Dually front tire wear

[pineranch]

Anyone with a dually notice the outside of front tires wearing?
Mike

[mhs4771]

Mike, do you know what the weight is on the front? Almost sounds like your loosing weight on the front when towing changing the Camber and causing wear on the outside edges. I never noticed any problem on our 05 or so far on our 11, but I know when we're towing we're only putting approx an extra 50Lbs on the front, so very little different on the front between towing or solo.

[dieselguy]

No matter if single or dual rear wheels ... if you consistently drive with a bunch of weight on the rear, it will somewhat increase the camber of the front wheels potentially wearing the outside of the tire more. The new trucks may have some suspension geometry gismo that reduces this, but older trucks had this issue if loaded.

[richfaa]

Happend to me. Noted that the OEM tires on the 08 F-350 were wearing like that and thoight we were out of alignment..not so.The tire guy at the Goodyear storev in Florida said he sees that all the time on trucks pulling 5th wheels. a Bit to much weight in the rear . We did not have to njuch pin weigh and we were in all specs.The the truck dropped @ 3 inches in the rear with the camper attached I guess that was enough. New tires installed as well as air bags on the rear to bring the truck level.

[DQDick]

That's one of the reasons I went to air bags. Smart Weigh showed me I was transferring 100# from the front axle to the rear axle. Not a big deal weight wise, but steer, braking and tire wear concerns got me to put the bags on.

[mhs4771]

So it must depend at the exact set-up, long bed or short bed, SRW or DRW and location of the hitch in the TV bed. Both our Montana and our current SOB actually adds about 50 Lbs onto the front suspension.

[Bill-N-Donna]

We have the same wear on our truck tires. However, I contribute it to not rotating the tires often enough. Our tires have to be broken form the rims to rotate them and that makes it a lot more inconvenient. We have several thousands of miles on ours and it’s the only set we’ve bought since we’ve owned the truck. I’m not concerned with the pin weight causing a tire wear problem.

[bncinwv]

I am wondering along the same lines about the hitch location. Is it a Ford installed hitch or aftermarket? If it is aftermarket, I would be looking hard at the hitch mounting specifications to insure that the hitch is in the proper location with respect to the rear axle. Our Reese had detailed instructions for installation with measurements to the fraction of an inch for the proper installation location. Just a thought.
Bingo

[Dixiedawg]

Can you rotate tires on a dually? And if you can, what tires go where?

[1retired06]

We have not experienced any abnormal front tire wear. Re Dually rotation, the proper method for Ford is front right to left, front left to right; rotate the rear right to left as a set.

[pineranch]

May be thinking wrong, BUT!!!!! What good will it do me to rotate by swapping the left and right front tires if the wear is only on the outside????? I think I like the slight weight shift causing the camber to be off. By the way, I'm several hundred #'s under the max for each axle.
Mike

[TLightning]

If the hitch is not slightly forward of the rear axle and/or the tires are not rotated, that would do it.

[Champ_49]

Mike it's definitely camber that is affecting the tire. As most are saying its weight that is the culprit. I had the same problem on mine and went with KYB shocks (I know that does nothing for the weight) so that when I put air bags on the truck I could get the best ride possible. With the air bags inflated to bring back of truck back to normal height it puts the correct camber back in the tires. BUT, what I have found with the air bags is that I get a worse ride and one that I don't care for at all. So my next move is to move the hitch forward and also put a Hensley air ride hitch in. Get rid of the 5th Airborne pin box and go with the MorRyde pin box.

Dave

[Art]

This site will provide a chart on how to rotate dually tires with normal wear or front tire wear. Sorry, I don't know how to paste the image here!

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/im...ixRotation.gif

[Dixiedawg]

Thanks for the chart. Our new dually came with ALCOA forged aluminum rims as an option, unfortunately the inner wheels and spare are steel rims. I'm a firm believer in rotating all tires including the spare, but unless I spend money for two more ALCOA rims I will only rotate four tires. The option for forged aluminum rims on the sticker sheet shows $300. I'd be willing to bet that just one ALCOA rim will cost $300. Maybe I should try a salvage yard for some rims.