I weighed it

[BrokenElbow]

Here are the weights of the new 3455 and the F350 with hitch:

F350 unhitched
Front Axle: 4,860
Rear Axle: 3,590
Total 8,450

F350 hitched
Front Axle: 5,000 (F350 FGAWR is 6,000)
Rear Axle: 6,020 (F350 RGAWR is 7,280)
5er Axle: 11,180
Total 22,200 (F350 GCVWR is 23,000)

So the hitch is 2570 and the Monty is 13750 total.

All the numbers are under the specs of the F350, so that's good. Now for a tire decision; 11,180/4 is 2795 which should be the approximate wt carried by each tire. So I can probably do well with a good LT rated E tire like the Commercial ta or the Duravis R500 (since they are each good for 3040 @ 80psi). For my weight, the G614's seem overkill, what do you think?

[Art-n-Marge]

I wouldn't worry about what it weighs now, I would worry about what it will ever weigh and the GVWR is what you're looking at to estimate that. Sometimes you'll carry more if you fill the tanks and you'll want the tires, wheels and whatever the weight to the dump station. Sometimes the dump station might be a ways away and you'll need to carry this heavier weight until you get to a place to dump the tanks.

Do you have 6,000lb axles (3,000lbs per wheel) or 7,000lbs axles, (3,500lbs per axle)? I would get a tire that surpasses the potential wheel weight and maybe some margin. If you get the 3,040lb tires, that doesn't leave any margin. How much margin you want (if any) will be your call, but I'd definitely get tires that would meet the gross weight maximums at each tire.

If this means you get a different size tires to accomplish this you'll probably have some fit and dimension questions, too. Fortunately, this is not an unusual problem and others have been successful.

There will be plenty of great suggestions coming soon.

Sounds like the '08 F350 has a better GAWR than an '06 (7,000) with a 3.73 differential. Is this what you have or do you have a higher number for the diff. This could increase the capacity if all else is equal. I'm just curious. BTW what is the 5th wheel tow rating and GVWR for your '08 F-350? Again, just comparing with what I know about '06, thanks.

[ragdoll]

Well after blowing out 2 missions and 2 gy marathons on my 08 3400 I feel so much better knowing (maybe) I wouldn't have to change tires on the side of a road again and my trailer seems to ride so much better. My 3400 weighed in @ 12,000, thats only 205# per tire from yours and I try to have 10gal. of fresh water plus 5-10 in each tank for slushing. GY G614s is the way to go but thats up to you. Good Luck Jack

[trlrboy]

quote:For my weight, the G614's seem overkill, what do you think?

I changed to the G614 tires after I saw bubbles on the sidewalls of the Marathons that came with mine. I realize the G614 is a premium tire and cost quite a bit but I felt it was worth the piece of mind to put some extra money into the only part of the trailer that touches the road.

[stiles watson]

After 4 blowouts, not caused by road hazard or higher speed driving, but tire failure, and $5,000 body damage to the Montana, I figure the price of the G614 turns out to be very cheap. No failures in 4 years of extensive travel.

[bncinwv]

I gotta agree with Art and others on this one. If it was me, I would have to assume that at some point I would have the rig fully loaded and would make my choice accordingly. You will be surprised what gets added to the rig over the course of time by most, (and that most definitely includes us!!) All of this is assuming that your weights are empty weights of the rig (basement, empty, etc.??). As with all other advice, do some homework as to what you will possibly be adding to the rig weight, and make an informed personal choice that you will be comfortable with.
Bingo

[exav8tr]

I would base my tire requirement on a "Fully Loaded" truck and trailer. As stated, the tires are the only thing that touches the ground. It only takes one time of tire overloading to blow a tire and cause damage. I went thru 4 flats myself until I bought the G614's. Narry a hiccup since adding them. Why worry about being close? Go for the gold, as they say. The 614's will seem like gold when you buy them. Great tire in my mind. Keep in mind, you don't need to run them at max inflation either. Use the Goodyear tire and loading charts to determine correct pressures and you will be fine. Some have suggested a 110 psi tire will beat the crap out of your trailer, but if you don't need 110 psi, as most of us don't, then don't inflate that high. Good luck with whatever you decide......BTW, the LT guys will be along soon also, they have good advice also.......

[mail2us]

Tireguy Lonnie B can also assist greatly on your tire concerns. I believe the posts here are sending you in a good direction overall as to you considering future loading of your rig. I have good LT tires right now however, would strongly consider the Goodyear G rated 614's for the extra $$ and safety of me and family. Good Luck.

[TLightning]

[quote For my weight, the G614's seem overkill, what do you think?
[/quote]

I'm going against the majority here, but G614s are overkill for sure. A good set of LTs will serve you fine. I put the exact tires on my Montana that Tire Guy Lonnie has on his...Bridgestone Duravis 500 LT 235/85R16. If they work for a guy that can have any tire he wants, it will, and has, worked for me.

[sreigle]

One thing you might consider is that the side with three slides will be heavier than the other side. We have a similar layout with our 3400RL, 3 on one side and 1 on the other. When we had it weighed at each wheel we found the 3-slide side is 1,075 lbs heavier than the other side.

We are a couple thousand pounds heavier than you (15,610)so the G614's work well for us. They've been on there for a year this month and we've been traveling full time. No problems at all with them, so far. But yours might not need the G614's but be sure to allow for the extra weight on the heavier side.

Whichever tire you end up with, I suggest you find a mfr's inflation chart and then set all four tires plus the spare to the psi recommended for the tire with the heaviest load. For us that's 105 psi. I run 110 in them to allow for pressure changes due to altitude and ambient temperature changes. I've not noticed any beating of the rig due to the pressure. You'll have to estimate the load on each wheel since you don't have the weight on each wheel. Here's some numbers from ours that might help you with the estimate.

Our 3400 scaled at 15,610 lbs. The right rear (door side) tire had the lightest load. The following shows how many more pounds above that lightest loaded tire were on each tire.

+0 right rear (RR)
+150 right front (RF)
+475 left front (LF)
+750 left rear (LR)

Our total axle weight is 12,575, for the two axles. That would be an average of 3144 per tire. Here's the difference in load on each tire compared to that average 3144:

RR -344 lbs
RF -194
LF +131
LR +406

Might I suggest you add about 400 lbs to your average and look for tires rated for the adjusted weight?

Good luck. You're smart to be considering all the factors before the purchase.

[Phil P]

Hi

The Goodyear tires on our unit failed at 3,000 miles. The dealer said he couldn’t do anything except call Keystone and they were closed for 3 days. So I called Goodyear. The Goodyear dealer read me a letter from Goodyear that stated no warranty for the Keystone fifth wheel trailers as well as a large list of other companies because Goodyear didn’t recommend the tire to be used on tandem axels fifth wheel trailers. Goodyear recommended the G614. They have been on the unit now for 2 years and 25,000 miles. I check the tire pressure before every trip. I still haven’t had to put air in the tires.

Our trailer weighs 15,180 lbs. fully loaded.


Phil P

[BrokenElbow]

quote:Originally posted by Art-n-Marge

I wouldn't worry about what it weighs now, I would worry about what it will ever weigh and the GVWR is what you're looking at to estimate that. Sometimes you'll carry more if you fill the tanks and you'll want the tires, wheels and whatever the weight to the dump station. Sometimes the dump station might be a ways away and you'll need to carry this heavier weight until you get to a place to dump the tanks.

Do you have 6,000lb axles (3,000lbs per wheel) or 7,000lbs axles, (3,500lbs per axle)? I would get a tire that surpasses the potential wheel weight and maybe some margin. If you get the 3,040lb tires, that doesn't leave any margin. How much margin you want (if any) will be your call, but I'd definitely get tires that would meet the gross weight maximums at each tire.

If this means you get a different size tires to accomplish this you'll probably have some fit and dimension questions, too. Fortunately, this is not an unusual problem and others have been successful.

There will be plenty of great suggestions coming soon.

Sounds like the '08 F350 has a better GAWR than an '06 (7,000) with a 3.73 differential. Is this what you have or do you have a higher number for the diff. This could increase the capacity if all else is equal. I'm just curious. BTW what is the 5th wheel tow rating and GVWR for your '08 F-350? Again, just comparing with what I know about '06, thanks.

I should have been more specific. I weighed the Monty after loading it up "ready to camp". The basement is full, but the black and grey tanks were empty with about 20% water in the fresh. You point about planning for a heavier day is a good one.

The 3455 has 7000lb axles. I checked and I have 110psi 3750lb rated wheels.

The diff for my F350 is 3.73, GVWR is 11,400 and GCVWR is 23,000.

I think I agree with the tone of the feedback. I think I'm leaning towards the G614's and just air them up to what I need via the tire loading chart.

Thanks

[BrokenElbow]

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

One thing you might consider is that the side with three slides will be heavier than the other side. We have a similar layout with our 3400RL, 3 on one side and 1 on the other. When we had it weighed at each wheel we found the 3-slide side is 1,075 lbs heavier than the other side.

We are a couple thousand pounds heavier than you (15,610)so the G614's work well for us. They've been on there for a year this month and we've been traveling full time. No problems at all with them, so far. But yours might not need the G614's but be sure to allow for the extra weight on the heavier side.

Whichever tire you end up with, I suggest you find a mfr's inflation chart and then set all four tires plus the spare to the psi recommended for the tire with the heaviest load. For us that's 105 psi. I run 110 in them to allow for pressure changes due to altitude and ambient temperature changes. I've not noticed any beating of the rig due to the pressure. You'll have to estimate the load on each wheel since you don't have the weight on each wheel. Here's some numbers from ours that might help you with the estimate.

Our 3400 scaled at 15,610 lbs. The right rear (door side) tire had the lightest load. The following shows how many more pounds above that lightest loaded tire were on each tire.

+0 right rear (RR)
+150 right front (RF)
+475 left front (LF)
+750 left rear (LR)

Our total axle weight is 12,575, for the two axles. That would be an average of 3144 per tire. Here's the difference in load on each tire compared to that average 3144:

RR -344 lbs
RF -194
LF +131
LR +406

Might I suggest you add about 400 lbs to your average and look for tires rated for the adjusted weight?

Good luck. You're smart to be considering all the factors before the purchase.

Steve (good name, same as mine)
Great information. I didn't think about the 3 slides on the driver's side weighing more...duh. If I add 400lbs to my average, I get about 3200lbs possible and that's not considering the addition of more stuff over time to keep the DW happy.

You folks are great. I've learned a great amount in a very short period of time. Thanks to all.

[sreigle]

If you decide to go with the G614's, check the website and see if they still have the mail in rebate. It used to be just $10 but for our five tires that was $50. If they do, make sure the tire dealer gives you all the paperwork to mail in and that it shows the tires are G614RST tires. Our dealer had everything ready for us.

Also, shop around for price. I did it by email and found by driving about 35 miles to Temecula, CA (we were in Oceanside at the time) we could save quite a bit of money even after figuring the fuel cost. Our total cost for the tires, mounting, balancing, getting rid of the old tires, tax, etc, after rebate was $1284.54 for five G614's. I told them by email I was shopping at several stores and would go with the best deal. You might do even better.

One last thing.. Keystone told me several years ago I had thrown an axle out of alignment by having a different load range tire on one end of an axle than the tire on the other end. They also said that can happen with different tread patterns or tire sizes. So I recommend you have five tires of the same brand, size, model and not try to save some $$ by keeping one of the old tires as a spare. The axle realignment cost me $150 and I'm hearing that's a pretty cheap price.

[exav8tr]

I got my 614's from Sam's Club. $215 each a little while back. They would not mount so I had to take them to an RV dealer to mount and balance. They were listed at Sam's club under LT tires and there official desingation is LT G614 RST in there books. the RST means Regroovable Specialty Tire. The Goodyear dealer wanted $348 each and discont tire was 379 each. even with joining Sams club I saved a bundle......

[richfaa]

On the other hand we have not had a tire failure on the 06 3400 in 5 years of towing and we are not light. Missions about 10K..no problems they are still rolling on a boat trailer. Cooppers @20K. we did ruin them but not a tire failure, Shackle bolt failure and axle shift did them in and now Generals for @ 10K no problems. We are just lucky I guess.

BTW we weigh our rig most every year at one rally or another and it is hard to stay within all ratings and specs.....But we do.

[scductman]

I weighed mine in goshen in 09 and the 3 slide side was 2,850 per tire and the door side was a little above 2,700 each. I just need to load some more stuff in it to catch up!! LOL. Really I try to keep it as lite as I can but I had never had it weighed till then and I was supprized that it was under gvwr. The guy told me I could put in another 500to700lb IIRC. DW was glad to hear that!!
Bobby

[Mudchief]

After problems with Mission and Freestar I now have the 614's and have had no more problems. I paid $225 each at Sam's. They might be a overkill but I don't want anymore tire problems or damage to my unit.

[richfaa]

Now..Having said that we have not had tire problems in the last five years and what brands we had our next set of camper tires will be 614's...why not.

[BrokenElbow]

quote:Originally posted by exav8tr

I got my 614's from Sam's Club. $215 each a little while back. They would not mount so I had to take them to an RV dealer to mount and balance. They were listed at Sam's club under LT tires and there official desingation is LT G614 RST in there books. the RST means Regroovable Specialty Tire. The Goodyear dealer wanted $348 each and discont tire was 379 each. even with joining Sams club I saved a bundle......

I called Sam's club and apparently, all of the clubs from a particular region buy from the same warehouse and our warehouse doesn't carry the G614's. I have to see how far away I have to go to get the tires because it sounds like a good deal. The lowest local price I can find is $1340 for 4 out the door.