Community Forums

benderdog · 06-24-2019, 06:10 AM

Good day I have a few question.
How important is it to rotate your tiers on 5 wheel or trailer.
If so how many miles or km should you do it. Thanks

consolenut · 06-24-2019, 06:52 AM

they will age out before rotation imo

bddadles · 06-24-2019, 10:23 AM

I have never rotated the 5er tires in 19 years of rving. They will age out first. I change them out every 4 1/2 - 5 years.
Be sure to monitor your tire pressure and watch out for road hazards and brushing curbs.

TXiceman · 06-24-2019, 10:26 AM

I have never rotated tires on a travel trailer or 5th wheel.....since 1984.

Ken

AKFlyboy · 06-24-2019, 01:12 PM

Unless you're doing a lot of driving, I can't see you putting enough miles to really make a difference. Unless your wheels are badly misaligned, even on a car you don't see much over a typical tire rotation schedule (6000-8000 miles).

If you have the capability to lift more than one wheel off the ground, and you really want to rotate them, I'd say do it when you're greasing bearings since you have to remove the wheels anyway.

I just replaced my tires that were from 2005 according to their DOT codes, and the spare was from 1996. Even that old, the tires were holding air. The cause of my flat a month ago was do to a wheel corroding through at a decorative crease in the rim. The tires were still in good shape externally and had a lot of tread on them with no signs of uneven wear. I don't know how much the original owner put on them, but my father put at least 15,000, and I put around 4000 on them over their 14-year life.

So unless you're putting thousands of miles on a year, I don't see you needing to rotate the tires.

grindstone01 · 06-24-2019, 08:54 PM

I would not bother rotating tires on anything unless you see uneven tire wear. At that point, you need to find and fix the problem causing the uneven wear. Rotating tires won't fix the real problem.

Skip426 · 06-24-2019, 09:07 PM

I rotated trailer tires with every annual bearing pack and brake check and adjustment , usually 5 to 7,000 miles.
But I always balanced trailer tires, and installed metal valves too.

Overly cautious , maybe , but I never had a blow out .

Because I was used to the trailers running smooth , I was able to feel when a separation started vibrating the RV; I had three of those on tires 3 and 4 years old.

If it rotates... balance it.

AKFlyboy · 06-25-2019, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grindstone01

I would not bother rotating tires on anything unless you see uneven tire wear. At that point, you need to find and fix the problem causing the uneven wear. Rotating tires won't fix the real problem.

On cars and trucks, you'll have uneven wear between the front and rear tires even with everything in good order. Braking increases wear on the front tires, acceleration increases wear on the tires on the driving wheels, steering increases wear on the edges of the front tires. Rotation spreads the differing types of wear over all the tires to extend their life.

Trailers really only have wear from rolling down the road and braking. With the way trailer suspension typically functions, I don't see them loading up the front more than the back on braking like you see with cars and trucks.

mobilemike · 06-25-2019, 09:57 AM

If you have the tires off to do bearing or brake maintenance why not just swap them? Its not much of an extra step.

glennwest · 06-25-2019, 10:02 AM

I don't rotate my camper tires nor my car tires. My Smartcar has different sizes front to rear.

Skip426 · 06-25-2019, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AKFlyboy

Trailers really only have wear from rolling down the road and braking. With the way trailer suspension typically functions, I don't see them loading up the front more than the back on braking like you see with cars and trucks.

Take a double axle trailer to a large empty parking lot , turn the unit in a sharp right angle corner or U turn and stop half way through the turn . Then walk back and see the side load on the rear axles tires. They're being drug sideways and flex like a pencil eraser under load.
This same kind of side load is put on coach tag axle tires , and the reason some manufactures are going to steerable tag axles.

JIMNLIN · 06-25-2019, 08:08 PM

On all my equipment trailers with tandem...triaxle...tandem dual axles when pulling sharp turns the tires on the front axles slide one direction and the tires on the rear axle slide in the opposite direction. Same with every RV trailer I've owned..

I use LT tires on all my trailers including the 5th wheel rv trailer. I run my tires on the RV trailer up to 50k-55k miles and have never rotated them.
Same on my equipment trailers where we wore our dozens of sets at 50k-60k miles and never rotated them.

Works for my use.

grindstone01 · 06-26-2019, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AKFlyboy

On cars and trucks, you'll have uneven wear between the front and rear tires even with everything in good order. Braking increases wear on the front tires, acceleration increases wear on the tires on the driving wheels, steering increases wear on the edges of the front tires. Rotation spreads the differing types of wear over all the tires to extend their life.

Again, if you observe tire wear and understand the reason for the wear, then rotate the tires. Otherwise leave them alone.
I just took my truck into the dealer for a second oil change at 10k miles which included rotating the tires. I told them not to rotate the tires since the tire wear looked even so far.