2 new tires, fr or back?

jaycocreek wrote:
Tire failure in the front is a disaster while failure in the rear is more controllable.

Agreed putting the new ones in front are safer this way. Also no matter how "new" the tires/tread look...replace them at 5years. Rubber dries out and creates visible and invisible weak points. A blowout can be terrible we've had it happen once before and learned our lesson.

From personal experience the further back the axle on a trailer the faster the wear. Look at tri axle equipment trailers for example it always the third axle that wears first BECAUSE the middle and rear axles are pushed and scuff the pavement and stress the sidewalls. Same applies to TTs....rear axle gets more stress and abuse. As for tow vehicle....the best tires should be on the front no matter FWD or RWD to give the steering the best chance wet or dry of gripping the road. Also DOT regs prohibit recaps on the front of commercial trucks...why....lose the tread less control if on the front.

Pulled non RV trailers for a living. I've found its the tires on the front axle that gets more abuse. I'll put the new tires on my front axle. Biggest reason I do is when all things are equal its the front tires that may slide first on a hard braking event. The front axle tends to be lifted some what because of braking rotational forces through the equalizer bar.

Wear ??
Depends.
Nose high trailer will wear the front tires as the tires side scrub around corners.

Axles placement.

Loads on each axle/road surface can change while turning a corner. I've watched the front axle scrub first then the rear axle starts side scrubbing. Then on a very flat/level surface one tire may do all the side scrubbing.

BurbMan wrote:

naturist wrote:
I have a confession to make: I seem to have a knack for being the first one on the site of fatal car wrecks. Not because I'm a first responder or anything, I'm just an average joe and every one of the fatal accidents I've encountered in my 52 years of having a driver's license has simply been a case of driving down the road and bingo, there it was.

I also used to be into sports cars and racing them, so I'm just a bit more familiar with how cars handle and what makes 'em do what they do.

So I have to tell you about one particularly sad accident I spotted out the window, not of my car, but of my office. The road the plant was on had a low spot that tended to develop a 3 inch deep puddle about 30 yards long across the entire roadway every time it rained. It did one day, but the showers stopped, the sun came out, and everything dried nicely, except of course for the puddle, which always took a day or two more.

So I happen to glance out the window, and there, hanging in mid air, wrapped around a tree, was a car. I yelled at an assistant to call the authorities, and sprinted out the door to see if help was needed. The tree, a huge old sycamore, was sticking into the passenger side of the car holding it up. The bench seat had been shoved out the driver's door, and the driver, who wasn't wearing her seatbelt, had clearly slid across the seat and bounced off the tree. I could tell from the piece of bone sticking out of her left temple, but no sign of blood, that she had died instantly. She was the wife of one of the guys in the factory.

Oh, yeah, this was smack in the middle of a LOOOOOONG straight section of the road.

The car had clearly hit the puddle, the rear slid sideways, and she'd "spun out" into the tree. The car had brand new tires on the fronts, and baldies on the back. Obviously they had chosen to "take care of the front/steering wheels first." So when the car hit the puddle, the fronts had been just fine, but the rears had hydroplaned. She'd still be alive today if they'd only put those new treads on the BACK. The reason is simple, if your fronts slide, you will slide off into the weeds going in a more or less straight line. But if your rears slide instead, you are going for that ride through the weeds all kinds of sideways, and maybe for extra thrills, upside down to boot.

If you go frontwards, cars have all kinds of things built in to save your keister. But if you do it sideways, your butt is in a sling and you are on your own. Look at the door on your car. You got all of 4 inches of crumple-zone vs 8 feet of it in front of you.

I spent years of my foolish youth learning how to drive cars sideways. Staying healthy going forward is easy. Doing it sideways with failing equipment, especially with a driver who does not have the skills to deal is deadly.

If you are buying only two new tires, PUT THEM ON THE BACK!!!! Your family thanks you.

AGAIN< we are talking about the OP's TRAILER here.

But you are 100% right about putting new tires on the rear especially if the vehicle is FWD.

:) Hi, I don't agree with either of you; He stated that the rear tires were BALD. BALD tires on the front wouldn't be any better. She needed four new tires or shouldn't have been driving the car in the first place. As for the trailer, I put the new tires where the old ones were. I have never worn out a trailer tire, only found bubbles or the start of separation.

My experience on my travel trailers and fifth wheels is that the back tires wear faster than the front tires so if I am replacing only two of the four tires I always put the new tires on the back axle.

BurbMan wrote:
Pretty sure the OP is replacing tires on the TT, not the truck, and hence why this thread is posted in the TT forum.

Scott, I really don't think it matters if the new tires are on the front axle or rear axle of the TT. Are you replacing for age or wear?

I'm replacing them because of tread or cord separation (forget what they said) that revealed itself as a small bump on the side of the tires. It's just at the edge of the tread. They are being replaced on a pro-rated warranty basis. They have tons of tread left so it shouldn't cost me much.
They found the problem while I was getting new wheels.

naturist wrote:
I have a confession to make: I seem to have a knack for being the first one on the site of fatal car wrecks. Not because I'm a first responder or anything, I'm just an average joe and every one of the fatal accidents I've encountered in my 52 years of having a driver's license has simply been a case of driving down the road and bingo, there it was.

I also used to be into sports cars and racing them, so I'm just a bit more familiar with how cars handle and what makes 'em do what they do.

So I have to tell you about one particularly sad accident I spotted out the window, not of my car, but of my office. The road the plant was on had a low spot that tended to develop a 3 inch deep puddle about 30 yards long across the entire roadway every time it rained. It did one day, but the showers stopped, the sun came out, and everything dried nicely, except of course for the puddle, which always took a day or two more.

So I happen to glance out the window, and there, hanging in mid air, wrapped around a tree, was a car. I yelled at an assistant to call the authorities, and sprinted out the door to see if help was needed. The tree, a huge old sycamore, was sticking into the passenger side of the car holding it up. The bench seat had been shoved out the driver's door, and the driver, who wasn't wearing her seatbelt, had clearly slid across the seat and bounced off the tree. I could tell from the piece of bone sticking out of her left temple, but no sign of blood, that she had died instantly. She was the wife of one of the guys in the factory.

Oh, yeah, this was smack in the middle of a LOOOOOONG straight section of the road.

The car had clearly hit the puddle, the rear slid sideways, and she'd "spun out" into the tree. The car had brand new tires on the fronts, and baldies on the back. Obviously they had chosen to "take care of the front/steering wheels first." So when the car hit the puddle, the fronts had been just fine, but the rears had hydroplaned. She'd still be alive today if they'd only put those new treads on the BACK. The reason is simple, if your fronts slide, you will slide off into the weeds going in a more or less straight line. But if your rears slide instead, you are going for that ride through the weeds all kinds of sideways, and maybe for extra thrills, upside down to boot.

If you go frontwards, cars have all kinds of things built in to save your keister. But if you do it sideways, your butt is in a sling and you are on your own. Look at the door on your car. You got all of 4 inches of crumple-zone vs 8 feet of it in front of you.

I spent years of my foolish youth learning how to drive cars sideways. Staying healthy going forward is easy. Doing it sideways with failing equipment, especially with a driver who does not have the skills to deal is deadly.

If you are buying only two new tires, PUT THEM ON THE BACK!!!! Your family thanks you.

AGAIN< we are talking about the OP's TRAILER here.

But you are 100% right about putting new tires on the rear especially if the vehicle is FWD.

Interesting... My son is a first responder and on the extraction team and unfortunately most cases needing extraction don't turn out well. His observations are quite different than yours as far as tires causing wrecks. He has never been to a fatal wreck with the
rear tires causing the wreck but that can't be said about the front tires unfortunately,the sole cause of tire related wrecks around here.

I have a confession to make: I seem to have a knack for being the first one on the site of fatal car wrecks. Not because I'm a first responder or anything, I'm just an average joe and every one of the fatal accidents I've encountered in my 52 years of having a driver's license has simply been a case of driving down the road and bingo, there it was.

I also used to be into sports cars and racing them, so I'm just a bit more familiar with how cars handle and what makes 'em do what they do.

So I have to tell you about one particularly sad accident I spotted out the window, not of my car, but of my office. The road the plant was on had a low spot that tended to develop a 3 inch deep puddle about 30 yards long across the entire roadway every time it rained. It did one day, but the showers stopped, the sun came out, and everything dried nicely, except of course for the puddle, which always took a day or two more.

So I happen to glance out the window, and there, hanging in mid air, wrapped around a tree, was a car. I yelled at an assistant to call the authorities, and sprinted out the door to see if help was needed. The tree, a huge old sycamore, was sticking into the passenger side of the car holding it up. The bench seat had been shoved out the driver's door, and the driver, who wasn't wearing her seatbelt, had clearly slid across the seat and bounced off the tree. I could tell from the piece of bone sticking out of her left temple, but no sign of blood, that she had died instantly. She was the wife of one of the guys in the factory.

Oh, yeah, this was smack in the middle of a LOOOOOONG straight section of the road.

The car had clearly hit the puddle, the rear slid sideways, and she'd "spun out" into the tree. The car had brand new tires on the fronts, and baldies on the back. Obviously they had chosen to "take care of the front/steering wheels first." So when the car hit the puddle, the fronts had been just fine, but the rears had hydroplaned. She'd still be alive today if they'd only put those new treads on the BACK. The reason is simple, if your fronts slide, you will slide off into the weeds going in a more or less straight line. But if your rears slide instead, you are going for that ride through the weeds all kinds of sideways, and maybe for extra thrills, upside down to boot.

If you go frontwards, cars have all kinds of things built in to save your keister. But if you do it sideways, your butt is in a sling and you are on your own. Look at the door on your car. You got all of 4 inches of crumple-zone vs 8 feet of it in front of you.

I spent years of my foolish youth learning how to drive cars sideways. Staying healthy going forward is easy. Doing it sideways with failing equipment, especially with a driver who does not have the skills to deal is deadly.

If you are buying only two new tires, PUT THEM ON THE BACK!!!! Your family thanks you.

put on the 2 and maybe rotate them every few thousand.