The current generation of tires for garden carts and wagons, even wheelbarrows are the cheapest crap I have ever seen. No other tires are like these 8 to 10 inch beasties. I had to replace one this year. It was fine in the fall but when I went to use the small trailer one of the tires was completely busted apart. I could stick my finger in the huge cracks. Today I went to check the tires on my generator cart in readiness for winter. It’s so heavy I have it on a garden cart and tow it with the lawn mower. Two of the tires have completely fallen apart so I might as well change them all. These are 4.00/3.50 x 4 tires 10" in outer diameter. They are sure inexpensive - around 8 bucks for the tire mounted on a wheel from Harbor Freight. For a couple of bucks more I can get a solid tire which I might do.
Auto, motorcycle or trailer tires don’t do this. I had some 50 year but unused tires I finally threw out. They looked brand new but were as hard as rocks. Are these garden tires made so cheaply that they are not adding some essential ingredient to them?
Since you’re not going to have a blowout on the road and wipe out a busload of urchins, there’s no need to make them last. Makes 'em cheap enough that no one cares.
Sounds like you are using pneumatic tires. I tossed all those and replaced them with solid wheels. Solid wheels last and don’t lose air. They may all be lower quality now too but they’ll still be better than pneumatic.
We’ve done the same with our 2 carts. The mower tires are still pneumatic, but for as old as they are, they’re still doing fine.
I was surprised how long lawn tractor tires were lasting. I thought they had tubes but turned out not so. Last time I got one might have been 15 years ago so I don’t know if the quality has remained the same. The two I had were Troy Built and maybe it was a Murray, low end versions, some engine problems with the Murray, but otherwise the general level of quality was high on both. I even used solid wheels as a criteria for choosing a generator.
Yeah the lawn mower tires are just fine. Mine are nearly 30 years old and still have plenty of tread and hold air. Regular wheelbarrow tires are OK also. The smaller tires on the dual wheel wheelbarrow models are among the junk tires. They have to be doing some basic Bad Thing. Not enough carbon in the mix? Not enough sulfur in the vulcanizing blend? Not vulcanized long enough or hot enough? I mean they just disintegrate after a few years.
Like several of you I just bought new solid tires for $4 more. They aren’t really fully solid as you can squeeze them a bit. They roll just fine in today’s 20 degree F weather.