Re: trailer tires

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>Anyway - my understanding is that you are supposed to use bias tires on
>horse trailers rather than radials due to the sidewall strength of the bias
>tire. As my trailer is very light 1950 lbs and I only trailer one horse I
>think that the 6 ply is ok (and much better than the 4 ply currently on
>there) 6 ply was the highest I was able to find - most places that had bias
>ply tires had 3 ply tires.

A few observations:

Bias ply tires are not stronger in the sidewall than radial tires; they are just
stiffer (less flexible). When radials first came out I heard that you could
have handling problems putting radials on the trailer if you did not also have
radials on the tow vehcicle, but I don't know if that's true. I have used
radials exclusively on my horse trailers for many years.

At one time you chose the load bearing capability of tires by the number of
plies -- when all tire materials were pretty much the same. With modern tires
the number of plies bears little relation to quality or load bearing, as there
are numerous ply materials and designs available. There is an industry standard
rating system that is more significant -- the "A," "B," "C," etc. rating of the
tire, and the number of pounds it is rated for (this information is molded into
the sidewall). You need to get the proper load rating; the number of plies
doesn't really matter much.

In fact, as the industry knows people's habits change slowly, the number of
plies listed may not even be the actual number of plies of material in the
tire. It it says "6 ply rating" that does not mean you actually have six
layers of cord. It just means a strength equivalent to six layers of the
"standard" cord material.

Finally, more plies isn't necessarily better. More plies of a given material
and design means a stiffer tire, and a stiffer tire will absorb less road shock
(passing more impact through to the horse's legs) and not handle as well. A
good reason, IMO, for using radial tires on horse trailers.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal

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