Trailer Tire Maintenance Tips – How to Keep Your Trailer Tires Ready for the Road | MarkMeets | Celebrity News, Music, Movies, TV, London Film Premieres

Trailer tires can take a lot of abuse on the road, especially if you like to explore the road less traveled while towing a trailer behind your truck.

Give the tires a good clean with soap and water before storing them. That gets rid of any muck or abrasive grit that might wear out the rubber over time. If you’re not removing your tires from your trailer, unload the trailer as much as possible. Weight creates pressure. The less weight sitting on your tires for extended periods, the longer they’ll last.

The constant use can be costly. Although they can last anywhere between three and 10 years, depending on how you maintain them, trailer tires, like any tires, wear out over time.

Obviously, you want to ensure your trailer tires are fit for the road for as long as possible. Not only is it safer, but it means you save money on replacements. These trailer tire maintenance tips help you make your tires road-ready for longer.

Tip 1 – Proper Storage Is Your Friend

You likely don’t use your trailer tires all year round. When the weather takes a turn, or if you’re simply not towing a trailer every week, you’ll put the tires (and trailer) in storage until you’re ready to use them again.

Preparation is key for storage.

As for the storage area, there are three rules – cool, dry, and shaded. The latter is essential because ultraviolet (UV) rays weaken the chemical bonds in the rubber used to make your tires. You don’t want the sun to be the reason why your trailer tire rots from underneath your trailer when you’re driving.

Tip 2 – Check Tire Pressure Regularly

Every trailer tire has its own pressure requirements. Fail to meet them, and you either end up with a tire that’s underinflated to the point it drags across the tarmac or so overinflated that it has a higher risk of popping. Neither is a good situation for the tire’s lifespan.

The problem here is that the weather impacts your tire pressure. Consumer Reports says the average tire loses a pound per square inch in pressure for every 10-degree Fahrenheit temperature drop. So, those trailer tires you put into storage for the winter may lose tons of pressure by the time you’re ready to use them again.

Thankfully the solution to this problem is simple – use a tire pressure gauge to check the tire’s pressure against recommended levels and inflate (or deflate) depending on what you see.

Tip 3 – Balance Your Tires Before Driving

It’s not just the amount of weight that can affect your trailer tires. The distribution of that weight is also a factor, with improperly distributed weight leading to imbalance issues. You’ll detect the signs of unbalanced tires when you’re driving. Your trailer will start vibrating when you hit high speeds, and you may find you’re using more fuel than usual. Of course, the most obvious sign is that there’s more wear on one part of the tire than on any other part.

If you identify unbalanced tires as an issue, you have two options for rebalancing:

Static balancing
Dynamic balancing

With static balancing, a mechanic (or you) suspends the vehicle in the air to see which side leans lower to the ground. Weights are applied (often weighing little more than a fraction of an ounce) onto the wheel rim or flange until the balance is restored.

For dynamic balancing, a mechanic places the tire on a special machine that spins the tire at high speeds. That machine has sensors. These sensors pick up on any balance issues and tell the mechanic how much weight to apply to the tire (and where) to restore balance.

Be on the lookout for the signs of unbalanced trailer tires and speak to a mechanic if you find the trailer ride bumpier than usual.

Tip 4 – Inspect Tire Sidewalls

The mentions of wear from unbalancing indicate that tires wear out over time. Ideally, you want this wear to be even. But it’s going to occur in the most balanced of tires regardless, so you have to keep a lookout.

Check the tire’s tread and sidewall.

In the case of tread, you’re looking for reductions in tread size that indicate you may be packing too much weight into your trailer. Limiting weight is often the solution because it places less pressure on your tires. Simply put – they last longer when subjected to better conditions. As a note, the United States Department of Transportation recommends replacing any tire that has a tread worn down to 2/32 inches.

Sidewall cracks are another sign that you’re packing too much into your trailer. But they can also indicate exposure to unfavorable temperatures or poor storage conditions. Cracks are signs of issues to come. Again, follow the 2/32-inch guidance to determine when the tire needs replacing.

Tip 5 – Rotate So You Don’t Have to Replace

Uneven wear is a problem.

But it’s something that regularly happens, especially if you pack your trailer the same way every time. One tire has to handle more weight than the others. And when combined with issues on the road (a pothole may catch one tire but not the rest, for instance), you may end up with one tire taking on a bigger burden than the rest.

The result is that the tire’s lifespan decreases.

Rotating your trailer tires every 5,000 to 7,500 miles of driving spreads wear out more evenly. This increases the cumulative lifespan of all tires, rather than leaving you with one that needs replacing before the others.

Take Care of Your Trailer Tires, and They’ll Take Care of You

Maintenance takes time. It’s sometimes dirty work and requires you to learn more about your trailer tires than you knew before. That’s a good thing because learning more means you avoid the mishaps and mistakes that lead to spending more than you need to on your trailer tires.

Simply put – following these tips saves you money in the long run. If you take care of your trailer tires, they last longer and offer a safer ride whenever you take your trailer on the road.