Tires for tow dolly

[Russell E Johnson]

I am needing new tires for my tow dolly. I have found 2 tires that have the 185/80d13 load range d, 8 ply, tires that I need. One tire is made by WD Velocity and the other is made by Loadstar. Has anyone had experience with either of these 2 brands? I would dislike making a purchase and then find out that I made the wrong choice. BTW Maxxis does not make this tire in an 8 ply, load range d tire, only load range c, 6 ply.

[Lakota Wolf]

Loadstar has been around for quite awhile and I have used them on a 16 foot flatbed and was an exceptional tire for the price, Even wear and durability. As far as Velocity, I havent heard of that brand.

Depending on the weight of the vehicle your tow dolly-ing, 6 ply is sufficient for up to a smaller mid size, and an 8 ply is maybe for a heavy full size car or heavy pick up. I tow dollied a 91 full size 4 door Lincoln on my tow dolly with standard 6 ply and didnt have any problems.

[Russell E Johnson]

Thanks Lakota, I appreciate hearing from you.  I never heard of velocity either I found them on eBay and so was leery.  I am glad to hear that you have had such good luck with the loadstars, I will go with them, thanks again.

[Rich Thomas]

I have Load Star on my utility trailer, its four years old and no complaints. As Lakota Wolf said they have been around a long time and I believe Lowe's and Tractor Supply sell them as well as a lot of other retailers so a replacement would be close at hand. I would mention IMO get a straight tread; they wonder / sway less than the course treads.

[Russell E Johnson]

Thanks for the info Rich, so for all I have found is the course tread patterns, but I have not looked at radials, they may have a different tread pattern.

[Lakota Wolf]

On the tread pattern you DON'T want aggressive cross pattern like a standard car tire. A straight in line tread pattern is the preffered, basically for wear and tear and control. Loadstar did have a *Radial straight tread pattern tire available with a 6 ply sidewall rating.   You can if needed use a criss cross pattern, but you will notice side skidding marks after awhile if making alot of turns. It all boils down to how heavy a vehicle your towing,, example,, a 3000# car has a dolly weight of 1500# on average,, and having a **set of tires to hold the weight safely  (i.e. 1850# rated tires, thats each tire,will give you 3700# weight capacity) giving you 700# play room, but factor in the dead weight of the empty dolly,, example 600# weight of trailer over the axel.   Hope this helps a little for you....

[Russell E Johnson]

Loadstar makes a radial tire in a 175/80r13 it is a 6 ply.  My tow dolly has 185/80D13 tires on it and Loadstar only makes this size tire in a bias ply tire 6 or 8 ply.  So radial or even a straight tread pattern is not possible due to the size of the tire I need.  I thought about going to a 205/75r14 tire, this will fit without any fender modification.  A 15 inch tire on the dolly would mean modifying the fenders or even having to go to a welding shop and having new fenders designed to handle the bigger tire.