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Just returned from holiday with our 1983 Conway Corniche. Before we went I bought new wheels and tyres to replace the rusting/perishing ones that were on. After 2 hours driving the tyres seemed excessively warm, the trailer is not overloaded, nor was I driving excessively quick. I think it probably has something to do with tyre pressures and wondered if someone out there could assist.

The new tyres are exactly the same size, as the old ones however are tubeless. The originals used to inflate to 45psi, and so I naturally inflated the new ones to the same pressure. The news ones are however stamped on teh sidewall as being suitable to 65psi - should I be using this higher pressure?

Any help gratefully received

Paul

make sure that the tyres are for commercial use and not car tyres... car tyres im sure are 4 ply and caravan/trailer tyres are 6 ply, this affects the tyre strenth... under and over inflating tyres will make them overheat so try and get the pressure correct...and as B.C. says above make sure your brakes arnt sticking on, the heat transfer can be supprising!  another thing if the road surface is hot (unlikely this summer!) they will pick up heat from there... or the worst thing could be is that your unit is not running true??  i hope for you sake its not that!!!

good luck

paul

I would suggest you check brakes / wheel bearings.  The easy way to tell is how warm is the wheel rather than tyre.  We had about 36psi in our trailier and this is about what I had on my old speedboat trailer.  Depending on the loading of your trailer I doubt you will need a special trailer tyre.  You will not have enough weight on board to need it.  If it was a carvan then you would need a special tyre.

As has been said the markings n the tyres will be the max pressure not the recommended pressure.  If you had them that high the trailer would bounce all over the place probably.

Your tyres will get warm on a long drive but not excessivly so.

My Conway has a 35psi label on the wheel arch. Tyres can get warm if underinflated, but would have to be seriously underinflated to do so. You don't say whether you have a braked trailer or not. It would be worth jacking each wheel up in turn and spinning it. If the brake is binding you will feel it (if it is braked of course) you should also listen for a noise from the wheel bearings. The bearings can collapse or weld up solid if they wear too badly. Of course, they make such a noise when travelling, they are obvious when they wear out on a car, but are often forgotten about on a trailer as they cannot be heared while you are in the car. (They would be noisy inside the trailer though, but its against the law to ride in a trailer).

Also remember that the wheels are only 10 inch (maybe 8 inch on the older models) so probably spin at twice the speed as the ones on your car. Any mathematicians want to work out the exact ratio, feel free.

Thanks everyone, yes it is a braked trailer so I will look into the possibility of the brakes binding.

Paul

Hi paul

My unit is a corniche 1989 unbraked tyre pressure on that is 35psi. Have a good look at brakes and bearings, should be able to get at bearings by removing caps and giving a good greasing.

Clive cocm