Rear Tire wear

Bones

Well-known member
This is directed to everyone who tows a trailer with DRW or SRW. My set up is a SRW.

Has anyone noticed tire wear on their rear wheels from the fronts. My rears are at 8/32nds now and fronts are at 12/32nds roughly. I have had rear wheel driven cars before and I know I can wear out rear tires if your are hard on them and I was, I know with loads you can wear tires a little more too. However I am not sure what is acceptable. I think the difference here is significant and wanted some other thoughts. My truck only has 12k miles on it and my tow miles are probably a little over 2,200 miles
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
When towing the weight that we do, I expect excessive rear tire wear.

Peace
Dave

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

katkens

Founding Illinios Chapter Leader-retired
I lower the psi to 65 on my srw rear tires when I know I'm not going to tow for awhile . I get more life out of the tread that way and regular rotation is a must.
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
And, with the SRW your likely much closer to the max tire load rating when towing, therefore more wear. As already mentioned, rotate.
 

brianharrison

Well-known member
I found significant tire wear on rears (SRW) for all the reasons mentioned already; I moved to a 5000 mile rotation schedule.
 

Doublegranch

Mountain Region Director-Retired
Not sure the year of your Ram, but my 2011 2500 payload is only 1870 lbs...The pin weight of your Gateway is 2020 lbs, if you are towing over your payload, that would have a issue on tire wear as well...
 

Bones

Well-known member
Sounds like I will have to keep rotating the tires but that will just wear all of them out quickly. The other factor could be the brand of tires as well with soft tread from the factory. I am over GCWR but not over the axles and tires. Axle is 6500 lbs and tires max out at 7k I'm running 6200 on the rear. Mine is a 2014

- - - Updated - - -

I'll make sure I rotate the tires this week. That is a chore with the size of this truck. Heavy!!!! At least I have my trusty air tools.
 

Doublegranch

Mountain Region Director-Retired
Bones:
Just a suggestion, check your trucks payload, it isn't always the axle wt limit. Example my axle wt is also 6,000 lbs, but the payload is only 1870...I wanted to buy a Sundance XLT in Goshen but found out with the pin weight of 1660 and my 55 gal fuel tank in the bed, I was several hundred over the payload without me inside the truck. So now have on order a new 2016 3500 srw with a payload of around 5,000 lbs. Big difference.
 

Bones

Well-known member
Bones:
Just a suggestion, check your trucks payload, it isn't always the axle wt limit. Example my axle wt is also 6,000 lbs, but the payload is only 1870...I wanted to buy a Sundance XLT in Goshen but found out with the pin weight of 1660 and my 55 gal fuel tank in the bed, I was several hundred over the payload without me inside the truck. So now have on order a new 2016 3500 srw with a payload of around 5,000 lbs. Big difference.

GVW is 10k Payload is 2020 lbs
 

Doublegranch

Mountain Region Director-Retired
Bones:
Maybe others will chime in but my understanding is your pin wt of 2020 and your truck payload of 2020...that puts you at gross payload without you, guests in the truck, no fuel in the truck and nothing inside your RV...Sounds like your truck is not enough for what you want and your RV...This will continue to give you issues of some kind, ie tire wear, rear end, suspension etc....Just my take for what it is worth, not to mention legal liability if you are in an accident. Even if they don't weigh your rig, the mfg numbers will show your wt problems.
 

Bones

Well-known member
Bones:
Maybe others will chime in but my understanding is your pin wt of 2020 and your truck payload of 2020...that puts you at gross payload without you, guests in the truck, no fuel in the truck and nothing inside your RV...Sounds like your truck is not enough for what you want and your RV...This will continue to give you issues of some kind, ie tire wear, rear end, suspension etc....Just my take for what it is worth, not to mention legal liability if you are in an accident. Even if they don't weigh your rig, the mfg numbers will show your wt problems.

Yup I know what all of my weights are.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
IMHO, your tire wear is coming from running unloaded with over inflated tires. My RAM 2500 SRW recommends 45 PSI in the rears and 65 in the fronts, unloaded. If you are running 80 then you are limiting your footprint and causing abnormal wear. Rotate and deflate and see what happens then. IF you are running the Transforce AT, there is no reason for your abnormal wear other than over inflation when unloaded.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Heartlandrvs specs the unloaded pin weight at 2020 pounds. I'm curious as to where you wound up when loaded.

Peace
Dave
 

Bones

Well-known member
IMHO, your tire wear is coming from running unloaded with over inflated tires. My RAM 2500 SRW recommends 45 PSI in the rears and 65 in the fronts, unloaded. If you are running 80 then you are limiting your footprint and causing abnormal wear. Rotate and deflate and see what happens then. IF you are running the Transforce AT, there is no reason for your abnormal wear other than over inflation when unloaded.

The fronts are 13/32 the rears do not have any abnormal wear pattern, tread is wearing even across the tire so tire contact patch is even.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
Rotate, NOW, for sure, and make sure your tires are inflated properly for both loaded and unloaded, I still believe your 50% greater wear between the front and back is related to operating the truck unloaded with too much inflation. Perfect tire wear accros the tread in the back is great, but running them over inflated will produce that effect on a HD tire. A car tire may see excessive wear in the middle but a HD truck tire probably would not. I know one thing, my tires are not wearing like yours are. At this rate you will need new rears long before you need fronts.

3/32 wear on the front and 8/32 on the rear does not seem correct to me.

a little off the subject and, I don't know if it's correct or not, but I try to rotate to make sure that all tires see equal time towing. I keep a tread gage with me to monitor the wear also. For me it's a balancing act between tread wear and miles towing. It seems that if I rotate on miles only, 1/2 the tires never see towing.
 

Bones

Well-known member
Rotate, NOW, for sure, and make sure your tires are inflated properly for both loaded and unloaded, I still believe your 50% greater wear between the front and back is related to operating the truck unloaded with too much inflation. Perfect tire wear accros the tread in the back is great, but running them over inflated will produce that effect on a HD tire. A car tire may see excessive wear in the middle but a HD truck tire probably would not. I know one thing, my tires are not wearing like yours are. At this rate you will need new rears long before you need fronts.

3/32 wear on the front and 8/32 on the rear does not seem correct to me.

a little off the subject and, I don't know if it's correct or not, but I try to rotate to make sure that all tires see equal time towing. I keep a tread gage with me to monitor the wear also. For me it's a balancing act between tread wear and miles towing. It seems that if I rotate on miles only, 1/2 the tires never see towing.

I'm going to make sure I rotate the tires during the towing season to ensure somewhat even wear.
 

justafordguy

Well-known member
A trucks payload capacity has nothing to do with tire wear. A 2500 and 3500 truck with the same weight and same tires will wear the tires at the same rate.

Hey Bones, you may just need better tires;)
 
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