I am towing a 17' Bigfoot trailer, max GVW is 3500#, not overloaded. I tow this small one axle trailer employing a weight distributing system. I put new tires on this truck 3 weeks back and have towed it to the Kenai peninsula approx. 3500 miles from our home in MT. The front end was aligned when tires were mounted. It had a 4 wheel alignment last year to no avail. The center tread on the rear tires is wearing much more than the front tires center tread. Can anyone shed some light on this. Thanks for the help. MTG

 

if you are running 70 or 80 psi in the rear tires, expect the centers to wear as if they are overinflated. if you had a ton of weight on the rear, they would probably wear more evenly.

also, any vehicle i have ever had that tows, and more so if it has a limited slip, *always* wears the rear tires out before the front. this goes against conventional logic where the fronts should wear first. but anything we have that pulls a load always wears out the rears first.

being as we live on gravel, most of our tires don't last much more than 25k or 30k miles before they are worn out.

i think what you have is probably in the realm of "normal".

 

My general experience is the drive tires, or rear tires will be the first to wear, because of the torque loads, especially while towing.

 

What tires do you have and what air pressure are you running?

 

Sounds like over inflated rear tires. There's no need to inflate the tires to the max pressure listed on the tire or even to the pressure listed on the door sticker. Those numbers are for when the truck is loaded to its max weight. I run 55 in the rears on mine and they wear nice. If I run even 5psi more, the centers start to wear faster. At max psi (80) the rear end of the truck hops more going over bumps. Talk about scary going down the highway.

 

A good way to find the ideal pressure for your tires is with some chalk. Draw a chalk line across the tread and drive a short distance. The chalk should be worn off evenly across the tread. If it's worn off in the center and not on the edges, your pressure is too high. If it's worn off on the edges and not in the middle, your pressure is too low.

 

I agree with overinflation. If you are running max pressure it will wear exactly as you describe.

 

The dealer inflated them to 60 PSI when they were installed 3 weeks back. I told them I was towing a small 3500# trailer to AK. I was told this should suffice. At this point I have removed the rear tires and put my two spare Toyo M-55 AT tires on. Both the Les Schwab "Wild Country" AT tires and my Toyo M-55 are 265-75-R16 load range "E" tires. The tire pressure should not be an issue. I will discuss this with Les Schwab dealer upon return home to MT. MTG

 

Sorry, but the evidence (only center of tread is wearing) is pointing directly at overinflation for the conditions. The other options would too narrow of a wheel (sounds like that shouldn't be your problem if running 265 on stock wheel) or a defective tire carcass, but it is rather rare to get two exactly the same.

With a properly set up WD system, you won't need much "extra" air in the rear tires. The load from that trailer is maybe 3 or 400 pounds extra on each axle. Unless you have a bunch of other stuff in the bed.

And as others said, rear tires WILL wear faster when towing, as you are putting down more power all the time to overcome all the aerodynamic drag of the trailer. But when properly inflated, they should wear nice and evenly across the tread. Those who rotate tires regularly may choose to go a little bit higher than perfect to help compensate for the shoulders wearing faster when installed on front axle.

 

OK, if you do not think we are correct, then read this:

HOW TO READ TIRE WEAR

Over Inflation
Excessive wear at the center of the tread indicates that the air pressure in the tire is consistently too high. The tire is riding on the center of the tread and wearing it prematurely. Many times, the "eyeball" method of inflation (pumping the tires up until there is no bulge at the bottom) is at fault; tire inflation pressure should always be checked with a reliable tire gauge. Occasionally, this wear pattern can result from outrageously wide tires on narrow rims. The cure for this is to replace either the tires or the wheels.

 

somthing i've been curious about ...

will the new truck with the TPMS allow you to run lower air pressures when not loaded so that you do not wear your tires in the middle like this?

i ask, because i do not have a vehicle with a TPMS, and i have heard that it will sound alarms when you get below the pressure listed on the door.

FWIW, i had never run over 50psi in the SD untill she got the big gooseneck. for the stock trailer 50psi was a great plenty, but they are up to 80psi with the gooseneck because they were squished pretty flat with the pin weight.

just wondering.... but i'd hate to have to run 70psi all the time for no reason.

 

Every Super Duty I've owned or been around has worn the rear tires faster than the fronts, unlike the older trucks, especially the ttb's, that ate front tires. It doesn't seem to me like 65 psi should be over-inflated though, especially if the tire's rated for 80 psi like most E's.

Something else to consider is that some of today's less expensive tires need some wear on them to get "leveled out". I got a set of Kumho at tires (235/85R16's) a couple of years ago because a neighbor had bought them brand new and mounted them on his F350and ran them for one day and brought them back. He said they felt squirrely - the dealer told him they'd be alright after a few hundred miles (in fact said he warned him of this before he bought 'em), but he didn't want to keep them and traded them for a set of BFG's. I got them for $100 a tire (cost the neighbor $140 - the dealer got the distributor to help him cover the difference), mounted and balanced, put them on my 24' gooseneck stock trailer and have been very pleased with them.

I do want to mention that I've had alot more problems with tires that I've run at lower than recommended pressures for quite awhile, then increased the pressure to the max recommended psi for a bigger load. Twice I've had full sets of trailer tires start blowing out within a couple of weeks of the increased pressure and in one case had all 4 tires either blow out, develop a big knot or throw off huge hunks of tread in a single less than 10 mile trip (unloaded, btw, and not driving fast either). I'm sure it has something to do with the stresses a big gooseneck puts on tires - both sets were name brand trailer tires, btw, but it's made me gunshy enough that I always keep any tire that I ever expect to load heavy inflated to or very close to max psi. Just my experience.

 

You guess correctly sir ! it's a bother !!! Damn beaurecrats !!! the truck will yell at me if I'm under 60 psi... bringing it in this week to get it changed because sometimes I run higher pressure and sometimes I don't

(just running Around town and on bad surface roads, I like NOT to have the rear end leave the ground on expansion joints - but on long runs on smooth interstate and/or with 5er, I will bounce the air up for load carrying and mpg)