I agree with everything everybody said, on both sides of the issue. The cars my women and children drive always have new tires. If I was tight for cash, I would buy less expensive tires, but always new.
When I was still working for a living, I had new tires on my daily driver. My F250, which I bought new in 96, has always had new tires, but that’s more because I don’t use it that often but sometimes when I do, I probably have it overloaded.
All the rest of my collection and junk pile have used tires if I can find them. Let me clarify that. I don’t go to any of the used tire places, that’s a crapshoot. But when I think I’m going to need some tires coming up, I’m on craigslist and marketplace about 30 times a day. You can find some good deals, but you have to jump the minute you see them or they’ll be gone. I can do it because in my semi retirement, I could run out anytime.
When I was in the real world, I had a 24 foot enclosed trailer, a beauty, but I also had some pretty high-end collector stuff. That always had new very heavy duty tires. The rest of my trailers, always used tires, but good tires. When I built the step trailer for the Road Ranger, I put in the tire carriers from under a Ranger pick up truck on both sides, so I have two spares. If I was going to take a long trip or pull a particularly heavy load, I might throw another one or two on top or in the truck. Most of those tires I got for free or for 10 or $20. I almost always run car tires on my trailers.
I live in the big city, so it’s not hard to find little mom & pop tire shops who will mount and balance 14 and 15 inch tires for like 15 or $20. Balancing is not rocket science, especially with the newer machines, so there’s no reason to go to a Firestone or Goodyear place. And I’m usually in a position where I can drop them off and pick them up later, so they can use it as fill in work.
I really miss Covid on subjects like this. You could buy anything for nothing. The rich people were cleaning out their houses cause they were bored and they didn’t need the money, and the poor people were cleaning out their houses because they needed the money. A perfect scavenger environment.
Even on my collectibles, except the very high dollar ones, I would run used tires if I could find them. A lot of those cars only saw 500 or 1000 miles a year.
On the trailer tangent, considering I play with Lincoln Towncars and trucks, the minimum deck length for me would be 20 feet. That’s hard to keep at my house now that we’ve sold all the commercial property, but I’m planning on building one with the remaining 4 x 6 aluminum beams I picked up a couple years ago. It’s two 4” C channels, C facing out, with spacers between. I can bolt the spring hangers between the two channels and keep it low profile. I want to run 14 inch low profile tires (185/65/14), that’s pretty much what I use on all my trailers, with matching Ranger wheels, which I will get used, actually I probably already have them, and I plan on three or four axles, but that’s just for it being a goofy toy.
And one last thought on converting camper frames to car or equipment trailers. That’s what I did with the step trailer, and I had a friend who had a double axle about 16 feet long we converted for cars. Even beefed up, they are just not built for the weight. If I had to do over again, I would have fabed the step trailer out of steel. I’m looking at another one right now, talking out of the other side of my mouth, but if I do it, it will be very heavily braced with additional steel (which I will buy used). I like the camper trailer frames because they come with titles, which I’ll need if I ever move back up north.
Just throwing it all in the mix
EDIT afterthought: I have about 25 of the 14 inch bullet hole/outlaw II wheels. I literally got half of them for nothing, some with good tires, during Covid. I don’t think I ever paid over $20 for the rest of them. Now they’re selling them for 45 or $50, but you can still find deals.
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