17.5 tires on a stepdeck

[Rounded_nut]

I'm switching to stepdeck, borrowing a for awhile while I get going, talking with folks more knowledgeable than me about the brands and looking at Doonan trailers they only offer 17.5 on their steps; looking online all I see is the bad, but people don't often say things are going good, so figured I'd ask if anyone here is running those little tires on a spread axle step and what ya'lls opinion is on them?

[Hammerhead]

Are you really going to need them? How often do you really need a step that low is what I'm asking.
Compared to a 275/22.5(523rpm) @ 60mph, the 17.5 would be doing the equivalent of 76mph worth of tire revolutions.
They're a 55mph tire, actually rated at 62MAX. They spin 662 rev/mile!
That's an extra 139 rev's per mile, or 76,450 revolutions per 550 mile day!
Do a little math and figure out how many more miles a 275/22.5 would get with a week's worth of tire revs...do you really need to be that low?

I know several guys using them in specialized applications.
Carry spareS! The plural S was capitalized for a reason. When they start to wear funny, they can peel off in no time.
You say you want a spread step, if you do and you go with 17's pretend you're one of us long as hell multi-axle units...take wide sweeping corners, they don't like $-hook turns.
Oh, and don't bump curbs, the sidewalls are too small to flex and absorb it, you'll cut them. So make sure those spared are mounted on rims, cause you may not find them when you have to.
Any weight savings will be wiped out by the spareS you need to carry.
The brake shoes/drum contact area is smaller, so braking isn't as strong as standard braking. And they get hot fast, and brake fade is more prevelant.
Brake shoes and drums wear out faster too, and parts aren't always available.
They don't have a long life expectancy, so get used to buying tires often. The tire shop owner will send you Christmas cards...you may even get invited to come enjoy his new swimming pool, lol.
They don't do well in the heat, so if you're on nice black pavement over 100°, you can run with me...at 45-50ish mph.
If you're not doing something specialized, I wouldn't advise it.

[Rounded_nut]

(09-11-2018 )Hammerhead Wrote:  Are you really going to need them? How often do you really need a step that low is what I'm asking.
Compared to a 275/22.5(523rpm) @ 60mph, the 17.5 would be doing the equivalent of 76mph worth of tire revolutions.
They're a 55mph tire, actually rated at 62MAX. They spin 662 rev/mile!
That's an extra 139 rev's per mile, or 76,450 revolutions per 550 mile day!
Do a little math and figure out how many more miles a 275/22.5 would get with a week's worth of tire revs...do you really need to be that low?

I know several guys using them in specialized applications.
Carry spareS! The plural S was capitalized for a reason. When they start to wear funny, they can peel off in no time.
You say you want a spread step, if you do and you go with 17's pretend you're one of us long as hell multi-axle units...take wide sweeping corners, they don't like $-hook turns.
Oh, and don't bump curbs, the sidewalls are too small to flex and absorb it, you'll cut them. So make sure those spared are mounted on rims, cause you may not find them when you have to.
Any weight savings will be wiped out by the spareS you need to carry.
The brake shoes/drum contact area is smaller, so braking isn't as strong as standard braking. And they get hot fast, and brake fade is more prevelant.
Brake shoes and drums wear out faster too, and parts aren't always available.
They don't have a long life expectancy, so get used to buying tires often. The tire shop owner will send you Christmas cards...you may even get invited to come enjoy his new swimming pool, lol.
They don't do well in the heat, so if you're on nice black pavement over 100°, you can run with me...at 45-50ish mph.
If you're not doing something specialized, I wouldn't advise it.

Thanks for the detail, that's a lot of what I'm seeing and what concerns me, I have no idea why they don't offer the larger size. I won't have enough to justify using the slightly shorter deck.

I should have added, anyone care to share their own thoughts on the different brands?

[Chamberpains]

To give you 1 advantage to the lower tires. The cut off for legal posted stepdeck loads is 10'. Thats a 42" deck height. Most steps are 40" giving you 10'2" or 122" load height. If you drop to 17.5 you can then play on some posted load boards Double Drop loads.

Buuuut, the downside is everything Hammerhead posted pluuuus,

Your ICC bumper will be lower and you'll more than likely tear it off a few times backing over curbs @ truckstops and job site obstacles.

With the smaller side wall you will be fighting with no less than 3 tire mounting bars to peel that sidewall off and on the rim.

Plus your frame will be that much closer to the ground. You will have to watch turning over hills , R\R crossing and speed bumps\curbs. There will absolutely be slanted docks at steel and aluminum mills that you won't be able to back down because your frame will drag. My trailer frame sits 14" off the ground with 155\22.5 tires and I've only hung it up twice on the road and once pulling out of a steep ramped building after loading. But I have a raisable suspension and was able to get up high enough to back off the hang up.

And then there is the fact when a load is posted to be a certain dimension, it rarely is measured correctly so you may chase that better $$ DD load only to go properly measure it and report that its over height and can't go on your deck without permits to the broker. In turn they will thank you for the updated correct measurements and reward you with nothing and no pay for you running out and doing that for them.

All that for roughly 2-3" extra height. Not worth any of it in my book. Just stick with 22.5 rims. They are much more common and easier to find replacements for. You'll more than likely be pulling mostly standard flatbed freight on your trailer with the occasional high load. Maybe 2-4 times a month. Those extra inches aren't worth all the down sides. Unless you have something dedicated and will pay for the very common problems mentioned.

The same applies to carrying ramps. They are very slow Return on Investment and added weight and more stuff to have fall off and be in the way. Unless again you work a lot of construction sites where you will be ground loading\unloading. But generally you won't get ramp loads but once every couple months or so. I carry them but rarely use them. They're one of those things that are great when needed but just there the majority of the time.

[Chamberpains]

I run a good steer tire on my spread. Cheap Chinese, Korean or knockoff tires including doublecoin and hankook will peal off chunks or the outer treads will scuff quickly from turning. Recaps are definitely a no go too, for the same reasons.

I've put every brand of tire on except Michelin's. They wear terrific from what I've seen on other stepdeck spreads. But it only takes 1 curb or rock while turning to cut a side wall and there goes $500+ dollars.

I've been using BF Goodrich st230 steer tires for the last 3 years and have had good results. I get descent wear out of them, the outer edges take the spread axle scuff and the softer tire is very forgiving when you have curb it or turn sharp.

Im also having good experience with a set of Firestone steers that where scrap yard take offs. They're very pricey new but I couldn't pass up full treads off a mangled motor coach for $250 a tire.

[tbrink54]

I have had pretty good luck with the Toyo in an 18 ply but yes we do carry spare tires.

[Oldad6150]

Well I have pulled one for 10 years a 53 ft doonan black gold ras 17.5 best trailer I ever owned if you run Michelin or continentals and don’t run over 65mph loaded you won’t have any trouble I went with all steel to get down to a 33inch deck height. Speed doesn’t kill them when empty but when loaded no faster than 65

[SIDE_SHOW]

i cant speak on the tire brands myself as but as with all spreads caps are a no go especially on the front axle. thats not to say we havent had to run them before to get home or something but its not something you wanna do often... as far as the tire size goes.. its just like all the others say its just too much of a pain unless you absolutely need it... i will say this back in my crushed car moving days i outfitted a few trailers to be able to handle the 75 to 90k lbs that we would load on them both step decks and flatbeds... now we had 2 step decks one had lp22.s on it and the other had those 17.5s and it was a spread too so that one rarely made a trip without blowing a tire... these trailers were both older all steel comp. trailers so what we did was we took and cutout above each tire and made humps and enclosed them with steel over the top of them and stuffed 11rs under it and it worked great for us since we could load that much more on it and still be legalish height wise... the only reson we had that trailer in the first place was it had been wrecked and was on its way to the scrap yard till we found it and saved it... however, if i was going out and looking for one to just move mostly standard step deck freight, i would not want to go thru all that trouble for just a couple inches... for me it would be something a little more practical 11 - 13 ft upper deck but i used to like moving alot of ltl as well...i would for sure pull one with those little tires if i was borrowing it and thats all i had... but if i were out and looking to buy one that def would not be it... just my thoughts brother

[Chamberpains]

The main thing most guys dont look for but gets the most loads is having a 40' bottom deck and a raiseable suspension to get close to standard flatbed dock height. This way you can load a lot more freight. Big machinery, containers and they also can't refuse you by saying you can't be loaded from the tail because yes you can. Its all about being able to do anything within legal sizes. Stepdecks are not rare anymore. I've been at military bases loading with 50 other stepdecks at the same time. Also the height problem is corrected by simply ordering a DD. A double drop is just as easy to order than risking the waste of time having a stepdeck show up and be to tall to put the piece on. So the way you make yours special is versatility and don't be lazy with it.

10' tarps a very rarely needed. 8' drops do most of the jobs. But if you carry 3 special made 30' steel tarps you can turn them sideways and then they're 10' drops. Thinking like this with your equipment lets you carry less but do more. Also have 6 or so 32 or + foot 4" straps if you plan on doing over dimensional stuff. That allows you to get up and over stuff that is 10' x 10' anything bigger than that you'll probably just get creative with chains.