Wouldn't a 110 psi tire be better?

[TravelWell]

I am not a mechanic or tire specialist. (Hence, I'm coming to you guys.) First, I understand Oliver's tires are different from the usual camper tires. Word on camper websites is that the 80 psi tires have a thin sidewall. Wouldn't it be better to have a 110 rim and 110 psi tire? When I buy mine, I will be going down some bumpy dirt roads and truly off-gridding. Also, what is the tire on the Oliver? I see it has "Premium Aluminum Rims with 10-ply Tires" and is 80 psi. Does the Oliver tire have a thick sidewall and good tread depth? Do they last on the road or have problems with needing frequent replacement?

Any thoughts on this?

[dewdev]

Yes, the tires that Oliver uses are rated for a max of 80 psi. a 10 ply tires is heavier then normal car tires. Oliver now recommends that the tires be inflated to 55 to 60 psi, which makes for a smoother less bouncie ride for the Ollie. A lot of owenrs use a little less air pressure0 If you use the Search bar for tire inflation, you will find a lot of discussion on the subject..

Also, a lot of owners when traveling off road on bumpy roads inflate less then what I have listed above.

Edited 22 hours ago by dewdev

[jd1923]

10 hours ago, TravelWell said:

Word on camper websites is that the 80 psi tires have a thin sidewall. Wouldn't it be better to have a 110 rim and 110 psi tire? When I buy mine, I will be going down some bumpy dirt roads and truly off-gridding.

The simple answer is NO, and since when does an E-rated LT tire have thin sidewalls? Please do not take advice from Overlanders, Van-Life or or Rock-Crawler types! 🤣

The Oliver is simply a 7K LB rated trailer. Ours weighs in at 6500 LB and 40 PSI is enough according to pressure-weight tables, so I go with 45 PSI. Yes, OTT suggests even more pressure for legal reasons, since not everybody checks tire pressure each time out.
https://tirepressure.org/lt-metric-tire-load-inflation-chart

More pressure AND more plies in the tire construction makes the tire stiffer, the ride harsher, which is not helpful to Oliver trailer systems. Many owners have drawers and cabinets opening, which is a sign, but a stiff ride also causes real damage. You want a softer ride, in fact the E-rated tire is already too stiff. Most 7K trailers run on ST tires. Many Oliver owners have run the OEM tires at 80 PSI because that's what the label says on the side of our older hull and that's what OTT used to spec which was very wrong.

Like you, we very often go, "down some bumpy dirt roads and truly off-gridding." There are more wash-board roads where we live and travel than most of you. You need strength in the drive tires on your tow vehicle, but the trailer should glide slowly over the rough terrain as much as possible. Think, why do off-road types air down when the terrain is rough? (to make them soft and flexible for better traction). And based on your location, cold weather also makes tires stiffer!

We owned a class-C where a prior owner install G-rated 12-ply tires instead of the spec for Load Range-E. The ride was horrible. Every time the front tires hit grooves on the highway (almost everywhere) the front-end felt like it was being hit with a 100 LB hammer!

Another example - we own a Lexus GX AWD truck. I added a 2-inch lift and suspension goodies. This truck comes OEM with P-rated tires (P for passenger). I wanted LT tires for our dirt roads. Everybody goes with an E-rated tire which makes sense if you are always pressuring down and crawling rocks but we are on city roads and highway 90% of the time. I purchased a Cooper AT tire because I could get the size I needed in a Load Range-C which is stronger than the P-rated tire but not stiff and harsh as E-rated. We run at only 32 PSI (not towing) and the truck glides down most roads. LOVE the ride and was so happy with this purchase decision!

I will likely replace our Oliver tires with Range-C tires when the time comes, since it is all we need and the Oliver will ride more smoothly at lower pressures. We only need 45 PSI, not 80 and certainly not 110 PSI.

BTW, welcome to the OTT Forum and congrats on your first post! I hope that my explanation helps! JD

Edited 14 hours ago by jd1923

[Geronimo John]

TravelWell:

This appears to be your first post, so welcome to our forum.

For a 6,000 (loaded) trailer, the OEM use of an E-rated (80 PSI) tire is unusual.  Oliver could easily have gone with less stout and lighter C or D rated.  But true to the exceptional quality of OTT's, they went with the stronger and much thicker tires  that are rated to carry WAY more load.  The E-rated tires are much more resistant to road damage as our owners typically include boondocking and roads such as yours in our travels.  

There are penalties with going with an higher rated tires and they are weight, cost and ride as JD discusses above.  That said, I have yet to hear of any OTT owner complain about having too good of a tire tire on their rig.  On the other hand,  going to an even heavier duty tire such as you proposed would gain little in endurance or failure resistance.  But the weight and cost increase would be significant. 

The third consideration is the forces that high pressure tires transmit up into the trailer.  Although our 80 PSI rated tires can handle this pressure, most of our owners are running their trailer tires at the 50 PSI or less on highway and 30 PSI or less off road.  Doing so keeps stuff in the cabinets and cushions off the floor.

Finally, I know of no OTT owners that use 110 psi rated tires on OTT's for all of the above reasons.

GJ   

Edited 20 hours ago by Geronimo John
Typo

[jd1923]

It looks like @Geronimo John and I were thinking alike and writing at the same time! Great minds… 🤣

[Geronimo John]

Yep, but you are faster on the key board than I.   🙂

 

[Mike and Carol]

@TravelWell, welcome to the forum.  The Oliver tires are fine for highway and off-road.  We’re nearing the end of life on our second set of tires, Cooper AT’s and they have done well.  We don’t run at 80 psi, 50 psi is plenty.  Our first year or so we kept inflated to 80 psi because Oliver said so.  Much too harsh and we aired down several years before Oliver decided 80 was too much.  As far as bumpy dirt roads, I think a lot of us have quite a few miles of bumpy dirt roads under our belts on the standard tires so I wouldn’t worry.  Good question!  Mike

Edited 18 hours ago by Mike and Carol

[ADKCamper]

I agree completely with all of the above... however its important to note the difference between the Elite and the Elite II with respect to their tire and axle configurations.

Ignoring for the moment the differences in tongue weights, the variability between lightly loaded and heavily loaded trailers and whatever safety margin you prefer to factor in, the Elite II GVWR of 7,000 lb / 4 tires = roughly 1750 lb/tire which must be supported, while the Elite GVWR of 5,000 lb / 2 tires = roughly 2500 lb /tire which must be supported.

For this reason, for our Elite, we have settled on 55-60 psi with E rated tires for our loaded Elite at highway speeds on "normal" roads. On rougher paved roads we have to slow down some, and on rough backcountry roads we slow down even more and sometimes air-down a bit to help cushion the shocks.

There are several prior threads that discuss the relationship between psi and a tire's weight carrying capability, which can be looked up / computed based upon tire manufacturer's data.

Camp on!