First off they have other locations. Second, im not at all surprised that trailertires.com blew you off. I checked their site and their specialty is cheap **** tires in common sizes. Some places don't know how to think out of the box.

The only way to find tires of this caliber locally to to go to a OTR truck tire shop.

 

It's not about the steel casing Scott. Dave told me that the GY's have the most enormous bead of any tire in it's class...

 

Steel moves, rubber moves. But rubber compounds are different. Manufacturer's have different ideas about what makes a tire good. Goodyear uses a soft rubber. Lends to better traction. Some use a stuff hard rubber, lends to better life. That's just tread. Casings are built with the same basic structure. But again different compounds. Continental are the stiffest tire out there and need to be done by hand. So the Goodyear should be easier, actually. We do all our 19.5 tires by hand, it's much faster. Just have to know what you're doing. Westlake must be super stiff as well. Most import tires are.

 

All great info Dave!! Thanks for clearing it up...