Shorelander trailor tires

[D. fisher]

I had a brand new tire blow out on me last fall on a shorelander trailor. The tire had less than 5000 miles on it, so I ended up sending the tire in to Titon. They reimbursed me $ 9. 73 and I just got the check today, almost 4 months later. I'm letting everyone know this, so if you are purchasing a new boat and trailor, make sure that the tires aren't the factory ones that come with the trailor. When you call their 800 number, they refer you to a local rep who doesn't want to deal with you. Poor tires and poor service.

[Dave in Mpls]

D.-

I couldn't agree more - Titan tires are the worst, and their customer service is one notch below that.

Do this: Put a set of Goodyear Marathons on your trailer, take that $9.73 and buy a 12 pack of your favorites, and thank the good Lord that you're now done having to deal with a company like that!

Regards

[Larry]

5000 miles ??? That's pretty darn good for those tires ! PS..it doesn't matter what brand of trailer you have them on, they don't hold up. I've found only one tire that I'd recommend to anyone and that's the Goodyear Marathon. They cost just a little bit more but there's no comparing them to anything else. Shop around as you can find as much as $30 difference/tire in price. I ended up getting a better deal from a Goodyear tire dealer than from any of the discount tire places.

[Sparky]

Ditto on the Marathons!

Sparky

[JKJ]

I've got nearly 10,000 on my set. (Sept 99 to Oct 00) No problems. I looked them over last night and they appear good as new. (My set are under a 3100 lb trailor. 50 pounds air pressure)

Two questions:

Did your set "Wear Down" or did they just blow??

How often did you check pressure??

[john]

I agree, the tires are junk. I got less then 3500 miles and had tread separation. Dealer said that it was wear and tear-bought ttwo new, but not triton

[D. Fisher]

I check my tires on a weekly basis in the summer. I live in Rochester, and fish mostly Winnie, Leech and Rainy Lakes. The tire actually peeled and knocked out the running lights on the trailor at the same time. Since my complaint yesterday, I've had a rep call me, apologize and is going to try and help me with a new tire. I only wish I'd have known about this rep 4 months ago.

[Bob G2]

Forget about it! Let them fix your tailite, but go out and get the Marathons. Don't stay with Titans. It'll probably happen again and do you need the aggravation?

[walleye daddy]

Had 3 titan trash tires sparate in a year. Still have new ones on that I had to go and get becuase the dealer wouldn,t warranty them. I plan on putting them to good use in the spring as dock bumpers. At least I know if the separate again it won't be on my trailer and I can use the separated tread that falls off for soles for my shoes. Seriously, these tires are junk and you can read about them on past post. They recalled Firestones for separation and I would bet a lot of you out there have more money invested in your rigs than some people have in ther trucks with Firestones on em. Plan on putting Goodyears on in the spring.

[Sparky]

Consider yourself fortunate. I check mine before each trip for air, and they had zip wear on them. I didn't hit anything, it just let go.
The dealer I went to an hour into my trip didn't have any Marathons in stock but, he told me not to buy anything else. I bought an inexpensive bias ply to have a spare and went on my way. After the trip I bought three new Marathons. My boat tows like it's on a totally different trailer.

Sparky

[honest don]

Sorry to hear someone else is also having problems with these tires. I also have had problems with the titans on my shorelander. I replaced with goodyears and also had one of those go bad also. Customer service from these companys was very poor,especially goodyear. Very disapointing and exspensive. I now run carslile cheapys and so far so good. Kinda funny that car and truck tires can go for many more miles and not have these problems. Sorelander makes a darn good trailer, maybe they can help the average guy and put a darn good tire on that trailer.

Just my 2 cents worth.
Fish On

[Jack G]

I bought a new rig in July 1997 including a Shorelandr trailer with two Titan tires plus a spare. The first one blew out in 1998 on the interstate in South Dakota and took the running lights on the fender with it, the second one developed a big knot on the sidewall in 1998 and the last one developed a big knot on it in the spring of 1999. In less than two years they were all trash. Yes, I do watch my tire pressure.

I replaced them all with Good Year tires and the Good Year spare has not been on the ground yet.

[Hawgeye]

I have been watching all of the posts and am concerned about the Shorelandr trailer that will be in my yard in 2 weeks. Bought a new rig with a Shorelandr. Has anyone here contacted Shorelandr' or had their dealer contact them? I did not order a spare with mine. My old Pro-V with an EZ Loader got the old radials off of my Chevy van and they lasted for 6,000 miles and were still on it when I traded it in. Past posts suggest using tires made for trailers but from my experience and from these posts, I tend to believe one may be better off going with some good quality radials for a car or van. In fact all of the used rigs that I have had, got good used car tires and I have never had a blowout in 15 years.

I do have to say that any Bias ply sux and will be gone as soon as the trailer hits the road.

[Box]

The same thing happened to our tire (same brand). This was after about 4 full years and lots of miles - not sure how many.

I will try the marathons.

Box
MN

[Little Smoker]

I have to add my two cents as well.

For the first two years of my rig I have had four Titans blow out on me, peeling and taking out the running lights. I now have the Marathons, and even though for the last six months I have been trailering twice as much, they have held up fine. I check my tire pressure every single time before I go out, but those Titans were real garbage. If you have them on your trailer, get them off, before you find yourself on the side of a road.

The kicker: The reps tell me that Titans are made by Goodyear, and its the same tire with different branding for more $. Personally, I don't believe it, as I have seen a difference.

[Ditto on the above]

Shorelander trailer/crummy tires. Major problems!!! Ditto

[Jim Carroll]

ME TOO! I liked my Shorelandr trailer but those Titans were the worst tire I have ever used. Two sets in three years. When I sold that boat I put Marathons on it and the guy is still running them. I would not purchase Titans again.

[fuzzman]

Ditto on the Titan tires, they are junk, and NO they are NOT made by Goodyear. Titan is a separate company with their plant in Des Moines, IA. It's the old Armstrong tire plant. At least, I don't think they have another plant. There have been ongoing labor problems at the plant since Titan bought it. I can't believe that Shorelander puts Titan's on their trailers, it is hurting their reputation. I had a Titan blow out on my trailer last summer right in the middle of Minneapolis. Thanks to this website I now have Goodyear Marathons on my trailer also. CHECK TIRE PRESSURE REGULARLY!! My tires recommend 50 psi, as do most trailer tires I believe. I wonder how many people out there are putting 30 psi in their trailer tires like they do in their vehicle tires?

[Hawgeye]

I called my dealer to check on the status of my new boat, and during the conversation I asked him about what tires I will be getting on my shorelandr and he said that all of the Shorelandr' trailers that he sells now get the Goodyear Marathons. I don't know if that is an upgrade that they request or if Shorelandr' is now using the Marathons. All I know is I am happy that I am not getting the Titans.

[RMB]

I also experienced problems with the Titans on my new trailer. First off a few things need to be clarified. I found these items out when I went through H*** and back to get mine replaced. Shorelandr' does NOT sell their trailers with tires ON them. The dealers acquire the trailers WITHOUT tires and put on what they want. This is why typically the DEALER won't warranty them. Titan (the factory) will if you contact them. The tires have a "born on" date on the sidewall. Check this to see how old your tire actually is. Mine were actually 2 years older than the trailer themselves, even though they were considered "new". The problem is that these tires only have a reasonable shelf life of 2-3 years, and a real life expectancy of about 5 years total. When I purchased my rig the tires were actually at the end of their lifespan. Titan will be able to tell you how old your tires really were and if you purchased "old" tires as new they should give you a new set. At least they did with me. I just had to send them the purchase agreement with date and cut the labels out of the sidewalls and send them also. Like that was an easy task! Ever cut apart a tire? It's not fun!! Anyway, another problem that is an issue with the trailer itself is that Shorelandr's "low slung" trailers have an offset axle and spindles. The spindles are actually offset lower than the axle. This design lends itself to actually having the spindles bend when hitting bumps in the road, or pulling out of ramps. I replaced two and finally after a third time just changed out the entire axle to a straight through design. My trailer sits a whole 2.5" higher and I had to change my ball mount to a straight one instead of a drop mount to even out the tongue weight, but it rides great. Once a spindle is out of alignment, a tire will wear very quickly and there is a lot of friction to the road so blowouts are much more common. Never again will I purchase this type of design. Oh, and a side note. Verify the trailer capacity you have with the actual FULLY loaded weight of your boat. Some dealers have a tendency to sell a trailer that is marginal in order to be more competitive in price. I actually bought my rig with an adequately sized trailer and still got bit in the behind by the design. Funny thing is....I didn't know squat about trailers when I bought my rig, but I sure learned alot the hard way. At least I'll never make the same mistake twice. Goodyear Marathons are the way to go, no regrets. Hope you can learn from MY mistakes. Good Luck and send some open water my way ASAP before I drive myself nuts!

[Dave in Mpls]

Good post, RMB

[Coldfront(IL)]

Ok So i just checked my 1 year old trailmaster trailer and they have those "cheap" Carliles. Would you change them? I don't put a lot of miles on them.But i do make a bonzai up to Lake of the woods every year. Thanx for any help jim

[Kip#1]

My experiences have been limited but I've seen some problems with Titans. That said, I've seen other tires with problems too. Titan makes a lot of trailer tires and it might be hard to separate the % that are thought to be bad from the shear # of tires. Plus, the trailers themselves may be partly to blame.

When I had to replace my tires (they were Titans and had a goofy wear pattern but I bought the rig used...) I thought about the Goodyear radials but I'm not a fan of their car/truck tires so the price was even harder to swallow. I had heard some say they liked their Carlisle tires esp.ly considering the price. Note that they sell more than one kind of tire and prices vary accordingly.

I bought some Carlisles with "Trail" in the name (they aren't in front of me now) and they were a good price from an online source. I have three seasons on the tires. Last season alone I put 4500 miles on them. Now, my tires and trailer are big considering the load (no boat show special trailer here) and I monitor pressure and wear all the time. So far, these tires have been great and I am very happy - especially considering the price. I must have 10k miles on them and the way they look they should go 25-30k; i.e., they'll dry-rot first.

[Mike S]

One thing I have not seen metioned here is to make sure the tires have been balanced. I have been down this road before and found an unbalanced tire will wear out rather quickly . You will get a strange wear pattern on a tire.I thought my trailor was out of alignment and had it aligned but it was fine .It was the lack of tire balancing that was the culprit.

[Harry]

A lot of good info on these posts here. I also have Titans on my 1999 R2028W Shorelander. One thing I failed to see here is... typically how much are the Goodyear Marathons? Do all of the Titan tires have the bad reputation or just certain sizes? I have the ST205/75R14's.

[Harry]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-17-01 AT 09:21PM (CST)[p]Also, 50psi is the max air pressure for these tires. Is it always good to run at the max psi?