22.5 vs 24.5 trailer tires

Buy the one that has the same as your truck. That way you can run out the tires on your trailer once they hit about 50%

 

Sure, if you buy new wheels. It's just money, right?

 

The 22.5 tires have a lower rolling resistance which equals better fuel mileage.

 

Same size on the rest of your truck.

Personally I hope you have 24's so you can have 24's on drives and 24's on the trailer.

The rationale being the ability to grab a outside tire and wheel and bolt it onto a failed tractor tandem and with it all same size it wont "Hurt" to run same.

 

22.5's are cheaper. 22.5's have pretty much replaced larger rubber. Cheaper, and lighter weight.

Where I run, and what I run (gravel truck), 24.5 tall rubber still seems to be the norm. Maximum weight capacity, maximum ground clearance, even though the real numbers are fairly minimal in difference...

 

Low profile should give a slightly lower rolling resistance, meaning slight increase in mileage.

The reason 22.5's and 24.5's tubeless in "11" section width was standard at one time (and still somewhat is), is because they were more or less equal in size to the common tubed-type tire sizes they replaced at the time when tubeless had started to take over.

Fleets, highway fleets especially, want the cheapest, lightest tire/wheel combo to own and operate, and that's why 22.5 low-pros are so common. In fact, that's why wide singles are becoming more common also.

Complete industry changeover is slow though, since a fleet that is running 24.5" wheels, may not scrap them for 22.5's, or wide singles... They'll just wait until new truck order time, and spec the new truck or trailer with different tire/wheel combo.

For highway work, smaller, low-pro tires, and even wide singles makes sense from a business perspective. It will be what you will see more of.

My work? Running a dump truck can often push the equipment quite severely... We are expected to handle sites that we shouldn't even drive into (Contractor doesn't give a crap though, as he doesn't own the truck, nor pay for repairs), so tires MUST be strong and capable of being abused ALL day long. On-site work usually sees the operator loading the snot out of us, so it may not be uncommon to have 50,000 lbs on the tandem drives (and this is why a good dump should have heavy spec components).

In fact, I run Dayton spoke wheels on my dump, since I bill hourly, and not by the ton. The strongest wheel/biggest tire combo gives me what I need to do the job that I do with the least failures.

Also remember that the bigger the tire, the less air pressure is needed to safely support the same load. This may be why big and tall rubber is slightly more forgiving if the company/driver neglects checking the pressure... I can guarantee you at an underinflated state, a 22.5" low-pro will fail before a 24.5" tall will, all else being equal.

 

That's why my step deck tires are always blowing. No one checks the pressure