Tire Wear on Tow Vehicle

[grannyred]

In doing my walk around inspection on my tow vehicle yesterday, i noticed that the tread on the rear tires was wearing away faster than the tread on the front tires. Being relatively new to RVing, is this normal? Usually the tread on the front tires have worn away faster than the tread on the read tires. What has been your experience?

Thanks

Ken

[jcanavera]

From a towing standpoint, if you have a properly set up weight distribution hitch, you end up transferring some of that hitch weight to the front tires of the tow vehicle. I've never noticed unusual wear on the rear tires of my tow vehicle. Most of the bad tread wear is on my front tires due to the need for alignment caused by our great highway system around town. I'm assuming you rotate your tires? I'm also assuming you keep them inflated properly based on the load your tow vehicle is carrying?

What kind of vehicle do you have? What kind of tires do you have and what are their load ratings? All of these questions and their answers can affect the life of those tires.

Jack

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by grannyred

In doing my walk around inspection on my tow vehicle yesterday, i noticed that the tread on the rear tires was wearing away faster than the tread on the front tires. Being relatively new to RVing, is this normal? Usually the tread on the front tires have worn away faster than the tread on the read tires. What has been your experience?

Thanks

Ken

Ken ---I've always noticed a slight bit more wear on the rears. This varies of course depending on the roads. I found when driving mainly in mountainous roads or those that have lots curves that the rears seem to wear more even with a WD hitch thats properly adjusted. My thinking is when cornering the weight, even if properly distributed tends to push the rear of the tow vehicle sideways, especially when decelerating. I think you'll find by rotating more often and paying close attention to inflation they will wear even for the most part. Even at best you can't get past the fact that towing wears tires more rapidly.------Pieman

[Pick]

Tread on the DRIVE axle, be it front or back usually wears faster, than a none drive axle. I guess this is why you need to rotate tires. I have only done mine once in 36000 miles, and both front and rear tire wear seem even at this point.

My last 2 pickups, a 1998 Chevy and a 2000 GMC both had worn out tires, (General) before 30,000. My current truck a 2003 GMC has lots of tread at 36,000 on it's Bridgestones. I should make 50K with no sweat!

[dwightdi]

I have noticed more rear tire wear on my dually. I think it is due to the two tires are on a different radius as they go around the corners and therefore one or the other of them must actually skid on the pavement. I have actually heard them making a noise when I make a sharp turn on asphalt when I was going very slow. The answer is: rotate the tires when the wear starts to look out of balance between tires. Tire pressure needs to be check often and changed when to the proper amount for the different placement after they are rotated.

[wahoonc]

My duals wear faster than the front. Especially when towing goose necks or fifth wheels. I usually don't bother to rotate. I have a limited slip rear end and the four tires seem to wear pretty even. It also allows me to run a slightly less aggressive tread on the steer tire....helps keep the road noise and vibration down. With the current Coopers on there I get 35-40k on the rear and about 55k out of the front two.

Aaron