Tires

[toyotafreak]

Sorry guys, I didn't search too much, but us real senior guys need all the help we can get...

I need to get 215/75-14 tires (5 of them) and am real tight on $$$.

At Discount Tire/America's Tire, 5 Goodyear Marathons $650 installed, 5 Greenball Transmasters $525.

There's a good guy deal that's $300 for a Sigma Express tire. I can't find any detail on it and am pretty leery. Tires must be good for 5 years...

Sears didn't look good. Any thoughts?

[2000epic]

Ebay has some good deals

[skibeau]

Boatmate uses Trail America ST Radial ST205/75 R14 Black Side Wall

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=135&Cookie=nextag_Trail_America&details=Ordern&typ=D-113854&ranzahl=4&nichtweiter=1

Approx $350 from Portland to Los Angelos (u mount)

[lilfoo2225]

dont get the goodyears. they blow. get the greenballs.

[Lakeside]

Check out www.tirerack.com.  A great site that sells lots of brands for cheap.  You can have them installed at Walmart for $5/tire or something similar.  In all you can save several hundred on a set of tires from a brand you know.  In fact Tire Rack has a really good tire research section that makes it easy to choose the correct tire.

[Lakeside]

Walmart may not install trailer tires.  I had my trailer tires installed at a local Firestone store for about $30 for the trailer (3 tires for the single axle & spare.)

[cyclone]

I had to replace a couple of tires this year that just started coming apart. Guy said it was dry rotting, happened a lot after the really dry summer we had two yrs ago, he says.

I have had extraordinarily bad luck with trailer tires. I think I have four different brands on there now. I still use the stock 215/75/14 inch tire size. The two I can see right now are a BCT and a Karrier, both C load rated at 1870lbs.

I have had problems with the tires rubbing on the inside on the fender board. Eventually, they fail. I run 1/4" spacers on each tire now. You must tighten and retighten a couple of times with spacers, but they have helped my tire reliability.

While searching for tires of that size, I found this Airstream trailer forum in which guys discuss how their stock Marathons (same size) come apart when they drive on dirt roads or uneven concrete, or are maneuvered a lot.  A couple of them recommend switching to 15" wheels and tires. Here's the link, pretty interesting.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f465/14-215-75-to-15-225-75-wheel-and-tire-upgrade-40248.html

[toyotafreak]

Thanks for the help guys. I decided to go for the off-brand. Five installed for $375 through a friend's hookup. I'm not a big hookup fan, but decided not to overthink/spend. Perhaps their probable lower quality will keep me from pushing past 5 years. Age is the big issue with these tires (I hear). No tire should be expected to stay together after 5 years.

So anxious to get The Precious back in the water  :-)