Rotating Tires on a DRW

scottyb

Well-known member
My two outside duals are wearing at a much faster rate (2X) than the insides. There are no signs of abnormal wear and they seem even across the tread. This is the 2nd set and I didn't pay a lot of attention to the OEM tires since I just wanted to get rid of them anyway. My truck, like many others, has only one side polished on the aluminum wheels, and steel wheels on the inside duals. If you merely rotate them you will have the raw forged aluminum side showing 1/2 the time. How are you dealing with this?
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
On my GMC, the wheels are all steel and have plastic "beauty rims" that snap on. So I can rotate tires without a problem of having an ugly side out.
 

jassson007

Founding Louisiana Chapter Leaders-Retired
On a previous truck where front passenger was wearing funny I had the bring the passenger side duals to the front and send the fronts back to the passenger side but they had to break tires down and switch rims out. Only way I know around it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

dbbls59

Well-known member
Outsides wearing faster than the insides seems strange. Are you sure the air pressure is the same?
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
Outsides wearing faster than the insides seems strange. Are you sure the air pressure is the same?
I agree, my tires have not been moved and all four are wearing even at 34,000 miles. I swap front tires side to side. I also use Ford pressure recommendation. 75 psi front, 65 psi rear.
 

porthole

Retired
Scott,
FWIW my truck still has the original rear tires, just hit 59K. They are worn equally across all four. Although now that they are getting near the end of life, I noticed that the wear pattern is consistent with over inflation.
I have run the factory recommend pressure since new. Tomorrow I am going to dump 5 psi.

That said, the three wheels are all different and position can't be changed other then side to side.
The steel rear inner can be used in any position (eg the spare). The front and rear aluminum wheels are unique to the application.

Other then that - I got nothing for you :rolleyes:
 

scottyb

Well-known member
I have kept the tires the same pressure. I check them all the time, painful as it may be. My Chevy spoiled me with it's digital tire pressure monitor that i learned to trust. The two outside tires are worn equally with each other and evenly across the tread. I will have to rotate them. I will probably have them dismounted and put the outsides on the inside, the insides on the front, and the fronts on the outside. The fronts and the insides also look pretty equal.
 

scottyb

Well-known member
Scott, what does your owners manual say as far rotating tires??

It says to rotate the fronts R>L, and to rotate the duals R>L. If I do that, the two outside will stay in the ouitside position and this will not solve my problem since they are both worn equally. However, if I have the rears dismounted and change the outside with the inside and just switch sides with the fronts like the manual says, it might solve my problem and save the cost of dismounting at least 2/6 tires.

I only tow about 25% of the miles I put on the truck. However, I don't reduce the air pressure. I still run what it says on the placard on the door.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
It says to rotate the fronts R>L, and to rotate the duals R>L. If I do that, the two outside will stay in the ouitside position and this will not solve my problem since they are both worn equally. However, if I have the rears dismounted and change the outside with the inside and just switch sides with the fronts like the manual says, it might solve my problem and save the cost of dismounting at least 2/6 tires.

I only tow about 25% of the miles I put on the truck. However, I don't reduce the air pressure. I still run what it says on the placard on the door.

With my Ford in order to rotate tire they have to be removed from the rim and remounted on the rim they go to because of the steel inside rear rims. That is the only way I know of to do it unless you don't care about looks.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
2014 RAM Dually Manual Says:

RAM DRW Tire Rotation.jpg

Also notes that the spare may have to be remounted in certain cases.
 

hoefler

Well-known member
The only other option is to replace the two inner steel rims with aluminum.


Good idea, but won't work. The side that faces in is usually not polished. Also, the rear wheels will get damaged from debris thrown up from the front tire.
Dismount and remount is the only way to go. I have rotated every 7,500miles, by moving the right rear to the front, front to the right rear. Then left rear to the front, and so on. All wear with in 2/32's of each other.
 

porthole

Retired
I have yet to swap locations on the rears of my truck. At 60 K now.
I did swap the fronts once as I noticed one side wearing a little different then the other. The fronts were replaced at around 45-48K
 

emm4273610re

Active Member
The rear outsides wearing are something you should look into first. My old '99 and my new '14 wear even on the rears. The fronts wear on the outer edges and I rotate them to the inside rear. My new truck is like yours with the wheels are only finished on one side. I was either going to polish the insides to match ( too much work ). I went to a local tire place and had them dismount and remount in the new position. Wheels stayed in same location for TPMS. Cost me less then $50. for 4 tires this time , I'll do the others next time. Dealer was over $100.
 

DW_Gray

Well-known member
I noticed the same wear pattern early on with my Ram. I became proactive by periodically recording the tread depth with a digital tire tread depth gage. Because I have special valves on my dully wheels, my tires have to be dismounted and rotated or flipped.
 

mmomega

AnyTimer
If you want a quick "driveway" rotation then on most duallys you're stuck with just switching from left to right, no front to back.

I did that for a while and when the fronts started wearing more than the rears I had the tires dismounted and remounted in different positions.
 

murry135

New York Chapter Leaders - retired
60K on mine and still got miles to go on rears with no rotation and even wear. However I just mounted new tires on the front for they wore on the outside but still with life expectancy of the OEM tire. Put on the Firestone Transforce HT's hope full will have the same if not better luck.
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
I have the Firestone Transforce HT's on my truck . . . just rolled over 12,500 miles on the truck and tires tonight!

So far they are a great tire, although not the best on ice and OK in the snow as long as I have it in 4-wheel drive.

I've been thinking of putting them on our trailer as they seem to be a solid tire!

Truck&CamperAtGasStationSmall.jpg TruckTopper-IMG_20141004_142131159.jpg TruckAtGrandCanyon-IMG_3537.jpg NewTruck2500HDsm-IMG_20140822_202351380.jpg
 
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