ST tire let go at 62 on I-20 and took the skirt with it, going to 17.5 inch wheels

did it to the pinnacle three years ago, so the answer is a list rather than a yes.

the tires are the easy part. 215/75R17.5 load range H carries 4,805 pounds each at 125 psi cold. your dexter axles are 7,000 pounds apiece, so after the swap the axle is the weak link instead of the tire and your GVWR does not move one pound. that is the piece people get wrong. this is not a capacity upgrade, it is removing the part that was going to fail.

what you have to check. the load rating stamped on the back of the rim, and buy wheels rated at or above the tire. bolt pattern stays 8 on 6.5 so hubs and brakes are untouched. the 17.5 is about an inch and a half taller overall, so measure to the top of the wheel well and between the two tires before you buy anything. valve stems have to be bolt in metal at 125 psi, not rubber snap ins.

ride gets harsher. a short sidewall at 125 psi telegraphs every expansion joint into the trailer. i lost a cabinet latch the first month.

i am the other side of this. 2020 paradigm, 16,000 GVWR, still on 16s, goodyear endurance load range E, 41,000 miles out of cody and no failures.

what i did instead of the conversion: threw the factory chinese tires away at eighteen months, bought endurance, put a four sensor monitor on, and i hold 62. the tire that killed you is the tire, not the rim diameter. endurance and a 180 dollar monitor is under a thousand installed. the 17.5 route is wheels at 200 and up each, tires at 190 and up, new stems, and then somebody in the thread starts talking you into a disc brake conversion.

i am not telling you not to do it. i am telling you to price both honestly before you call it the obvious answer.

i run a frame and pin box shop in goshen, which means i get these trailers after this happens, so weigh the bias accordingly.

two things i see weekly. people buy an H rated tire and bolt it to a wheel stamped 3,750 pounds, and then the wheel is the rating and nobody ever checked it. look at the back of the rim for the stamp. second, torque. 17.5 wheels want a check at 10 miles, at 50, and then every trip. i have cut lug studs out of three trailers this year that somebody tightened by feel.

on date codes, since it came up. the last four digits of the DOT number are week and year, so your 2721 is the 27th week of 2021. four years in texas sun is the end of a trailer tire whatever the tread looks like. i tell people five years as a hard stop and sooner if it lives outside. you can read complaints and recalls by tire line at nhtsa.gov before you hand anybody money for a brand.

and close that underbelly properly. once the fabric is open the insulation holds water and the floor rots from underneath where you will not see it for three years.

the monitor is the part we would not camp without now. ours went off coming down out of the hills west of burns oregon, 20 psi low and dropping on the left rear. we got stopped before it came apart and found a drywall screw in it. no blowout, no skirt, no fiberglass in the ditch.

second thing is speed. we used to run 68 on i-84 because everybody else does. we hold 62 now and the difference in how the trailer feels at the end of a 300 mile day is not small. ST tires are speed rated lower than most people think.

done, and here is the bill for whoever searches this next.

found four used 17.5 wheels off a wrecked grand design in dallas for 480, stamped 4,850 each, ted, i looked. sailun S637 215/75R17.5 load range H at 196 apiece mounted and balanced at a truck tire shop, so 784. metal stems and a four sensor monitor, 215. skirt panel from the dealer 212 and i riveted it in myself in two hours. 1,691 all in, and the trailer sits an inch and a half taller now, which i have to remember at the canopy on 69.

scaled it at the loves on the way home. 15,420 gross, 3,180 on the pin, 6,100 and 6,140 on the two trailer axles. real margin on the tires now, and i am 900 pounds under on each axle, which is its own conversation.