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Old 11-20-2016, 10:55 AM   #43
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With everything you have been through trying to find a definitive reason for the rear tire wear I will stick with my opinion from my earlier post. What you are experiencing is over inflation in the rear tires causing the center tread sections to wear faster than the outside.
Your tire pressure gauge should become your best friend. If you are loading the truck to it's, or near it's, rated capacity stay with the recommended 80# rear tire pressure. If you are just running empty, drop the pressure down to 60# or even less. There is more weight on the front tires than the rears unless you are hauling a load. The front tires are happy with 60# why wouldn't the rears be also? The fillings in your teeth will be happier for it too. You will also find you have better traction from the rear tires with the tire pressure lowered and a light or no load situation.
I have several fleet customers who I recommend doing this with their 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. Even some of the Dualies. We are seeing in excess of 40,000 miles from OE tires which aren't always top of the line tires to start with. Perhaps this is an inconvenience to some folks but tire pressure isn't a one size fits all scenario.
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Old 11-20-2016, 11:14 AM   #44
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LETMGROW View Post
With everything you have been through trying to find a definitive reason for the rear tire wear I will stick with my opinion from my earlier post. What you are experiencing is over inflation in the rear tires causing the center tread sections to wear faster than the outside.
Your tire pressure gauge should become your best friend. If you are loading the truck to it's, or near it's, rated capacity stay with the recommended 80# rear tire pressure. If you are just running empty, drop the pressure down to 60# or even less. There is more weight on the front tires than the rears unless you are hauling a load. The front tires are happy with 60# why wouldn't the rears be also? The fillings in your teeth will be happier for it too. You will also find you have better traction from the rear tires with the tire pressure lowered and a light or no load situation.
I have several fleet customers who I recommend doing this with their 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. Even some of the Dualies. We are seeing in excess of 40,000 miles from OE tires which aren't always top of the line tires to start with. Perhaps this is an inconvenience to some folks but tire pressure isn't a one size fits all scenario.
Lynn

That's a great suggestion and exactly what I used to do --- that is until my current truck with a TPMS. If you don't mind doing it, at least on a Ford, you can cancel the dash warning pop up and chime until the next start and so on. Even my 45 buck TPMS 'training' tool wont always reset the dash warning pop up without several attempts.
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Old 11-20-2016, 01:52 PM   #45
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I thought the OP was experiencing inner tread wear on rears, not center/outer ribs at all...
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Old 11-20-2016, 07:32 PM   #46
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wingnut60 is correct, the wear is all on the inside edge of the rear tires, the center of the tread is perfectly fine, as well as the outer ribs. No one I've talked with has seen this type of tread wear before.

And now for the big news! Today I went for it, guys. I went for the CAT Scales. We held a baby shower for my daughter at our favorite local RV park over the weekend, so this morning before we took our rig home, we made a 30 mile detour to the Love's Truck Stop in Comfort TX. All trailer tanks were empty, and the trailer and truck were loaded exactly as they are when we go on a road trip.

The results were mixed:
Front axle: 4280 lbs, 5500 is allowed, so we're plenty good there.
Rear axle: 5740 lbs, 6000 allowed, still good to go.
Trailer axles: 10040 lbs, OK I guess.
Gross combined weight: 20300 lbs, 19,800 allowed = 500 lbs overweight! Didn't see that coming at all!!
GVWR: 10020 lbs, 10000 is allowed = 20 lbs overweight. Oops!

Looks like you were all correct about the manufacturer & dealership low-balling the pin weight (1800 lbs) and the empty trailer weight (11040 lbs) in order to make a sale. Check my math, but if front and drive axle weights equal 10020 lbs, minus the empty truck weight of 6700, that equals 3320 lbs on the pin, right? Ram specs say my max payload is 3020, and I'm only allowed a total of 1100 pounds of cargo in the trailer, and there isn't ANYTHING heavy in the nose or in the basement-- no added generator, no extra batteries, just a couple of folding chairs in the nose, and a half-full basement.

We are going to go through the trailer and remove magazines, books, catalogs, extra clothing, CDs, anything we can do without, but I don't see any way to lose 500 pounds, even if the wife and I go on a starvation diet!
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Old 11-20-2016, 08:34 PM   #47
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Uneven rear tire wear on my Ram 2500

What's Empty weight of of the truck? U going by claimed weight or did u weigh it separately? 3320 is a bit more than I have on my 16500lb toy hauler. I highly doubt u have 3320 on the pin on a 12k rig
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Old 11-20-2016, 09:14 PM   #48
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You're right, gtsum2, my numbers don't make sense.
We are going back to the CAT scale tomorrow to weigh just the truck. I said earlier that the weight of the truck fully loaded was 6700 pounds, but the Ram spec sheet says the 2500 4X4 weighs 6703 empty. A couple of months ago we weighed it on the scale at the city dump with my wife, grandson and me in it, with a full fuel tank, and with cross-bed tool box & ice chest on board. I can't find that weight slip, but obviously I've forgotten what the real weight is-- it must be closer to 7500. I will report back tomorrow with the correct numbers.
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Old 11-20-2016, 10:04 PM   #49
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OK, my loaded truck weight must be about 7700 lbs, not 6700. My wife, grandson and I weigh about 500 pounds total, our grille guard weighs 90, a full tank of fuel weighs about 200, the cross-bed tool box must be about 200, and our B&W turnover hitch adds a few pounds. Throw some toys, books, small ice chest, and other miscellaneous stuff into the cab, and we are adding about a grand to the weight. Therefore, the pin weight must be closer to 2300 pounds. We'll see tomorrow.

After reading a different topic about cracked aluminum rims (we have the same ones), I remembered another source of weight on our trailer. I swapped out the factory E rated China bombs for G rated Goodyear G-614s mounted on high pressure rims. If I remember correctly (and my memory is now highly suspect), the factory tires and wheels weight about 55 pounds, and the new Goodyears & Hi-specs weight over 90 pounds each. There is 150+ pounds that counts against my towing capacity!
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Old 11-21-2016, 05:36 AM   #50
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2300 or so sounds better....sounds like you will be right up against your gvwr. Be interesting to see what your weigh slip shows for the truck (and you can then see what your pin weight is from subtracting that from the rawr from your previous weigh)
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Old 11-21-2016, 09:22 AM   #51
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We are waking our three year old grandson up right now and getting him dressed to go to the CAT Scales. We will have the results shortly.
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Old 11-21-2016, 12:57 PM   #52
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Well, no one is more surprised than I am! Our official CAT weight fully loaded is 7820 lbs! Front axle weight is 4460, the rear is 3360. Yesterday the rear axle was 5740, so our pin weight is 2380, 580 lbs over the manufacturer's stated weight of 1800 lbs. I remembered last night that the salesman told me that they had added the bedroom a/c unit so add a couple hundred pounds to the factory weight. That accounts for some of it, I guess.

So now I have to figure out how to lose about five hundred pounds to make my Gross Combined Weight.
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Old 11-21-2016, 01:32 PM   #53
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It'll be darn difficult to shed that much weight. With Christmas coming, you might want to treat yourself to a more capable tow vehicle.
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Old 11-21-2016, 02:08 PM   #54
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Uneven rear tire wear on my Ram 2500

Well those numbers are certainly more in line with what I thought they would be. You are right at the truck limits and over the cgvwr like you mentioned. I would be more concerned being over the rear axle limit and or tire limit than being 500 over the cgvwr

So your trailer tanks were all empty during the previous day weigh? That means anytime you have any water on board (fresh, grey or black), that is going to add to the overage on the cgvwr and likely the pin weight (depending on where your tanks are located).

You are not alone as I see far more 2500's towing than I do 3500 srw's and without a doubt many are over loaded. I have a 3500 srw and am right at all my limits (wet and ready to camp) so I can understand your situation. I don't believe your weights contribute to the rear tire wear. Either really watch the weight and never travel with water or look at a 3500 srw (cummins...there is just no comparison to the big hemi when towing)
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Old 11-21-2016, 02:12 PM   #55
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How do these CAT scales work? They are movable for various lengths of vehicles?
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Old 11-21-2016, 02:30 PM   #56
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Uneven rear tire wear on my Ram 2500

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How do these CAT scales work? They are movable for various lengths of vehicles?


Three separate scales...just position your rig so the front wheels are on one, rear wheels on another and the trailer wheels on the last one. He scales are fixed, you just need to position your rig correctly.

I suppose if you had a super short trailer it might be tough to get three separate axle readings, it it would have to be very very short trailer for that to happen
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