I have an 1984 Bayliner Trophy bass boat. A 16 footer. Model 1710 with an 85 horse Force engine. It's been a very good boat for me and I have no complaints with it at all.

My question is concerning the tires on the trailer. Bayliner used the same trailer for 4 different styles of boats and they had different tire sizes for each. When I got the boat, the tires that came with it were P 165/80/ R13 radials on it. The problem I was having was that the tires were hitting the wheel wells when I hit any kind of bump at all. If I hit a little larger bump, it would hit the wheel well and bump it up into the body of the boat. I'm not talking about huge potholes, just regular bumps in any road. I have a small utility trailer that came with 12 inch tires so I put them on the boat trailer and it works very well. On the other boats that Bayliner put on those trailers, they call for the 12 inch tires per the factory sticker on the trailer.

I'm hoping to move to the Phoenix area sometime this year and with all the heat, I wonder how the 12 inch tires would do. Here in Oregon, we don't have the heat and my journeys to the local lakes aren't very long so I don't worry about the 12 inch tires at all but with the heat and longer travels to get to water in the Phoenix area, I'm wondering what I should do concerning the tires. The 12 inch tires are actually rated for for about the same weight as the 13 inch tires so should I be concerned???

 If I go with the larger tires, I'll have to do something to keep them from hitting the boat. Raise the bunks a couple of inches? Add longer shackles to the springs maybe???

The tires that came with it are P165/80/R13. 83S. Rated for 1069 pounds @ 44 PSI max.

The tires I put on it are 5:30X12. Load range "C". High speed. Rated for 1045 pounds @ 80 PSI.

The tag on the trailer says that with that boat, it calls for B78X13. Load range "C".

If I remember right, my boat weighs around 1300 pounds empty so I am assuming that I am well withing the weight limits of either of the tire sizes.

Is the weight capacity stated on the sidewalls "per tire" or is that for a pair???

Not sure if I should just leave well enough alone or ???

I appreciate any thoughts you have.

                    Thanks.

Hey Chump, I'm still waiting for ya. Since our boats are the same size I take it you have a single axel trailer like I do. The tires on my trailer are ST175/80R13 rated for 1100 pounds. I don't have the bottoming out problem you do, but the roads into the lakes here, even though you'll be driving at slow speed, will definately be causing you to bottom out a lot. The 12" tires shoul be alright, but they will obivously be turning more revolutions per minute than 13" ones, so I'd keep my road speed down a bit, maybe max speed 60-65? As long as the tires are rated within your max load I don't see a problem there. If you want to keep the 13" tires, longer spring shackles may help depending on how much wheel travel you are experiencing. Another alternative would be having a spring shop add a leaf to your springs or rearching them. May be a little pricy though.

Get the heck down here and let's go fishing.    Later.

~B.A.S.S.~N.A.F.C.~BoatU.S.~N.R.A.~A.M.A.~