Best Trailer Tires

01Get these three things right before you pick a brand

Load range. Your trailer's certification label — a metal or foil plate, usually on the left front of the frame or the A-frame near the coupler — lists the tire size and load range the trailer was built around, along with its GVWR. Match it or exceed it. Never go down a load range to save money; the axle rating does not change because the tire got cheaper.

Pressure. ST tires are designed to run at or very near their maximum sidewall pressure, which is the opposite of how car tires work. A Load Range D tire wants 65 psi cold; a Load Range E wants 80. Underinflation is the most-cited cause of trailer tire failure across the industry, and it is invisible: the tire looks fine, builds heat under load, and lets go at highway speed. Check them cold, before the day's first mile, every trip.

Age. Trailer tires almost never wear their tread out. They sit in the sun between uses, and the rubber degrades from UV and ozone whether the trailer moves or not. Buying the best tire on the market and leaving it on for nine years is worse than buying a mid-tier tire and replacing it on schedule. How long trailer tires last covers what "on schedule" actually means.

02Best trailer tires by trailer type

Small utility, landscape and single-axle trailers (13-inch and 14-inch). These live on ST175/80R13, ST185/80R13, ST205/75R14 and ST215/75R14, usually in Load Range C or D — anywhere from about 1,360 to 2,200 pounds per tire. At this size the brand premium is small in absolute dollars, so buy a radial from a name you recognize rather than the cheapest bias-ply on the rack. If the trailer is a work trailer that gets towed daily, step up to Load Range D in the same size for the heat margin.

Boat trailers. The tire is rarely what kills a boat trailer — the wheel bearings are. Still, boat trailers get backed into water hot off the highway and then parked for months, so prioritize a radial with good sidewall protection and check the date code before you buy, because slow-moving boat-trailer sizes sit in warehouses. Galvanized or aluminum wheels are worth the money here in a way they are not on a utility trailer.

Car haulers and equipment trailers (15-inch and 16-inch). This is where load range stops being optional. A tandem-axle car hauler carrying a 4,000-pound vehicle plus the trailer's own weight is asking each of four tires for real work, and 15-inch Load Range D or E is the normal spec. Sixteen-inch Load Range E — ST235/80R16 at roughly 3,420 to 3,520 pounds a tire, or ST235/85R16 at about 3,640 — covers most gooseneck and heavy equipment trailers, with Load Range F available where the axles demand it.

Travel trailers and campers. Same ST rules, but the failure consequences are worse because a blowout takes out underbelly, wiring and skirting on the way past. Load Range E is common on anything over about 5,000 pounds. Our travel trailer tire guide goes into camper-specific sizing and storage.

03The tires worth buying

Goodyear Endurance. The default recommendation, and the one tire in this category that is built in the United States. It carries an N speed rating — 87 mph — which is well above the 65 mph limit people still assume applies to every trailer tire, and it runs from ST205/75R14 in Load Range D up to ST255/85R16 in Load Range E at 4,080 pounds. Expect roughly $180 to $290 per tire depending on size and where you buy; the 16-inch sizes are the expensive end.

Carlisle Radial Trail HD. The long-standing value pick, available in Load Ranges C, D and E and stocked widely, including at national tire chains. Owners generally report it as a solid highway tire; the recurring complaint is shoulder wear on tight-turning applications, which is worth knowing if the trailer spends its life being jockeyed around a yard.

Maxxis M8008. A well-regarded radial ST tire with a following among people who tow a lot, available in the common 13-inch through 16-inch sizes. Priced between the Carlisle and the Goodyear in most sizes.

Sailun S637. The value option that people who have been burned by no-name trailer tires tend to land on. Not a premium tire, but a meaningful step up from generic house brands.

House-brand and no-name radials. These are what most new trailers ship with, and they are not automatically junk — but they are the tires most likely to be several years old when they get installed, and the ones with the least margin. If you buy them, buy them on the basis of a fresh date code and replace them on age without arguing about it.

Bias-ply trailer tires. Still sold, still cheaper, and still fine for a farm trailer that never sees the highway. For anything that travels at road speed, radial is worth the difference: cooler running, better wear, and better stability behind the truck.

04What trailer tires cost right now

Prices as of August 2026, per tire, before mounting. Small 13- and 14-inch ST tires in Load Range C run roughly $60 to $110. Fifteen-inch tires in Load Range D or E span a wide band: budget and house-brand ST225/75R15 in Load Range E has been advertised around $97 installed at regional tire chains and near $105 at trailer specialists, while a Goodyear Endurance in the same size lists closer to $180.

Sixteen-inch Load Range E is where the spread gets dramatic. Generic ST235/80R16 10-ply tires list around $130. The Goodyear Endurance in that size has been quoted anywhere from about $200 online to $255 at warehouse clubs to roughly $247 to $290 at installing tire stores in the same week. That is a $90 swing on the same tire, which is a good argument for getting two or three quotes rather than one.

Complete tire-and-wheel assemblies are worth pricing alongside bare tires on small trailers. A mounted-and-balanced assembly for a common utility size lands near $119, which is often close enough to the tire-plus-labor cost that the spare-wheel convenience wins.

05Mistakes that cost people trailer tires

Fitting passenger or light-truck tires because they were on sale. P-metric tires used in trailer service are derated by 10 percent, and neither P nor LT construction is built for the lateral load a trailer axle generates. There is a narrow, deliberate exception on some heavy equipment trailers — covered in ST tires vs LT tires — but "the tire shop had these in stock" is not it.

Replacing one tire on a tandem axle. Tandem axles share load through the equalizer. A new tire alongside a five-year-old one means the old one is now the whole plan. Replace in pairs at minimum, in fours if the set is the same age.

Ignoring the spare. It ages at exactly the same rate as the tires on the ground, and it is the one you will need at the worst possible moment. Check its pressure and its date code with the rest.

Assuming the tread tells you something. On a trailer tire, full tread depth and a cracked sidewall coexist routinely. Look at the sidewall and the date code, not the tread.

Towing faster than the tire is rated. Older and bias-ply ST tires are commonly limited to 65 mph. Modern radial ST tires are frequently rated M (81 mph) or N (87 mph), but that is something to verify on the sidewall of the tire you actually own, not assume.

06Buying trailer tires in West Georgia

Trailer tires are not tracked as a separate service in this directory — no shop in it lists them as its own line item — so the honest picture is this: 73 of the shops listed across Carroll, Douglas, Paulding, Haralson and Heard counties sell and mount tires, and full-service tire shops generally keep the common small ST sizes in stock because utility and boat trailers are everywhere out here. Sixteen-inch Load Range E and anything unusual is worth a phone call first.

Two questions to ask when you call: what is the date code on the tires you would put on, and is the price quoted with mounting and balancing. Both matter more on trailer tires than on car tires, because a tire that has been on a shelf for two years has spent two of its useful years already.

RimsAndTires does not sell tires — it is a free directory connecting West Georgia trailer owners to local shops. Tell us your trailer type and tire size and we will match you with a shop that stocks it.

Trailer tire options compared