Horse float tyres
Load rated tyres for horse floats, fitted at your property. On a float, the date on the sidewall matters more than the tread depth.
Floats do not wear tyres out, they age them out
A float might do a few thousand kilometres a year and spend the rest of its time parked, often outside. The tread still looks close to new after eight years, so nobody thinks about the tyres. Meanwhile the rubber has hardened, the sidewalls have started to craze, and the tyre is a long way past being safe with a loaded float behind you at open road speed.
There is a date code on every sidewall, four digits giving the week and year it was made. If yours are more than about six years old, they want replacing regardless of how much tread is left.
Load rating is the other one. A float carrying two horses puts serious weight on two or four tyres, and a passenger tyre that happens to be the right size is not built for it. We fit tyres rated for the loaded weight of the float, not the size alone.
Check before the next trip
- Date code on the sidewall
- Fine cracks around the sidewall and shoulder
- Pressures, including the spare
- Whether the spare is even roadworthy
- Wheel bearings, while you are down there
We come to the property, which is easier than towing an empty float across Auckland.
What to look out for
Fitted at your place
We bring the tyres to the float rather than you towing it to Albany.
Rated for the load
Two horses plus the float itself is a lot of weight on very few tyres.
Age, not tread
Six years and up is the point to look hard at them, however good the tread looks.