Dually tire rotation pattern?

[Scooby]

I used to rotate my tires on my 2500 at each oil change. Now that I have my first dually, what is the most common rotation pattern?



If you kept them all on one side, you'd have to flip the rotational direction of two of the tires... I'm sure my tires aren't directional, but I've heard you don't typically want to do that anyway??



Thanks for any input... BTW, no I haven't loosened the wheels yet to put anti-sieze on the hubs or between the wheels... I'm dreading that part

 

[DPelletier]

Scooby,

With my SRW truck, I always rotated every 5,000 kms (or tried to remember to, anyway) because my rears always wore out faster than the fronts and the fronts always wore the corners faster. On my DRW truck, they all seem to be wearing close to the same after 30,000 kms so I don't think I'm going to rotate them at all. I generally toss my tires when they get down to 30% or less and winters coming anyways.



Dave

 

[JRMora]

I used to rotate my tires on my 2500 at each oil change. Now that I have my first dually, what is the most common rotation pattern?



If you kept them all on one side, you'd have to flip the rotational direction of two of the tires... I'm sure my tires aren't directional, but I've heard you don't typically want to do that anyway??



Thanks for any input... BTW, no I haven't loosened the wheels yet to put anti-sieze on the hubs or between the wheels... I'm dreading that part

I rotate every 7500 miles. I use the pattern in the owners manual - I have the "directional" goodyear GSA's. They have very little wear after 24,000 miles, but I'm starting to see some small (for now) cracking on the sidewalls. I've read of others who have had large cracks appear in the sidewalls, so I am keeping an eye on them. I had the dealer do them the first time - they had tires backwards (wrong side out) and forgot to move the valve caps, too.



Now I do it myself.



Juan

 

[JZellers]

Hi Scooby,



On my duallys I always used the owner's manual method of rotation, not using the spare. The reason for that is when it comes time to buy tires the first time around I just buy 5 instead of 6, then use the best old tire for the spare. I have the directional Goodyears on my '03. The inner rears get swapped with the opposite fronts and the outer rears get swapped with each other. I noticed on mine that the outer rears seem to wear a little faster than the rest.



As far as getting the never-sieze on the hubs, you should be ok since you haven't gone through a midwest winter with it yet On my 2000 I didn't do that until after the first winter and I laid under the truck and kicked for an hour to break them loose - not fun.



Joe

 

[gsbrockman]

Are the tires white letter or blackwall ? That question will also throw off the equation, too. Some, not all, of the Goodyear tires are not directional but assymetrical... meaning they have a true "outside" mounting procedure... the outer edges of the tread blocks are heavier and the inner edges of the tread blocks provide better snow & wet traction. Also, a few of the DRW's we've had in our tire store have had only 4 of the 6 tires in white letter..... the inside duals were blackwall !

Greg

 

[FJfonda]

Scooby,

The rotation pattern changed from the 2nd gen to the 3rds. It used to be: front to outside rear-outside rear to inside rear- and inside rear to front on the 2nd gens. The 3rd gens are now available with raised white letter tires as an option )and on some packages) and the old rotation will mix up the BSW vs RWL pattern. The 3rd gen owners manual (if I remember right) shows a side to side rotation only moving each tire to it's same location on the other side of the vehicle.

I ran BFG RWL on my '99 and rotated the inside rear to the front (at 5000 mi) then flipped them all over (at the next 5000mi) to BSW and did the same.

The tires on my '04. 5 are General's and they aren't directional or symetrical. All 6 in service are BSW... and the spare is RWL...

 

[John - K5AWO]

Personally I don't believe in rotating tires on a dually. The problem as I see it is that you will be putting a tire on the rear that is not matched for wear with the one you leave on the back. This is going to cause one of the tires to 'drag' because of the difference in the tread wear.



Leave the rear tires alone and wear them out as a set. That will give maximum rear tire wear. If the corners on the front are wearing off, you are running the tire pressure too low and/or are cornering too hard... . assuming that the alignment is correct.



My rear tires are smooth all the way across the full set and are giving me excellent wear. The front tires are worn down to about 3/16" and into the wear bars. Time to get two new tires.



I bought the truck w/85k on it 11 months ago and was told the tires were "worn out". Well, I can't tell that they have worn down any worse than they were after 11,000 miles on them. Your milage may vary... I take 90 degree turns at intersections at about 15 mph and coasting, no power on. That preserves the treads on the duals.

 

[Stranger]

I had a 6X6 and rotated the fronts to the left rear. Right front to left rear outside, left front ro right rear inside. 3K +/- later, left front to right rear inside, right front to right rear inside. Even on cross country trips. Never touched the spare. Got 80K on a set, hauling a 12 K stock trailler.

 

[Scooby]

Thanks for the replies! I have the black sidewall General Ameritracs so I don't have to worry about the issue of raised white letters. I guess the concensus is that there isn't one. I'll check out the manual... funny I never thought to look there - really!