Tires and wheel upgrade

[mikeo11]

I have a 2017 White Hawk 27DSRL and it has 14" wheels and cheap LRC tires. Can I install larger wheels, so that I can install better tires, i.e. Maxxis 8008 LRE? I am considering 15" or even 16" wheels and getting Maxxis 8008 tires LRE.
Any advice or knowledge would be appreciated.

 

[Tommie-JAY]

First, you will need to do some measuring to see if you have enough clearance to add larger wheels and tires. If you don't have enough room, Maxxis does make 14" trailer tires that should be a much better tire than what came on your trailer.

 

[DocBrown-JAY]

Also keep in mind the benefits of of going to a larger wheel size are minimal.

 

[Old skipper]

Bigger tires and wheels can lead to having or wanting to upgrade the brakes. One upgrade leads to an other some because you want to some because you should.

 

[jagster]

I have the same year and model trailer that you have and was just looking at the tires. The name on mine were " Provider "is that what you have? My thoughts were to change out to the 14" Maxxis. But the weight rating is still the same. You would think that they would put 15" tires on that size trailer.

 

[schrederman]

If the tires are within their load range, the manufacturer isn't going to upgrade them. They are in competition and in business to make money. It would cost them some of their profit to upgrade when getting close to the limits. Not sure why you want to skip LRD and go all the way to LRE... I'm considering going to LRD from LRC when I replace these tires. It does make sense to not be close to the load limit, but skipping a load range seems like overkill. There are LRD 14" ST tires available, and I believe Maxxis has them, too. I know Carlisle has them.

 

[mikeo11]

I guess I am a little to anal. I keep reading about tire blowouts and how manufacturers install the cheapest tire they can get away with. I am looking at LRE and 15" tires. Thanks for the reply.

 

[mikeo11]

I'm not sure of the tire brand on my TT. I am considering 15" upgrade with Maxxis LRE tires. Thanks for the reply.

 

[TWP723]

Hey Mike, I just upgraded to a 15" LRE tire myself. I think 15's are more than adequate for your application.

 

[Mike77]

I'm not sure of the tire brand on my TT. I am considering 15" upgrade with Maxxis LRE tires. Thanks for the reply.

Mike, I have the WH 28DSBH, similar outside configuration and weight, and I'm facing the same dilemma. You might want to consider staying with 14" tires but going up to load range D from the stock tires - that'll make a huge difference, will cost far less and won't have implications for new brakes, ride height, etc.. See the discussion in this thread.

 

[schrederman]

If the tires are within their load range, the manufacturer isn't going to upgrade them. They are in competition and in business to make money. It would cost them some of their profit to upgrade when getting close to the limits. Not sure why you want to skip LRD and go all the way to LRE... I'm considering going to LRD from LRC when I replace these tires. It does make sense to not be close to the load limit, but skipping a load range seems like overkill. There are LRD 14" ST tires available, and I believe Maxxis has them, too. I know Carlisle has them.

I posted that in October, 3 days before my last day at work. After I retired, we went from Texas to Virginia with our brand new 28DSBH (bought in August) and on the way home we blew a tire and ruined an aluminum wheel. We had a pretty good distance yet to go so we were held up at Firestone in Little Rock $130- for a spare wheel and Chinese junk tire. I found a matching aluminum wheel online for $80-. No help from the dealer... but lately I've been encouraged to send these bills to Jayco. Fed up with it I went to Discount Tire and inquired about the Carlisle Radial Trail HD in LRD. I had found them online for considerably less than Discount Tire wanted for them but they honored the lower price. I came away with 5 new ST205/75R14 tires, balanced with metal stems and road hazard coverage for $501-. So in this debacle created by Jayco's insistence of putting junk tires on new TTs I have now spent $709- on top of the cost of the new trailer. I'd have been better off... in that 20/20 hindsight... to have just spent the $501- up front. For slightly more than I spent, we probably could have upgraded to 15" wheels if we'd wanted to. The one silver lining is that I now have 2 spare wheels and tires.

These are just my experiences... your mileage may vary, and I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do.