12" Trailer Tires

[Peteg]

Just wanted to share my experience hauling an 800 lb motorcycle on a single trailer setup with 12" 5.30 Chinese tires or a 2100 lb axle. As far as I'm concerned the China bomb period of 20 years ago is officially past. I'd run down the road at 75 in Texas heat all day long and I have. The tires barely run any hotter than my truck tires. Last week I was following my wife back from a family motorcycle beach vacation in Galveston she was running 75 with my Triumph in the bed and my VTX on the trailer with heavy cross winds. The left trailer fender on the Harbor Freight trailer had given up on the way down under similar conditions. I removed it in Galveston. Apparently I should have removed them both. Half way into the 400 mile trip home on the Valkyrie, I started smelling burning rubber. We pulled over and I removed the right fender whose bolts removed a section of tread. At the time I didn't realize the inner side wall had been cut down to the bias ply. I decided to run the 200 miles home with her running 75 and put the spare on only after failure. Anyway the Kenda Loadstar bias ply budget tires I bought last year seem like the best tires I've run on the trailer. Tire temperatures track really close to my truck tires and the pressures stay good on the  pressure monitoring system. Anyway the pictured tire made it 200 miles home at 75 mph in 90 degree heat. I finally have confidence that a decent speed rated Chinese tire will actually meet it ratings. Another cool thing is my wife didn't throw any fenders as me when I was following her on the Valk.

[da prez]

  Your guardian angel was flying fast.  I replaced mine with a set from Wally world. they are American made and I used the green balance liquid (crs) with stop leak included.   I also have run them at 75.
  When you reinstall , shakeproof or lock tite on the hardware.

                                                     da prez

[Peteg]

Good input, but I'm still baffled on the fenders. The Harbor Freight fenders initially were so bad they would flap in the wind  - I could watch them in the rear view mirror. I wound up adding angle bracket supports in the front and back which seemed to take care of the problem. Prior to this trip I made some changes for easier load and unload including bringing the decking all the out to the edge of the trailer frame. It was the first time I was loading one bike in the bed and one on the trailer. Anyway the bolts didn't come loose, all 3 supports cracked clean through on each fender. I didn't even see it happening riding behind her on the Valkyrie. It must have been high frequency vibration.

Just another baffling motorcycle adventure story. I think I understand this one about as well as I understand Valkyrie wheel bearings LOL.

Thanks again for the input.