Dullie Tire Change

[JohnHaggerty]

This is my first dullie. I figure I should know how to change inside tires before I have to. I have 8,700 miles, so probably not a bad time to rotate them at home.



What special stuff do you carry in the truck for tire changes? I typically carry some oak 3" x 3" 's and a bottle jack. Any other suggestions for stuff to carry in the tool box?

 

[Grizzly]

My 05 Dodge is my second dually. When I rotate the tires I use a 3. 5 ton floor jack and 4 jack stands to get the truck off the ground. I drop the spare to use in the rotation according to the owners manual. I use my 120V electric torque wrench to back out all the lug nuts. When done with the rotation, I use my electric torque wrench to snug the lug nuts, but I use my click hand torque wrench to set the correct ft/lbs of torque.

 

[Little Bill]

When you get the inner wheels off, clean up the hubs and put some anti-seize on them.

 

[dan.poitras]

You are wasting your time rotating dually tires (my opinion)

 

[ACoyle]

I agree with dan. This is also what I was told when I bought new tires, by the tire dealer. He does not evn balance the rears as he says ther is too much going on back there.

Two sets of tires later, I cannot disagree with him.
he anti sieze is a good idea. The rims are hub centered, not lugnet centered like a car tire. Rust developes around the hub and the tire is mega hard to get off. The anti sieze should help this. If you are unable to get your tires off due to this, back the lugs out 1 turn. Drive the truck around the block jam on the brakes, accelerate and swerve back and froth like a nascar driver. This should losten things up for you.

 

[RHestand]

Dan, no offense, but what is your rational for not rotating.

This is also my first dually, and I would like to have a good reason not to waste my time.

Ray

 

[Bill Stockard]

I'm on my fourth dually. I rotate the tires myself at every other oil change. I usually get 60-70K miles on the OE tires. It also gives me the opportunity to inspect the tires for sidewall breaks and cracks and for objects stuck in the tread. So far I've only had one flat in hundreds of thousands of miles of travel and that flat was caused by the failure the rubber OE valve stems. I learned from that experience to replace the OE valve stems with metal real truck stems as soon as I take delivery of a new truck.



To answer your question about what to take, I take a 10-ton low profile bottle jack and a home made tool I made to lower the spare when my slide in camper is on the truck.



Bill

 

[jelag]

I also have to agree with Dan.....

I own several trucks... we've changed them over to 19. 5" wheels...

I ran a company owned Goodyear store when I was younger and listened to them and the fleet guys we do business with... .

New Brigestone rib tires on the fronts, a bandag retread on the rear... . fronts are about $275 each, rear retreads are about $135 each... we don't rotate and use the same configuration that UPS uses on their package trucks here in Spokane... .

We started doing this back in 2000 with an F550... we've never had a blow out, we don't rotate and when we buy new tires we save the old take off's for the recapper. .

We get close to 100K miles on a set... What I personally like is the strength and extra load capacity of these tires... . most 17" are in the 3045 - 3200 range... the 19. 5" run close to 4200 lbs... .

Hope this helps...

 

[macdaddy]

I rotate mine every 10K. Been doing this now on the last two trucks. If you dont youll cut the life of the tire in half, or worse.



Use the owners manny for correct rotation and stay away from OWL, they wont allow the outside rears into the rotation.



Mac

 

[DZLFREK]

What's OWL?

 

[Road Dog]

OWL = Outline White Letter
BSW = Black Side Wall

My COSTCO tire guy said most customers don't rotate their dually. You buy two sets of fronts for every set of rears.

 

[HBarlow]

During the first 60k miles when I had OEM Goodyear tires on my first Ram dually I rotated the tires myself. I began to wonder if it was truly worth the effort.

Beginning with the first set of Michelin replacement tires for that '01 Ram at my local SAM's Club I let the tire shop at SAM's rotate and balance all six at NO CHARGE every 7,500 to 10k miles. I got more than 100,000 miles out service out of each set of Michelins and I feel the frequent rotation and balance helped.

The SAM's Club tire shop foreman and all the techs became good friends so beginning with my second Ram dually with OEM Ameritrac (pronounced crap) tires I pay the modest fee and enjoy lifetime rotation on the first set not purchased from them and then buy all replacement Michelins from them and enjoy free lifetime rotation and balance. I got 65,000 miles of service from the Americraps. The 17" Michelins that SAM's carries are ORL with big ugly white Michelin name on the side. The SAM's Club tire guys faithfully dismount one on each side and reverse it every time I show up for a free rotation and balance so all tires show a plain black sidewall.

I paid the lifetime rotate and balance fee again on my current Ram C&C and still have good tread on my OEM Americrap tires at 53,500 miles. I plan on another set of Michelins somewhere around 60k to 65k miles.

If I had to rotate the tires myself I probably wouldn't and I have an air compressor, an air impact wrench, and a good concrete shop floor to do the work on. It's a lot of work and I'm not sure how many additional miles rotation provdies.

 

[Road Dog]

Every Dodge dually I've seen (here in BC) has Michelin M+S as the OEM tire.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Every Dodge dually I've seen (here in BC) has Michelin M+S as the OEM tire.

I bought new a dually in '92, '97, 00, and '03. All came from the factory equipped with Goodyear tires. It may have been because all my trucks are 4x2, not 4x4. However, when they needed replacement, I bought Michelin.



Bill

 

[Grizzly]

I bought new a dually in '92, '97, 00, and '03. All came from the factory equipped with Goodyear tires. It may have been because all my trucks are 4x2, not 4x4. However, when they needed replacement, I bought Michelin.



Bill

My first Dodge/Cummins 4WD dually, which I bought new in 95, also came with Goodyear Wrangler's. They were great. I got 60K out of them and I'm sure I could have gotten another 15K, but we were going on a long trip to Alabama, Florida and Georgia and I didn't want to take any chances. More especially with the large Lance camper we had. I replaced them with Dunlop Rovers. I also got a many miles and good service out of them.



I'm not as impressed with the AmerGen that came on my 05 dually 4WD.

 

[CKESSEL]

I put some Coopers on my 04. 5 to replace the OE Goodyears. While they were off, I had all the wheels blasted and powder coated. Still having a hard time justifying the 500+ for some forged replacements so I gave them some color instead. I put Discoverer A/T's on the rear and Discoverer H/T's on the front so I can have an aggresive drive tread on the rear and a street type tread on the front. Kind of like what you see on the big rigs. When I do my rotates, at 10k, I go side to side plus clean the wheels and tires then put protectant on the tires where you can't normally do it when they are on. One thing I did do when I got the truck was take a large, sorry Sears, Craftsman screwdriver and bend the tip to a 90. This makes getting the center caps and covers off a much easier job. I keep it right in front of the jack and tools under the seat. One other thing I did was put a torque wrench, extension, breaker bar and socket under the back seat for any roadside issues. Having the tools there also makes periodic nut checking easier since those rascals are at 145 f/lbs! You don't want to see your wheels taking off in your mirrors at the wrong time!