If you happen to own a car hauling trailer or are somehow involved in the towing industry, you may have wondered at some point of time that why your truck and trailer require different kinds of tires. To begin with, car haulers neither have to turn nor accelerate by themselves, which is why they require special tires instead of the myriad of options already available on market. However, there is more to it than just that.
In order to get a better idea, let’s compare the tires used on cars and trailers:
- Car tires are specially engineered and designed to offer traction in lateral and longitudinal directions, whereas those meant for haulers can withstand heavy loads and also move them across great distances rather than having a bouncy effect.
- While car tires have a majority of their tread maintaining contact with the road surface, the latter ones are built to have dense sidewalls for supporting bulky loads without flexing.
Besides the above mentioned differences, tires of a car hauler trailer are far more durable compared to their car peers because of their highly dense sidewalls and rubber compound. They are made using strong rubber materials that not only dampen the traction optimally for enhancing performance, but also decreases rolling resistance (the ability to stick to a surface while moving over it) for better mileage and reduced temperature.
In general, all car tires have a radial design which consists of interior belts placed at right angles to each other. This is because some of the belts require to face the direction of travel at all times. Although radials are available in the market for trailers as well, they often have their belts positioned at an angle of 45 degrees and some of them are of the outdated bias-ply type.
Trailer tires are always of the radial type, which means that they ensure improved traction, smoother rides, better fuel economy, enhanced trailer trucking and are also durable. You can safely use light truck tires on your newly purchased 4 car trailer. But for that you will need to reduce about 10% of the total load capacity in order to decrease the sidewall flex. Otherwise, you will be unintendedly exposing your trailer to the risk of getting T-boned while making your way through an intersection. If you wish to be on the safe side, simply opt for special trailer tires.
