Passenger AT tires on an A-liner

[baachou]

Hi guys:

First post!

Just bought an A-Liner after seeing inspiration from people on this forum. Going to find a shop to redo the suspension and maybe toughen up the frame a little bit. For these small trailers, is there a big downside to using P tires? The trailer is only 1500 lbs with a gwvr of 3000 lbs, so I'm having trouble figuring out why I shouldn't go with, say, the same tire I was planning on using for my tow vehicle (32 inch Falken AT3W or some other similar mountain/snowflake rated AT tire attached to a Taco Supreme.) The tow vehicle tires I'm looking at are P rated with a load number of 116, so they support ~2750 lbs. Even with a very generous 25% penalty for using P tires, we're still at 2000 lbs per tire, which is still more than the load range for the stock ST tires.

I see people talking about additional sidewall reinforcement on ST tires, but does it even matter for a trailer of this weight? I did a search on the forum and didn't find much. And Google search results seem to be more tilted toward people with much larger trailers than what I am towing. Am I missing something here?

 

[Jmanscotch]

Not sure if you read this yet, but worth the time for some quick info: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=219

I haven't seen much in way of a trailer like the A-liner, but I would consider it comparable to some of the stout teardrop trailers here.

Like the article states, ST tires are designed for a specific task. Basically, they're engineered to perform under the most typical weighted loads on the pavement. If your trailer needs perform off road as well on the highway, then the task has changed and switching to AT tires helps adapt it to that. Lowering PSI helps with trailer behavior offroad, you get a higher than 65 MPH speed rating, cosmetic appeal, etc.

The trade off is really just a weight rating, more rolling resistance and a less stiff sidewall. The weight rating and rolling resistance should be more than an acceptable trade off for your intended use, I can't say for certain if the softer sidewall has any noteworthy ill effects but most likely it's a mute point as proven by the many comparable adventure teardrops successfully running AT tires, but YMMV with that less than aerodynamic trailer (does it stay up in the A shape when towing?!).

 

[baachou]

Not sure if you read this yet, but worth the time for some quick info: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=219

I haven't seen much in way of a trailer like the A-liner, but I would consider it comparable to some of the stout teardrop trailers here.

Like the article states, ST tires are designed for a specific task. Basically, they're engineered to perform under the most typical weighted loads on the pavement. If your trailer needs perform off road as well on the highway, then the task has changed and switching to AT tires helps adapt it to that. Lowering PSI helps with trailer behavior offroad, you get a higher than 65 MPH speed rating, cosmetic appeal, etc.

The trade off is really just a weight rating, more rolling resistance and a less stiff sidewall. The weight rating and rolling resistance should be more than an acceptable trade off for your intended use, I can't say for certain if the softer sidewall has any noteworthy ill effects but most likely it's a mute point as proven by the many comparable adventure teardrops successfully running AT tires, but YMMV with that less than aerodynamic trailer (does it stay up in the A shape when towing?!).

Thanks for the response. Hell no, you don't tow it while propped up; the trailer folds down to below the height of my truck cab. I did read that article. The article seemed geared toward trailering in general, as opposed to adventure trailers that typically have full suspension. So it would seem that some of the rationale for getting stiff-sidewall ST tires goes away, but I wasn't 100% sure since there isn't a manual somewhere that says, "If you have a full off-road suspension on your trailer, you don't need the stiff sidewalls found on an ST tire." Do most of those adventure teardrops have passenger AT tires? Or do they usually opt for a C or E range tire?

http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/67220-My-Off-Road-A-Liner

^ That was my inspiration.

Basically I want to match up tires with my tow vehicle, but I don't want to put E range tires on a Tacoma because mpg/acceleration/braking. Also, the P tires have like 1.7x more load rating than the weight of my truck, and I don't plan on doing enough heavy rock crawling to warrant extra sidewall on E tires.

 

[Jmanscotch]

Haha, I was going to say, that'd be a hell of a sail to pull behind you. Someone down the street from me has one and it's always opened up and parked on the street, never seen them close it (in 3 years), hence wondering if it even WAS collapsible.

I'm not familiar with P load ratings, I simply thought your were using it as P = a passenger vehicle tire since I knew ST was some acronym for specific trailer tires, my bad there.

From a boat website, since I'd consider a loaded boat trailer and your A-liner comparable rigs in plenty of ways: "Most boat trailer tires have a load range of B, C, or D. If a tire has load range C, it can carry 1,820 pounds. If it's on a single-axle trailer, this means both tires can carry a total of 3,640 pounds" (Source: https://tinyurl.com/ycyhq4c7)

The tires I went with on my trailer are C rated. This makes them the lightest load rating that'd be capable of carrying what my axle (#3,500), hubs (#3,500) and leaf springs (#2,900) are rated for, so they aren't the limiting factor there and that's all I was concerned about with selecting them. I think I've seen some here go with E rated, but they'd definitely have a heavier, fully decked toy hauling camper. I'd say you'd be solid with matching the trailer tires to the truck and getting those Falkens.

Concerning going with an overkill load rated tire; I went with E load rated tires on my Tacoma (DCSB) since that's the only rating my BFGoodrich K02s were offered in with my size and I ***************** hate them. At first I ran them at 45 PSI (45-50 would be the recommended pressure) and they made the truck ride like I had cinder blocks for suspension. I've dropped them to 35 PSI and they're better but still jar the truck way more than my previous C rated tires. It's such a crap ride that as soon as I'm done spending money on my trailer, I'm purchasing some C rated Duratracs and selling these damn tires. So, after that experience, I knew a D or E rating was just going to be too much for my needs on a ~1,500 lb trailer. I also have dropped my C rated tires to 20 PSI for better sidewall flex and ride.

 

[Jmanscotch]

http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/127670-Expedition-Trailer-Tire-Selection

 

[baachou]

Haha, I was going to say, that'd be a hell of a sail to pull behind you. Someone down the street from me has one and it's always opened up and parked on the street, never seen them close it (in 3 years), hence wondering if it even WAS collapsible.

I'm not familiar with P load ratings, I simply thought your were using it as P = a passenger vehicle tire since I knew ST was some acronym for specific trailer tires, my bad there.

From a boat website, since I'd consider a loaded boat trailer and your A-liner comparable rigs in plenty of ways: "Most boat trailer tires have a load range of B, C, or D. If a tire has load range C, it can carry 1,820 pounds. If it's on a single-axle trailer, this means both tires can carry a total of 3,640 pounds" (Source: https://tinyurl.com/ycyhq4c7)

The tires I went with on my trailer are C rated. This makes them the lightest load rating that'd be capable of carrying what my axle (#3,500), hubs (#3,500) and leaf springs (#2,900) are rated for, so they aren't the limiting factor there and that's all I was concerned about with selecting them. I think I've seen some here go with E rated, but they'd definitely have a heavier, fully decked toy hauling camper. I'd say you'd be solid with matching the trailer tires to the truck and getting those Falkens.

Concerning going with an overkill load rated tire; I went with E load rated tires on my Tacoma (DCSB) since that's the only rating my BFGoodrich K02s were offered in with my size and I ***************** hate them. At first I ran them at 45 PSI (45-50 would be the recommended pressure) and they made the truck ride like I had cinder blocks for suspension. I've dropped them to 35 PSI and they're better but still jar the truck way more than my previous C rated tires. It's such a crap ride that as soon as I'm done spending money on my trailer, I'm purchasing some C rated Duratracs and selling these damn tires. So, after that experience, I knew a D or E rating was just going to be too much for my needs on a ~1,500 lb trailer. I also have dropped my C rated tires to 20 PSI for better sidewall flex and ride.

I edited the above, I meant P-metric tires. Sorry for the confusion. ST = special trailer, if you care

So, this is where it gets confusing: according to Falken's documentation, the load range doesn't seem to correlate with max weight. In fact, most of the C range tires actually have lower load rating than the P-metric tires I'm looking at (the 265/75r16 has a max load of 2756, and the C range - mostly 15 inch tires - max out at 2535.) I can get E range in my size, but they have 3400 load capacity and I don't really see the benefit to that since I don't plan on being a super duper rock crawler, and I'd rather not have the cinderblock suspension.

Either way, it seems that a single P-metric tire in my desired size has more load capacity than the dry weight of my trailer, even after subtracting 10%, so I feel like I should be fine. Since I'm well under the max PSI range I can probably just over-inflate them a little bit.

I think the moral of the story is that whoever designed tire labeling must enjoy seeing people suffer.