steamin10 wrote:Hammer and others: 8 ply will hold heat more than 6 if you allow low air. I vote for the 8's, for more road gator protection. I drove brand new class A RV's, class B's and Custom vans and all manor of trailers in delivery. I have enough tire stories to bore you to death, or make your hair stand up, like mine did on occasion.
The point here is ASSUME nothing. Everytime you hook up for a pull, go through the ritual of tire checks, lug checks, safty chains, wiring conections, spares, tool kit and jack. The whole mess. Start early, check everything a day or two before, like Wednesday. If you find a bad tire, or wiring mouse eaten, 5 o'clock Saturday morning, is not the time to be fooling with it, doing a half baked job just to get on the road. Ya, I did it. Once bit, twice smart. Preparation is key to a good trip, and lots of fun. Preparation lowers your risk, and really touching and servicing these machines we own should be a mark of pride anyway.
You cant make the excuse you dont have time. Put down the coffee, the paper, turn off the TV, and I LOVE LUCy, and get in gear. Besides, the more familiar you are with the equipment, the less questions you will have when something goes South on ya, and it will, it always does.
HEED DAVE'S ADVICE!
Not an hour ago, as I was airing up my trailer tires for a 700-mile sprint up Interstate 5 in 100-degree heat, I saw what's in the photo below. I had bent over to check the tread wear while adding air. The split does not go all the way around so if the tire had been rotated a little more I wouldn't have seen it and tomorrow it would have blown somewhere out there on the highway. These are six years old, and past their lifespan, but I thought I could get one more trip out of them. Bad thought. I've since learned that these tires can go bad from the inside out just from sitting in the yard. If I'd checked them Friday, I'd be leaving on schedule. No place to deal with it at 8 p.m. on a Sunday night, so tomorrow we'll be delayed by the time it takes to get this resolved.