Hankook Vantra Trailer Tires

Summer season is the time when numerous Us residents strike the highway in search of family adventure. And a lot more than at any time ahead of, individuals are generating these memories by towing a travel trailer at the rear of their truck or SUV. Although it truly is critical to not forget about the s’mores supplies and frosty beverages, it is really similarly imperative to guarantee your camper has excellent tires. The age and issue of trailer tires are usually disregarded and can rapidly change any entertaining household escape into a nightmare.

It’s been ingrained in all of us from a youthful age that as very long as a tire has great tread still left, it really is great to maintain functioning. The exact can’t be explained for trailer tires, even though. A quality automotive tire commonly has a lifespan of about 5 or 6 several years just before remaining out in the sun and components can take its toll on the rubber. Most motorists will have no hassle using all of a tire’s tread daily life through this span. Trailers, on the other hand, may possibly only see a handful of thousand (or hundred, in some cases) miles each yr. This will make it considerably a lot more significant that proprietors pay out attention to the tire’s age, not just how a lot tread seems to be left.

Not all trailer tires are produced equivalent, either. There’s a definite hierarchy of trailer tires that includes a higher-close, a serviceable midrange, and a slew of ultra-low-priced tires. Simply because shifting a blown-out trailer tire on the facet of the sweltering highway sucks like almost nothing else, we test to stick with the very best excellent trailer tires, ones that arrive from trustworthy suppliers.

As we established out to get ready our have journey trailer for a summer season road vacation, we determined it was time to replace the tires. And as luck would have it, one of the leaders in passenger motor vehicle and light-weight truck tires, Hankook, experienced just released its personal new line of trailer tires. Hankook’s new line of Vantra radial trailer tires occur with trailer-unique functions these types of as a vast metal belt layer, significant-power bead wire, folded belt edge tape, a a few-ply carcass with an equilibrium polyester carcass line (extravagant phrases for improved sidewall stiffness and longevity), together with a very long treadwear rubber compound and a significant-stiffness tread pattern.

Hankook launched the Vantra trailer tire in 9 of the most common sizes, fitting wheels from 13 to 16 inches. In addition to the standard Vantra, Hankook has also launched the Vantra TH31 trailer tire. The Vantra TH31 is intended for greater hundreds, these as commercial purposes, and is readily available in 3 dimensions for now.

While we have been changing the tires, we figured there was no greater time to also exchange the trailer’s wheels. Steel wheels are nevertheless relatively regular throughout the trailer market as they are affordable and get the career done. Even so, metal wheels are also rather weighty and are inclined to rust. Switching to aluminum wheels helps make for a lighter in general tire and wheel deal, which is superior for reducing use and tear on other parts. Aluminum wheels also improve the visual appeal of anything they are mounted on, though at the same time lessening the danger of wheel failure owing to rust.

For our travel trailer we opted for the cleanse and traditional style of the Ultra Trailer Wheel Form 62. These wheels weigh just 19 kilos and have a load ranking of 2,150 lbs for each wheel (for our 15×6 wheels with a 5×4.5 bolt sample). The wheels appear machined and clearcoated.

To purchase the tire and wheel bundle we headed to one of the most very well-known on the net tire shops, TireRack.com. Though most persons know that Tire Rack carries truck and SUV tires, what you could not notice is that Tire Rack provides a total line of tires and wheels for trailers, as effectively. Below the Shop by Car or truck look for software, choose Trailer as the automobile make and then your lug pattern. From there, a myriad of choices will look. Very best of all, if you get equally the tires and wheels from Tire Rack, the corporation will mount, balance, and ship the established to your doorway for absolutely free. This proved in particular helpful, as dragging a travel trailer to the regional tire store can definitely be a cumbersome expertise. No subject what you get from Tire Rack, shipping is usually free of charge on orders more than $50, and the goods usually arrive in just a few times.

With a fresh set of high quality tires mounted on new aluminum wheels, our travel trailer really should give us several summers of hassle-no cost spouse and children reminiscences. If you are unable to try to remember when the past time you changed your trailer’s tires, now is a great time to examine just how previous they are and then head above to TireRack.com and search replacements. Afterall, no one wants to devote an afternoon baking on the facet of the street with a blowout.

Given that our journey trailer is reasonably new to us, we did not know the history of its tires. Although the tread seemed fantastic, and the day stamps showed that the tires have been about two a long time aged, we did not know how quite a few miles the tires experienced on them and if they’d sat in the sunshine or ended up included.

We also experienced some rust commencing to form on the steel wheels, as can be seen in this article. While the area rust is just an eyesore, the additional about issue was the rust forming all-around the valve stem and lug nut seats.

Hankook’s new Vantra trailer tire line is obtainable in 12 overall dimensions (which include three measurements of Vantra TH31 significant-capability tires). As of this creating, these new tires are in inventory at TireRack.com and ready for supply.

For our trailer, we desired tires sized 225/75R15. This will work out to about 28 inches tall and 9 inches wide. Supposed for trailer services only, these Hankook Vantra tires have a optimum chilly air stress ranking of 80 psi and occur with an “E” load ranking. The tires are 10-ply rated, with two steel, polyester, and nylon take care of plies and two polyester sidewall plies.

The “E” load rating indicates that every single of the Hankook Vantra trailer tires is rated at a highest of 2,830 kilos of carrying potential. When purchasing trailer tires, you ideally want the tires to have a better load score than the wheel, and the wheels to have a larger load rating than the axle. And often load to the manufacturer’s said gross motor vehicle excess weight rating (GVWR), not the blended tire rating.

The tread sample of the Hankook Vantra trailer tire has been specially made with the demands of journey trailers in mind. The tread block pattern ratio was optimized for substantial-load problems and is forged in a extended-have on rubber compound.

1 of the options of the Ultra trailer wheels that we identified important was a center cap that bolts on to the face of the wheel. Numerous wheels, our outdated metal wheels included, attribute a centre cap that is held in location from the back of the wheel. By obtaining a cap that bolts on, we can simply take out the cap with no getting rid of the wheel to access the trailer’s bearing grease zerks.

Visually, the new aluminum wheels and Hankook Vantra tires are a enormous improve for our outdated journey trailer. By swapping to the new Vantra tires, we also improved the velocity score of our trailer tires from 81 mph to the Vantra’s 87 mph “N” pace score.

We’ve obtained about 5,000 miles of summer months towing and journey already planned, so be confident to look at back again this drop for an update on how the new Hankook Vantra trailer tires are keeping up.

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