About those DRW vs. SRW arguments - Montana Owners Club

WaltBennett · 06-02-2018, 09:26 AM

Just got back from a two week jaunt to Flagstaff, Phoenix, Palo Duro Canyon (TX) and back to Northern VA with one of my daughters and son (both adults). They only had two weeks off and wanted to see the Grand Canyon and a slew of other places as well as meet my brother in Phoenix. On the way back while it was my turn to drive, I clipped a piece of highway debris that looked like auto trim. Nothing seemed amiss and I checked air pressures and looked over everything at the next rest area. Turns out a chunk of that metal had been picked up by the truck's right inside rear wheel and after being pushed in enough by about a hundred more miles, the tire blew. Woke up my daughter who was driving, but other than a lot of noise and some vibration, there was no affect on how the truck drove. She had no difficulty continuing another 10 miles to a Love's and after waiting about a half hour, they changed it out for our spare. While a TPMS on that inside tire might have warned me, the point is that with a SRW, we'd have been on the side of an Interstate for a very long time. Without a TPMS and with a SRW, there probably would have been a wreck.

BiggarView · 06-02-2018, 11:53 AM

Excellent example of why DRW is a better choice for towing. Still, you won't convince some that pushing the limits of SRW is okay... so why would they want to bother with the so-called downsides of a DRW. You can never have too much truck... although there is no reason to go crazy either. Better to have more than enough and not need it, than not enough and regret it.

JMHO

richfaa · 06-02-2018, 12:16 PM

We did blow a inside tire on our Rear dually a couple of years ago on I-77 with the Montana in tow. Helen was driving and I did not realize anything had happened. We do not have a TPMS on the inside dually as it will not transmit out. Helen sensed that something did not feel right so we pulled over and sure enough the inside right tire was flat. We were about 5 miles from a truck stop and were able to make it there with no problems. It may not happen often but being broke down along the interstate is not a pleasant experience . Just one advantage of a dually.

rohrmann · 06-02-2018, 02:02 PM

Not arguing here, but I have never had anything wedged between my single rear wheel rig

But my question here is, on a dual rear wheel rig, just like on our trailers, do you have to replace both tires on the same side due to all the load being on just one tire, like when you have a failure on one of the tandem tires on our rigs?

The Bone · 06-02-2018, 02:14 PM

with a SRW nothing would have been wedged in there plus I can change my tire on the next off ramp. Not a good argument for a DRW. My car isn't a DRW.

CarWin · 06-02-2018, 02:16 PM

IF I have a blow out on my semi,I replace both tires(if they are less than 50%treadlife) with same tread depth as it make for a better ride and wear pattern. Then again I also use recaps of my drive axles.

rmthelen · 06-02-2018, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaltBennett

Just got back from a two week jaunt to Flagstaff, Phoenix, Palo Duro Canyon (TX) and back to Northern VA with one of my daughters and son (both adults). They only had two weeks off and wanted to see the Grand Canyon and a slew of other places as well as meet my brother in Phoenix. On the way back while it was my turn to drive, I clipped a piece of highway debris that looked like auto trim. Nothing seemed amiss and I checked air pressures and looked over everything at the next rest area. Turns out a chunk of that metal had been picked up by the truck's right inside rear wheel and after being pushed in enough by about a hundred more miles, the tire blew. Woke up my daughter who was driving, but other than a lot of noise and some vibration, there was no affect on how the truck drove. She had no difficulty continuing another 10 miles to a Love's and after waiting about a half hour, they changed it out for our spare. While a TPMS on that inside tire might have warned me, the point is that with a SRW, we'd have been on the side of an Interstate for a very long time. Without a TPMS and with a SRW, there probably would have been a wreck.

Suggest you have a father/daughter chat with her and caution her about her sleeping while driving.....

jeffba · 06-02-2018, 03:17 PM

So the SRWers will say "Ha, nothing gets stuck between my tires!!!"

DRWers say "Oh yeah, how far can you go with a flat rear tire??!!"

K0LCB · 06-02-2018, 03:20 PM

I like the increased stability I have with DRW.

jeffba · 06-02-2018, 03:27 PM

With a DRW, the only scales I am left to worry about are at the doctor's office. LOL

richfaa · 06-02-2018, 04:30 PM

We have seen a inside dually blown on a class C with smoke boiling out from the single tire left my guess is that that tire would also have to be replaced. In our case it was a short distance and no harm done. The reason we got Dually was to satisfy all specs in particular carry capacity otherwise it would have been a SWD.

Dam Worker · 06-02-2018, 05:59 PM

My new tow vehicle is a DRW but my old tow vehicle is a SRW. I did blow a driver side rear tire on my old truck at about 70/72 on the freeway passing a big truck. Felt a small vibration and with in a couple seconds it blew. Truck and trailer never felt like it wanted to get loose or create a wreck. Just made a mess of the truck box and yes I pulled over to the side of the road and changed the tire. Did not want to wait for AAA. I don't buy into the (with a SRW truck there probably would have been a wreck) but that is just my opinion. Glad the tire didn't come apart and take out your outside tire. I have seen that happen on big rigs many times.

Tom Marty

powerhaulic · 06-02-2018, 07:43 PM

I use my truck for work when we are not on the road, I have some sort of trailer on several times each week. Boat or snowmobile Pick-ups and delivery's in narrow camp drives and want nothing to do with the wheelbase or the additional width.
Ever notice how many dually fenders are all busted up?....lol
I'll do what I need to do to keep my shorter narrower truck happily towing the 5er.

BB_TX · 06-02-2018, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dam Worker

My new tow vehicle is a DRW but my old tow vehicle is a SRW. I did blow a driver side rear tire on my old truck at about 70/72 on the freeway passing a big truck. Felt a small vibration and with in a couple seconds it blew. Truck and trailer never felt like it wanted to get loose or create a wreck. Just made a mess of the truck box and yes I pulled over to the side of the road and changed the tire. Did not want to wait for AAA. I don't buy into the (with a SRW truck there probably would have been a wreck) but that is just my opinion. .......

Fully agree. Expounding on the virtues of added stability of a DRW is fine. But to imply that anyone towing with a SRW and having a blowout is doomed to an accident is going too far unless they can show statistics to back that up.

Kyle and Lisa · 06-02-2018, 08:34 PM

DRW, be safe !

CaptnJohn · 06-02-2018, 09:34 PM

DRW ~~ one and done, never again. Very happy with SRW. Whatever makes you comfy!

BuilderBob · 06-02-2018, 10:18 PM

Walt never said that it got stuck between the tires. That it was in the inside tire.

Texan · 06-03-2018, 12:55 AM

I've had both. My hitch weight and the weight of the hitch itself is over 3700 pounds. I also carry extra 60 gals. of fuel. There is no way i could safely carry this much weight in the bed of a srw. If i could then i would. I've traveled i-80 west with srw and drw and couldn't feel any difference in stability. Both held the road very good. I've said this many times and i'll say it again. If you don't weigh then you don't know. Let the scales dictate what you use to pull your RV and not all the comments that have been made countless times on this subject. As for your comment Bob about should you replace the other tire if one of your dual wheels has a blow-out, i would on account of the sudden weight added to the surviving tire. I don't think this would be any different than it happening on your RV. If one of the duals had a slow leak and the weight shifted to the other tire slowly then i would see just how old the surviving tire was and how much tread it had before making that decision.Of course many times the faulty tire leaks down slowly which adds weight to the other tire slowly but when having a blow-out we don't know if the tire had 80# of air or 30# if we don't have tpms on the tire.

Phil P · 06-03-2018, 06:54 AM

I have blow tires on DRW tractor trailer on both the trailer and the tractor (not at the same time) and fully loaded to 88,000 LBS. No big deal.

I have blown a rear tire on the SRW pickup truck also while loaded to maximum legal weight and found the truck quite controllable I was in left lane on I95 and crossed three lanes to get to the side of the road (I was not towing).

We were on the way to a rally and one of the other participants’s lost truck and Montana on an Interstate when they blew a tire on a SRW TV fortunately without personal injury.

I would say the controllability depends on the driver as much as the vehicle configuration.

Phil P

mlh · 06-03-2018, 09:17 AM

This doesn’t sound like a very good reason to have a DRW truck. If the OP hadn’t had a DRW truck he probably wouldn’t have had a blowout.
If I had a blowout I would pull off the road and replace the wheel in about 15 minuets but I haven’t had a blowout in at least 40 years so I’m not really concerned.
Lynwood

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