It's that funny old thing, you get what you pay for. Most often, what you pay for determines how much you'll pay on the back end. I've never been stuck with trailer tires but have close a couple of times now. I have always bought tires from a tire shop, getting decent mileage and have not had to worry about a pebble shredding cheap rubber open. Good trailer tires last a while.
While we were in Washington State, we were waltzing through the Wal-Mart Super Center, amazed at the selection and prices of goods - generally 50 to 85% of home prices, and the selection of items we simply don't have. While there, we came across trailer tires on rims. $50 +/-. Great deal! I bought a set. I kept the old tires as spares, bald as they had become. They had been good tires. We happily went fishing a couple of days, each day fishing 10 min from town. I thought I'd noticed the new tires wearing a little in 40 minutes of driving, but thought nothing of it until we arrived home to Red Deer at the end of our trip. They were already through the tread! A week later we returned to Washington to fish. Before we got through BC, one of the tires shredded apart. Luckily, as I came to a stop, I was beside a tire shop and I borrowed a couple of things and swapped out my old tires. We arrived in Washington, and I took the tires back to the Wal-Mart. They swapped them out on warranty (it had been a whole week) and I again kept my old tires as spares. We fished and came back to Red Deer. I've been able to drive 5 or 6 short local fishing trips on the trailer. I noticed that the tires were flat bald and the inner rubber, which was incredibly soft on these tires, felt like memory foam. Not good. But, I drove it anyway. Long story short, 2 nights ago on my way home, 5 miles out from Red Deer I felt a wiggle in the trailer. I knew the tire had shot, but being well past midnight, close enough to home, and not wanting to deal with cheap rubber, I drove home. :) The tire was smoking upon arrival.
I've had enough of the tires and simply went to a local tire shop. Now that I have 4 rims, I now have 4 brand new trailer tires.
I got lucky twice with these cheap rubbers. The point is that had they melted off the rims anywhere but where they had, the cheap up front price would likely have cost more in time (going back and forth to replace the tire or looking for a spare or possibly a jack/tire iron) than it's worth. Funny how you get that feeling when you know that the deal up front is a gamble, and it turns out exactly as you knew it would.
Which reminds me of an old Kinks song, Low Budget, still one of my favs:
"Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize
I'm not cheap, you understand
I'm just a cut price person in a low budget land
Excuse my shoes they don't quite fit
They're a special offer and they hurt me a bit
Even my trousers are giving me pain
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn't complain
They squeeze me so tight so I can't take no more
They're size 28 but I take 34"
