to ST tires?

[DKB_SATX]

If you can go up to a 16" rim, you have E-rated LTs available from multiple brands.

[63air]

I second the RY215 LT tire from Yokohama . Only tire I have ever used on my Globetrotter and it looks vintage. Easy to get from Tire Rack.

[Bill M.]

You need to weigh the trailer while it is hitched up. All of the trailer weight is not carried on the axle. What is the gross axle weight on the stamped tag on the trailer? The tires have to be rated to carry the gross axle weight listed on the trailer tag. I would rather run the LT tires at the rated load than the ST tires with a so called safety margin. The trailer tires are not rated with the same system as the LT tires so the numbers are higher on the ST but the tires are worse. On a single axle trailer if I felt it was too heavy for the LT tires in 15 I would go ahead and go to the 16 inch wheels and LT tires. Would be money well spent. If I was going to run ST tires I would go with the Goodyear Marathons. The are most likely the best of the ST tires.

[markdoane]

I run Marathon tires on my 4800 lb '59 Tradewind. No problems so far.
1. If you go 16" wheels and LT tires, be sure you measure the wheel opening carefully. Might be a tight fit.
2. Buy a TPMS system to monitor tire pressure and temperature while underway. You don't want to have a sudden tire failure on a single axle trailer.

[AlbertF]

The RY215s are 7.00x15 in size. Airstream used this size for many years, and the tall sidewall looks right for these old trailers, as someone has noted.

Note that ST tires are rated higher than P or LT tires in the same size because it's assumed that the tires are not doing drive or steering duty. I'd be comfortable running LTs close to the rated limit.

I'm using Yokohama Geolander H/TS, LT215/75/15s on my Overlander. I am very happy with them.