Vehicles towing trailers aren’t chugging along slowly on the highway anymore, and as truck power and speed have increased so has the need for special trailer (ST) tires that can keep up.
“With the power of today’s vehicles, it’s normal to see them towing a triple-axle trailer in the fast lane passing other cars,” says Randy Tsai, director of marketing and GBC Motorsports for Greenball Corp. “The strain of higher speeds for prolonged amounts of time while under constant load is much higher than what many ST tires were originally designed for.
“So now there is a demand for a more robust ST tire that meets today’s towing demands while still being economical in price.”
ST tires are getting bigger and heavier, and all-steel radial construction is becoming more of the norm than the exception.
Finding the most up-to-date technology is sometimes difficult, says Tom Van Ormer, director of purchasing for East Bay Tire Co. “The ‘new’ technology is existent in ‘name brand’ trailer tires only.
“We see new offers of ‘less expensive’ trailer products from multiple Chinese sources, but none of them seem to offer any new technology, only cheaper prices. These may be fine for farm or construction use, but not for over-the-road, high-speed applications the consumer uses the ST tires for today,” Van Ormer says.
To read more about the latest ST tire technology, as well as the outlook for the ST market, check out this story from Modern Tire Dealer’s May edition: ST tires: All-steel radial construction is meeting the demand for more carrying capacity.
