Quote:
Originally Posted by ForBruce
so what you are saying is that if the manufacture ( ford) uses a 10 ply tire to save on their vehicle cost..no one can legally go to a 14 ply tire.
also if someone feels the all weather tire that comes on ford super duty is not good enough in the SNOW BELT you cannot legally put on a "SNOW" tire
because that would be better than what ford originally provided .
you are not making sense
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No, I'm not saying that at all... of course you can go to a higher rated tire, but you cannot exceed the legal rating -the GAWR- for that axle grouping, which includes the tires.
So if your Ford has a 7000lb axle (not sure if you said the rating or not); you cannot exceed 7000lbs on that axle no matter what your tires are rated for. (I don't know your truck, but I think even the F350's have max of 6500 front and 7000 rear GAWR on the SRW models)
While I don't work in the industry anymore I was in trucking for many years and still maintain my CDL. If you drive commercial and you ever exceed your GAWR, it will not make any difference if your tires exceed the rating. If you are over the GAWR, you will be unloading or shifting your load. Putting higher rated tires won't change that.
And, in your example, your axle is not rated higher than 7000lbs, and the OEM tires are as you noted are rated combined at 7260. You now have put a combined tire rating of over 8000lbs of tire on that axle grouping, but you did not, and cannot, change the GAWR. Your extra tire ratings have not added any more legal carry capacity -at all.
--thus for the above reasons, I say your loaded weight cannot legally exceed the rating of the OEM tires, as the GAWR is already lower than their combined rating.
And as I noted before, manufacturers build significant buffer into their ratings, so a load rated 125 tire (3640) won't blow up because you hit a bump and momentarily hit a few more hundred pounds, as long as it is in good shape and properly inflated. (which your new higher rated tires would need to be also, obviously)
If it makes you feel better that you have a bit of a safety buffer, beyond what the engineers have designed as safe, then I will say it again -you have done nothing wrong and I don't think you've made it less safe. But for the reasons above, I question as to whether you've actually made it more safe.
Now, if your intent is to regularly exceed the legal GAWR, that is a totally different discussion
Hope that clears it up.
Brad