TIRE WEAR LEAVING CAMPER ON FULL TIME

[patrkbukly]

A question for the wise please;

I leave my Granby on my F250 full time. I am dilligent about tire rotation at every 7500 miles.

I imagine a loaded truck in the neighborhood of 2,000 pounds would wear the tires out faster than an empty truck.

Assuming;
tires rotated consistently,
tires inflated correctly,
normal non-stunt driver driving....


What are people experiencing who leave their campers on full time;
A) Not enough difference to mention,
10% faster wear,
C) 50% faster,
D) 100% faster
E) some other percentage scenario?

Please let me know any experience you may have as I am curious about the real net effects.

For the record ;
My tires are; Goodyear Wrangler, LT275/70R18E BSW All Terrain
my tire wear seems to be about normal with the camper mostly full time which is probably going to be at about 36,000 to 40,000 miles needing replacement.

 

[DesertDave]

I can't compare loaded to unloaded, since I leave my camper on my F350.

I did, however, get 65,000 miles out of the OEM tires, and I changed them out with tread remaining, due to age.

 

[patrkbukly]

Wow, boy that would be great. Would you mind me asking the brand, model size ?

 

[klahanie]

I can't say the difference for me either. I read your post and wondered why rotate every 7,500 miles ?

I rotate ~ every 5,000 miles. Why ? well, that's same time as my oil changes making it convenient, but I couldn't remember the tire recommendation so I took a quick look online...for eg

Goodyear recommends every 3-6,000 miles
Dunlop 3-6,000
Cooper 5-8000
Michelien 6-8000
BFGoodrich 6-8,000
Toyo 7,500 for light truck

IDK what your Ford manual says but I'm thinking if you want to maximize longevity you might want to consider rotating more often.

Not what you asked, just offered as an idea ...

 

[Cayuse]

I got just short of 50,000 on a set of Cooper AT/3's rotating them every 5,000 or so miles with the oil changes. I could have gone further but had a trip coming up that I wanted new tires for.

I'm following the same schedule for the current ST MAXX tires and expect the same/similar results.

 

[PackRat]

The most important factor is tire air pressure. Running too high or too low wears them out faster. Next would be serious overloading your rig based on what the VIN tag says and what you find out as you head out of town and check in at a scales to confirm your REAL weight. Next I think is rotation, meaning what the manual says and what the tire mfger you choose suggests. Lastly, front end alignment issues can kill tires as well.

However, a combination of any of these will shorten tire life. My wife drives a Lexus ES300 and we noticed wear on them recently as we were getting ready to have them rotated. We kept them aired up, rotated every 6,000 miles and had no assignment issues, I noticed from the invoice we kept that we got just about 40,000 miles on them. I distinctly remember the tire shop offering a higher performance tire that would not last as long or a less aggressive tread that would last …..you guessed it....40,000 miles.

The majority of the miles were highway miles.

 

[dharte]

A question for the wise please;

I leave my Granby on my F250 full time. I am dilligent about tire rotation at every 7500 miles.

I imagine a loaded truck in the neighborhood of 2,000 pounds would wear the tires out faster than an empty truck.

Assuming;
tires rotated consistently,
tires inflated correctly,
normal non-stunt driver driving....


What are people experiencing who leave their campers on full time;
A) Not enough difference to mention,
10% faster wear,
C) 50% faster,
D) 100% faster
E) some other percentage scenario?

Please let me know any experience you may have as I am curious about the real net effects.

For the record ;
My tires are; Goodyear Wrangler, LT275/70R18E BSW All Terrain
my tire wear seems to be about normal with the camper mostly full time which is probably going to be at about 36,000 to 40,000 miles needing replacement.

I have the same tires and leave my Hawk on full time. My tires are a little over half worn at 14,000 miles. My rig is really heavy (front winch, rear swing arm bumper with storage box and tire carrier, roof mounted cargo basket, etc. ). I'm over 10,000 pounds without water and passengers. I would say the extra weight adds about a 25% tire wear penalty. I took off (and sold) my old wheels with Toyo MT tires because they wore so quickly and became very noisy. I would have gotten less than 20k miles on them.

 

[klahanie]

^ thx for posting that info on the Toyo MT. I've been considering them as a replacement to my AT2. Last tire shop I spoke to said the MTs "wear like iron". Colour me skeptical. Weight is weight.

I'm a ton heavier than you and my first AT2s lasted ~30K miles IIRC. The current set is made from a different rubber formulation (so I've read) and have .008 left after 25K, so, better.

I expect some tire models will take the extra weight of a camper better than others.

Another wear factor for me is gravel travel. It accelerates wear and causes tire surface chipping. If I don't have the camper on (off season) I rarely drive on gravel (which would prob be snow covered anyway) so that is another difficulty for me to make a loaded vs unloaded comparison.