We have had good luck with tires from tiresunlimited.com. They carry Duro brand which seem to get OK reviews on this site. They also carry wheels and will mount the tires for free. I think they ship out of Ohio and when we were in Virginia the shipping carge was reasonable.
Good luck.
A man, his wife, a son and Cody the Goldendoodle.
2008 Laredo 284BHS, 2001 Chevy Sliverado 2500HD 4X4 4.10, Equal-i-zer, Primus
Chuck_S wrote: You may want to look at 14" wheels with the tires already mounted. This then becomes a driveway tire change rather than a dealer or taking them one at a time to the gas station to be changed. You'll pay for mounting and tire disposal anyway if you just buy new tires. Replace the spare too.
The ST205/75R14 tires are rated at 1760 pounds each and will eliminate any fear of overloading them on your trailer. This is the size tire Forest River puts on their new trailers and the earlier trailers with the "riser kit."
Finding North American made ST tires may turn into a quest, they're very uncommon.
Balancing trailer wheels tires is a useless exercise unless the tire shop has a spindle to mount the wheels by the lugs. The hole in the middle of a trailer wheel is not a center hole like a car wheel. If they balance using this middle hole (that may or may not be in the center) you have as much chance of making the balance worse as better. If you can find the spindle do it, but it's rarely necessary or possible to balance these tires. There are probably a few places that will balance the wheels on the trailer, but I've not seen one in years.
-- Chuck
Chuck -
would I need to get the riser kit from FR to do this ?
It sounds like a good idea to replacewith the 14" if I have the need to buy 4 anyways.
The Forest River "riser kit" isn't a kit in the sense you can install it yourself. It's merely a 3" high box channel welded between the chassis and the suspension mounting. An "easy job" if you have the materials, welding skills, and the ability to measure and keep the wheel alignment. Between the 3" steel channel and the 14" tires a gain of 4" is experienced. We have a double step on the trailer because of this factory kit.
Forest River probably adds the kit to the frames as they make them, not after the fact. But it's just the steel box channel, nothing more exotic.
-- Chuck
'06 Roo 23SS behind '07 Expedition out of Cleveland Our Photo pages
Chuck_S wrote: The Forest River "riser kit" isn't a kit in the sense you can install it yourself. It's merely a 3" high box channel welded between the chassis and the suspension mounting. An "easy job" if you have the materials, welding skills, and the ability to measure and keep the wheel alignment. Between the 3" steel channel and the 14" tires a gain of 4" is experienced. We have a double step on the trailer because of this factory kit.
Forest River probably adds the kit to the frames as they make them, not after the fact. But it's just the steel box channel, nothing more exotic.
-- Chuck
I wonder if I can upgrade from 13" to 14" wheels without the riser kit ? I guess I will need to call FR.
I think you can as the Riser Kit is reported missing on some '08 and '09 models and they all seem to have 14" wheels.
Please let us know what Forest River says. You may be able to buy five sets from them for less expense than a tire shop as they must buy them by the railcar.
I just bought 4 tires mounted on rims for my (new to me) 2000 Rockwood Roo. 2 of the campers tires were original and 2 had been replaced a couple of years ago. I decided just to replace 4 of them all and move one of the newer ones to the spare.
I also looked at moving up to 14” tires, but decided to stay with the 13’s. I did make sure to order the “D” load rating (6 ply rather than 4 ply). That gives me a load rating of 1360# per tire (rather than 1100# for the 4 ply load range C) which is sufficient for a camper that I would be hard pressed to load over 4000# into.
I bought mine from http://shop.easternmarine.com/
It was the best combination of price & shipping to my home in Ohio. It was a little under $100.00 per tire with shipping. If the rims had been in decent shape I would have driven to Dayton Ohio and bought just tires from Tire Discounters. Since I wanted new rims as well as tires, I went the online route.
Hope that helps.
Btw – Five years is about as long as I have ever gotten out of a set of trailer tires. I cover them in the winter but not when parked in the summer. All of mine have dry rotted long before the tread wears out.
* This post was
edited 05/17/08 10:00am by camp4fun family *
Me - 67
DW - 71
DD - 01
DD - 04
DS - 06
04 Ford Excursion (Whomper)
00 - 21' Rockwood Roo
Equal-i-zer and Prodigy
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