I thought the tires kept the tarp (or visqueen - but blue tarps sure add that extra special color touch) down so the rain don’t get through. However my friend said that the trailers with the tires did not have tarps or poly on the roofs.
I thought it was for extra weight on the roof - We did find a web site that said they were used to keep the roofs on during tornadoes - but I don’t think they were serious.
The other argument was that involved cultural aesthetics (sp.). If you have tires on your roof then I am going to have tires on my roof too! And by God if you have four tires then I’m going to have five… and it just goes on from there. (I’m thinking NASCAR here - “Dale Earnhardt used that tire to qualify at Daytona in 1984.” After all how many used tires can you fit in a single wide? I mean after the four for the coffee table and all.)
My friend saw the roof tires in the Grand Canyon and elsewhere. I don’t remember seeing them at all (without tarps). My friend’s nephew has seen them and argues that they are part of the trailer park culture.
I tend to side with “culture” argument but we are lacking documentation and proof.
This practice was started in the '50s in Kansas. The theory was that a tornado would recognize the toroid shape of the tires on the roof of a mobile home and inflict no damage. This supposedly benevolent action by tornados is due to someone pulling a two-by-four out of a tornado’s ass some time back. Surely you’ve heard of the celebration of Passover? Over the years, some sodbusters… er, I mean hicks… ah, I mean Plain folks have lost the original meaning and now believe that the tires are meant to fool tornados into thinking their mobile home is a nesting site for tornados. Simple folks that they are, they have lost the true meaning of the season. Whatever theory is adopted, it seems that tornados are much more sinister (turning left-handed-wise) than anyone could have imagined. They seem to be exacting revenge on mobile homes for trying to fool them. Thus the new designation for mobile homes, “tordado magnet.” Sad, but true…
Up in the high mountainous areas, where enipla is located, juvenile tornados form gangs and challenge each other in fights they stage on flat surfaces. Studies have shown that tires placed strategically on flat surfaces will render them unsuitable for the gang fights.
Older mobil home roofs are made of metal, or tin. And they are not very sturdy. The wind can cause the roof to flex and produce a rumbling sound inside.