On 5/31/2012 7:50 AM, RAS56 wrote:
On a somewhat related note...trailer tire rotation...anyone do it?

Not me. My long-standing rationale remains: until a vehicle (trailer/car)
demonstrates uneven tire wear, I'm leaving everything in place. None of my/our
trailers ever have. Some 20-ish years after the rig came into my hands, I
eventually replaced the original (to me), cheapie, Zuni trailer tires with
Redneck Trailer Supplies trailer radials at the same time I replaced the
original (broken-torsion-springs) axle. That was maybe 10 years ago.

The originals had lots of tread remaining (50%?), but even "frugal me" didn't
find it hard to talk myself into a full reset with the new axle.

The above entirely in the Rocky Mountain west...


I bought 3 new trailer tires at the same time...2 of them have been on
the trailer and one inside as the spare. I'm wondering if it would be a
good idea to put the spare into use and equalize road wear and UV damage
between the 3. Tire experts, want say you?

I did the same (and as it turns out, the spare - as yours, stashed in the
trailer - has always had a slow leak! Too slow to find/fix, in my lazy world.)
"Equalizing wear" seems to me more effort than any demonstrated-need might
ever be beneficial.
- - - - - -

FWIW - free anecdotal advice being worth every cent paid for it - I've owned
only 2 cars in 40 years of driving, a '72 Maverick (it was my trailer tow
vehicle) purchased new and sold in 2009, and a '90 econobox CRX purchased new
and still the daily driver. Here's what I've done, tire-wise, with both...

Ye olde Maverick had a full-size spare. After the first few years of youthful
enthusiasm during which time I rotated all 5 tires, I subsequently rotated
back-to-front only whenever wear suggested that to do so would maximize "set
life". Unlike the Honda (see below), the Maverick "required" multiple
rotations per tire set. The only non-puncture-related issue ever experienced
with any Maverick tires was when I opted to use the (15+ year old?) spare "for
a while" and it eventually delaminated, though not without sufficient warning
to exit the interstate on which I happened to be traveling/retrieving myself.
Prolly shouldna tried to use it as a long-term tire until I wore out the other
rear tire!

The Honda has a space-saver spare, a non-factor in any rotation scheme.
Usually once per tire-set-life I rotate back to front, so's to get all 4 to
wear out more or less simultaneously. It's never demonstrated a need for any
wheel to be aligned, so after 213,000 miles it remains in its as-received
alignment state. OEM tires aside, every set has lasted from 47,000 miles to
70,000 miles.

Kinda-sorta related, a HUGE time-/money-saver for me - after the Big-O tire
shop transitioned (for a while?) from internal patches to externally-inserted
plugs - was becoming (initially, very reluctantly) comfortable with the
concept of plugging holes from the outside. Once comfortable, I purchased a
Do-it-yourself tire plug kit from Whale Mart, consisting of a rasp, "needle"
and "gooey-lace plugs." In the 2 decades or so I've used it it's saved me
beaucoup hours and miles of driving into town hassling with
shops/lifts/"over-enthusiastic"-air-wrenches/unknown-people. For car tires up
to R195-70x14, the do-it-yourself kit is: a) fast; b) effective; and c) cheap.
By "effective" I mean 100% so for any puncture that any reputable shop would
patch from the inside.

I once plugged a Honda tire, by the side of the highway, in less than 15
minutes from pulling over to getting back underway, using the factory-supplied
jack.

The Maverick (no cigar lighter) required an air-tank or hand pump; I've a
lighter-powered weenie pump for the Honda.

I haven't bothered to keep track, but I've probably put 20 to 40 plugs in the
aforementioned vehicles' tires. One Honda tire had 8 separate plugs before
replacement for tread wear. (Living/driving on dirt roads in farming country
leads to LOTS of "stuff" puncturing tires.)

Having been unable to force the rasp through an 8-ply, 5th-wheel-pulled,
flatbed trailer tire the one time I tried, I reckon there's an upper tire size
limit to what any individual can plug with a Whale Mart plugger.

YMMV,
Bob W.