EddieJ
shreveport
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Two years ago I bought four Firestone Destination A/T tires. I drove those the first 6 months before I purchased my 35' Montana fifth wheel. The tires have approximately 25K miles on them now. Of that, probably 7k to 8K came while I was pulling my 5er. Two of my tires are so warn down (I mean no tread) that I had to replace them yesterday. I have been aware that I had an alignment problem for some time now, but waited before I took it in to get that corrected (my fault obviously).
Here is my question. The technician showed me on his printout how all four of my wheels were out of line. He also said that when you pull a heavy trailer you are more likely to have alignment issues and thus may need more front end alignments. Is that true???
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Howaboutnow
AZ
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Joined: 04/02/2011
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Are you referring to the wheels on the 5th wheel or the truck?
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Texas Jim S
Belton, TX
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Eddie, I can see no reason for pulling a heavy trailer to effect the alignment on your tow vehicle.
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HappyKayakers
Cedar Creek, TX
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I'm pulling a 39 ft Heartland Bighorn and haven't noticed any alignment probs on my Dodge.
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skipnchar
Topeka or somewhere else
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Never noticed anything like that but it's POSSIBLE that you WOULD be more likely to have a problem but still should NOT have any problem. Chuck holes, curbs and that sort of thing are common reasons for wheel alignment problems, weight seldom is unless you're overloading your truck and a trip to the scales would tell you that.
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skylos
Columbus, OH
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Its certainly true that if you overload your truck, your risk of issues increases - alignment is among them, as is premature tire wear.
What the heck're you pulling that big fifth wheel with anyway?
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EddieJ
shreveport
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Could it be that I am a very bad driver who is prone to hit curbs, pot holes, etc. and go long periods of time without getting my truck aligned? When I took it in yesterday I was so hoping they would find something serious that would explain it all (I have a good extended warranty). I now have 53K on this truck and am already wearaing out my second set of tires. So, I can only think of three options 1.) they are B.Sing me, 2.) My truck has something wrong with it that affects it ability to stay aligned and they just can't find it, 3.) the dreaded I am just a bad driver.
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Dpopps
michigan
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EddieJ wrote:Could it be that I am a very bad driver who is prone to hit curbs, pot holes, etc. and go long periods of time without getting my truck aligned? When I took it in yesterday I was so hoping they would find something serious that would explain it all (I have a good extended warranty). I now have 53K on this truck and am already wearaing out my second set of tires. So, I can only think of three options 1.) they are B.Sing me, 2.) My truck has something wrong with it that affects it ability to stay aligned and they just can't find it, 3.) the dreaded I am just a bad driver.
can you tell us what the truck is?
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Vulcaneer
Northern New England
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Joined: 10/17/2007
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The only thing I know of is with a heavy load on the rear of the truck, it lowers the rear considerably. And so if your unloaded caster angle is on the low end of the spec, the lowered rear can pull the caster angle down below spec. I know on my Ford in sig, this was one of the things found in a Ford Tech bulletin, as a possible contributor to front tire wear, and the front stabilizer wearing out prematurely. The result was a serious (and well known) "death wobble". I had the caster adjusted (to the other end of the spec) to compensate for the heavy load, and replaced the stabilizer with a recommended upgrade, and saw no more issues. Rotated tires every 10K miles, and replaced OEM tires at 44,000 miles with very even wear all around.
Of course adding 2800 pounds on the rear axle, and towing for 25,000 miles will accelerate wear on the rear. So when rotating tires, it wears out those put on the rear as well.
On my truck when hitched up to my fully loaded trailer, it only adds about 150 pounds to the front tires.
2006 F350 V10 4X4 SC SB SRW 4.30 22,500 GCWR
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Howaboutnow
AZ
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We have a 38' 5th wheel that only adds about 200lbs to the front axle. Have 115,000 on truck with no appreciable notice in truck tire wear due to pulling RV. Got 85,000 miles on first set of truck tires. Replacement Michelins don't show wear yet. You must have poor tires or truck is totally out of alignment. We do rotate every 5,000 miles.
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