General - Tire wear

[dnr733]

My tires seem to be wearing very evenly but I am curious.
Is there any basic thought of faster tire wear with towing?
So if you have 50m tires, can you hope to get 30m out of them?

 

[DutchmenSport]

It would help if you indicated what brand and model of camper you have, and if it is a fifth wheel or a bumper pull.

There are many things that can cause uneven tire wear on a trailer. Over inflation of the tires, under inflation of the tires, the trailer itself might be overloaded, Spring Hangers welds could be broken, or even a bent axle.

The first thing to consider is the actual tire itself. You also did not indicate what brand and size and age your current tires are. Are they the original tires, or are they replacements. Original RV tires are almost always 100% junk tires. The very first thing a new owner with any knowledge of RV's at all will do, is go out and get known quality tires on their RV. So that is the first thing you need to eliminate. Original or after market tires? If original, they are probably just junk tires and each one is wearing different and count your blessings you have not had a blow-out yet.

The second item to consider is with correct tire inflation. Regardless if you have a fifth wheel or a bumper pull, regardless if you have tandem axles or a single axle, the tires pressure needs to be the max.

Tire pressure can be a bit confusing also. There are 3 different tire pressure ratings: 1) the pressure rating stamped on the tire itself. 2) the pressure rating of the rim the tire is attached to. 3) the pressure rating posted on the side of your camper intended for the original tires that came on your camper.

When these numbers are different, you are best to go with the lowest number, if that be the tire itself or the tire rim. But, the tires need to be at THAT max pressure .... when the tires are cold.

If you are sure your tires are inflated to the max pressure, then the next area to check is the trailer suspension itself. Look for broken welds, especially the Spring Hangers.

If you see nothing obvious broken, then you'll need to examine the alignment of the axle. With a bit of creative engineering and some simple geometry, you can determine if the alignment of the axles are correct.

If that is good, then the next culprit is probably a bent axle. Now... bent axles are hard to spot.... really. I had one, and had no idea. My RV dealership repair shop finally pointed out the difference for me. Before that, I had no clue. The axle looked perfectly fine to me. After they put the new one on, I could really see the difference.

So, to answer your question, it's not an easy answer. There are too many things that could be wrong. You'll just need to examine each item and eliminate what is still correct, until you find the culprit.

Please provide more information and especially provide what measures you've already taken.

Good luck.

 

[dnr733]

I truly appreciate the detailed response but I did leave out some info and we may be overthinking as well.
I am actually speaking of my truck tires. Camper tires I am good with. I know all the ins-outs there.
I feel I keep my truck tires properly inflated and rotated.

So the general question would be......For my truck tires.

If maintained, how much faster do truck tires wear while towing?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I don't think there is any significant tire wear difference on the tow vehicle, towing vs not. There is bound to be a bit more wear when the vehicle is heavily loaded vs light, but I doubt if it makes more than a few thousand miles difference even if it is towing (fully loaded) most of the time. Decent quality tires, properly inflated, should deliver whatever the rated mileage may be.

I will say, though, that I had one pick-up that exhibited odd front tire wear when towing a fifth wheel or otherwise heavily loaded. The difference in the front end geometry between an empty and a fully loaded was measurable. It wasn't practical to change alignment for towing vs normal use, so I ended up "splitting the difference" on the alignment. Two years later I got a different truck and that one showed no front tire wear difference with a change in load.

 

[DutchmenSport]

My one-ton dully diesel long bed Chevy has spent most of it's life towing trailers. It towed a 35 foot Outback bumper pull that weighed in around 9,000 pounds. For the last 5 years it's been pulling 14,000 pounds.

I just had 4 new rear tires put on. I normally drive in 2x4, not 4x4 when towing, so the rear tires take the brunt of the wear.

The tire change before, I replaced all 6 tires. I went over 45,000 miles on that set of 6. The rears were worn, marginal tread left, so I changed them (just a couple weeks ago). But the fronts are still good.

Now, again, most of the life of my truck is spent towing. It is now 97,000 miles and 10 years old. This is the 3rd set of tires that's been put on the truck. 1), the original, 2) when I changed all 6 tires, 3) just a couple weeks ago when I changed just the rear.

I don't think towing, even 14,000 pounds for 5 years caused much wear that would not have happened had the truck been driven the same distance NOT towing.

 

[Ray-IN]

I agree DutchmenSport. I towed a 15,500# 5er with my o2 Duramax dually, LB,CC 4x4. After 148,000 miles and 4 sets of tires, I felt tire tread longevity was not much different than never towing that load.
There were several times 4x4 was really welcome; there was the grass CG in PA where I awoke to find approx 4" of standing water throughout the CG. Then driving US2 in MT where the entire pavement had been removed, leaving about 2" of soupy mud for a road. Then driving through the desert N of Quartzite on sand roads going to an old deserted copper mining town. Then there was the AK trip. You get the drift.
I always ran B.F.Goodrich TA commercial M&S tires on both axles, got about 43K miles from each set.

 

[Kirk]

Truck tires are designed to carry the weight that is typical of others using the same tires. My experience has been the same as others here.

 

[dnr733]

thank you all for the input.