Tire Replacement - Event Date: 05 Apr 2021

An F load rating is not necessarily better. You can have too stiff a ride if the tire load rating is too high, resulting excessive shaking for the trailer and contents.

Look at the actual load rating chart in lbs for the tires you're considering. You want tires that have a higher rating than the axle does so the tires aren't the first thing that fails, so look for ones around 125% of half your axle rating.

I wouldn't go higher than 150%, no need and the ride will be getting very stiff. So for example if your axle is rated at 3500 lbs then look for tires with a load rating of 1.25 x 3500/2 or 2187lbs up to 1.5 x 3500/2 or 2625 lbs.

Don't know your axle rating? It's going to be the trailer dry weight + max cargo weight - tongue weight Typically 3500 lbs on the narrow body rpods and 4400 lbs on the wide bodies.

Also, keep your ST trailer tires inflated to the rated pressure cold. Underinflated ST tires tend to overheat due to flexing of the thick sidewalls.

Will be replacing tires (205-75x14) shortly.  I'm quite fond of the Cooper's on my car and am pretty sure they make a tire to fit my Pod. What I'm curious about is if a "D" rating being good, would an "F" rated tire be better for my 179.  Was also curious if anyone was running the Green Ball tire from Costco, hard to find out where it's made.

OG, the Carlisle tires I just put on my trailer last June, replacing the crappy Westlakes, are made in China.  It isn't the country of origin that matters, it's the quality of the product.  

I never said I had access to any of the tire information you are asking for, therefore lacking specific information I don't buy expensive tires from companies relying on brand advertising.

I have had good service from the tires I do buy as have many others, if the tires are spec's adequately for the application. It is my view that the majority of problems folks have had with trailer tires are with underspec'd OEM tires put on there by the trailer manufacturer to save as much money as possible. They use Chinese tires for the same reason, so the failures are correlated with use of non-brand name tires. That doesn't make the country of origin/brand causal. There is no reason to believe that underspec'd name brand tires wouldn't also fail, that is after all why the manufacturers provide specs in the first place.

So while it is is very easy to blame these issues on the tire brand the reality is that it more likely it is the trailer manufacturer's fault for using underspec'd tires.At least there is hard evidence (the specs themselves) for that view.

There was night and day difference between the 14 inch LRCs that came with my trailer and the 15 inch LRD's I replaced them with. I got some extra ground clearance too.
Both were Chinese brands. For the cost differential between the tires I bought and name brand tires I more than paid for the 15 inch wheels I needed to make the change. They came premounted so no need to pay for that, just bolt em on.

I think my choice was safer and more cost effective than if I had stayed with the underspec'd 14 inch OEM wheels (wheels have load ratings too) and bought marginally specd brand name brand 14 inch LRCs as direct replacements. But we can't actually know, that requires multiple trials and statistical analysis that isn't going to happen.

I have gotten good service (home handyman use not professional) out of most everything I've bought from Harbor Freight, the use twice and throw away argument goes completely against my experience.

So you do what you want, I'll do what I want, and let's assume that folks asking for information on this forum are astute enough to decide for themselves. Most folks buying habits are well ingrained anyhow,
if they shop by brand when buying one product they are likely to do so with others, as you apparently do, and vice versa, as I do.   Let's not have this same debate ad infinitum, it's going nowhere.

So, how do you determine the manufacturing specs for any given tire?  Do you have access to the manufactures' design and fabrication specifications?  Usually, those are trade secrets and obtaining them is complicated.  All that's printed on the tire is the DOT info and with trailer tires, there isn't even a tread wear rating or heat rating.  How do you determine which tire has the best rubber compounding?  Show us some reliability statistics for travel trailer tires?  Where can we find them?  As for customer reviews, though that provides some nice anecdotal opinions of some, it is not a reliable source of information.  How many reviews are bogus or paid for by the manufacturer or competitors looking to bad mouth someone else's product?  "Customer reviews" are notoriously unreliable, especially in the days of the internet.