Trailer Tires vs. Car Tires
Although many people think they can use the same kind of tires for their car as well as trailer, there is a reason why specially constructed tires exist for hauling trailers. Read the article to find out more about them.
Some people often wonder why hauling trailers require specialized tires instead of the ones generally used for cars, when so much technology and selection is already available in the modern market. This is because hauling trailers do not need to accelerate or turn on their own. However, there is a reason for them to use specially constructed tires.
First, let’s have a look at some basic differences between car and trailer tires. The former is engineered for providing traction in longitudinal (back and forth) and lateral (side to side) directions while ensuring a smooth ride. A greater part of its tread stays in contact with the surface of the road and thus provides high performance. The latter ones are, however, designed to support heavy weight for thousands of miles without causing the load to bounce off. Besides that, they also have extremely thick sidewalls for propping the weight of the trailer without flexing.
Trailer tires are far more long lasting than their car counterparts because of two primary reasons — their rubber compound and aforementioned density of their sidewall. Every rolling object has a certain amount of rolling resistance — the tendency of the object to stick to the surface on which it is moving. Although stickiness is necessary for traction and performance, it also raises temperature and decreases fuel mileage. Trailer tires are normally manufactured using extremely tough rubber compounds which dampen traction entirely, but help significantly in reducing the rolling resistance.
Most car tires are designed radially to have their interior belts placed at an angle of 90 degree to one another. This is for ensuring that some of the belts always point towards the direction of travel. While radials for trailers can easily be bought from the market, many of them have their belts placed at 45° angles and are the bias-ply type. Although bias-ply types are more damage resistant and rugged, radials provide improved trailer tracking, better traction, longer life, enhanced fuel economy and smoother rides.
It can be quite safe to use tires of a light truck on a very lightweight 5 or 4 car trailer, but at least 10 percent of their load capacity has to be subtracted for reducing sidewall flex. In the vase of passenger car tires, one may need to reduce almost 40 percent of the load capacity for ensuring safety. Otherwise, nothing would be able to stop the trailer from getting T-boned at the time of passing through an intersection.
