DRW vs SRW safety, tire blowout

Towed a 40 foot, Mobile Suites with SRW F350 for 7 years all over Canada and many trips from Canada to South Florida and never had a problem with tires. I am very particular about my air pressures and checked them constantly. Did not want the big hips of the DRW and limitation on fitting into places as a daily driver. Towing a heavy trailer or truck camper mileage does not enter the equation. You will get mileage from really bad to horrible regardless of SRW or SRW.

I agree. There are a lot of variables outside of number of rear wheels that will impact the safety. You can build out almost any SRW 1T to carry near to what a DRW will, but $$$. If you get a DRW that carries TC well in stock configuration, that is likely the most cost effective solution. I still see a lot of DRW owners doing suspension upgrades which leads me to conclude that the handling of a stock DRW with a TC may not be fantastic (albeit safe from a payload standpoint). Again, I imagine it depends on the exact truck + camper combo and the preferences of the driver.

Lwiddis wrote:
Any advantage of DRW trucks regarding blowouts can’t be discussed in a vacuum IMO. The extra cost, lower MPG, width inconvenience etc. need to be factored into the discussion. But if you need the weight carrying availability, discussion over.

For me it came down to availability of a solid used 1T pickup. I wanted a gasser as I am comfortable maintaining gas engines and didn't plan to tow at all (only haul TC). I found a sweet low mileage 3500HD
SRW gasser at auction for a good price. In the end, I can confirm that considering the expense and time of the mods I had to make, the DRW (gasser or diesel) would have been cheaper and would have gotten me out camping sooner.

Does you DRW get worse mileage due to the DRW, or, because of all the new emissions controls? I was under the impression that the DRW in an unto itself does not drastically decrease fuel economy.

I would love to do a 1-to-1 comparison of lateral stability between a SRW and DRW. Seems like a lot of DRW owners are still doing suspension upgrades to improve this aspect of the handling. My SRW has pretty solid lateral stability, but it took a lot of mods to get it there. I am sure DRW would be better in this respect in the stock configuration.

jimh406 wrote:
I haven't heard of or seen a wreck with a TC of any type.

A few here have blown out a rear tire, and other than the resulting damage the fenderwell etc were mostly ok.
I think the real danger results from a front tire blowout. I think in that case, a DRW won't help that much.

If you can't get by with a DRW for other reasons, it's a moot point. Otherwise, it's far cheaper to buy a DRW on the front side compared to adding 19.5s or heavier loading tires in 18s etc.

My old truck was a SRW because a DRW wouldn't work as my daily driver. It was simply too wide. After a few years, I started working somewhere with an even smaller parking lot. Then, my SRW was too long. That led to me buying a car to drive to work, and trading the SC SRW for a CC DRW. The DRW gets horrible fuel mileage compared to my old SRW, but otherwise, is a much. better platform for a TC.

The front tire blowout is scary. I would be really interested in how a SRW w/ a truck camper would handle a rear blowout. Maybe not as big of a deal in terms of loss of control as one might think.

I hadn't thought of run flats. Not sure how much they would help with maintaining control at highway speed. To some extent, it seems like the only way you die is if you hit the sh*tty lottery and have an unlikely blowout at an inconvenient time (e.g. around a curve into traffic or of a drop).

JIMNLIN wrote:
Back in the late '60s up to the early '80s I had truck campers (8'- 9.5'-10.5') on my 3/4 and one ton drw work trucks.
So all my trucks had tires that weren't overloaded by any means.

Of the 9 different trucks I had in service the only one I wrecked from a blowout was on a one ton drw Ford.

Twisty winding roads in southern AR my right front tire blew out with the usual sudden lose of air pressures making a left hand 50 mph curve and a loaded 18k gvwr GN flatbed pushing me.
Off the road the rig went to the right and across the old style concrete culvert with a 10" tall concrete upright taking out the Fords front suspension....shoved the engine up into the firewall and dash. Tranny bell housing broke and jammed the tranny tail shaft up through truck floor right behind the front seat...and of course the rear axle was torn loose one side.

In that type of work and the miles we drove a blowout on those old bias ply 16-16.5" tires/wheels was a fact of life.
Soooo... we had plenty of run flats and actual blowouts on road service LDTs rear that simply was no problem getting the rig shut down....unlike a front tire blowout.
I've noticed some rv folks have some wild/funny theories about subjects like over loading....tire blowouts.....weights/etc.

BTDT with srw and drw blowouts. I'm in the moot point camp.

I haven't heard of or seen a wreck with a TC of any type.

A few here have blown out a rear tire, and other than the resulting damage the fenderwell etc were mostly ok.
I think the real danger results from a front tire blowout. I think in that case, a DRW won't help that much.

If you can't get by with a DRW for other reasons, it's a moot point. Otherwise, it's far cheaper to buy a DRW on the front side compared to adding 19.5s or heavier loading tires in 18s etc.

My old truck was a SRW because a DRW wouldn't work as my daily driver. It was simply too wide. After a few years, I started working somewhere with an even smaller parking lot. Then, my SRW was too long. That led to me buying a car to drive to work, and trading the SC SRW for a CC DRW. The DRW gets horrible fuel mileage compared to my old SRW, but otherwise, is a much. better platform for a TC.

Back in the late '60s up to the early '80s I had truck campers (8'- 9.5'-10.5') on my 3/4 and one ton drw work trucks.
So all my trucks had tires that weren't overloaded by any means.

Of the 9 different trucks I had in service the only one I wrecked from a blowout was on a one ton drw Ford.

Twisty winding roads in southern AR my right front tire blew out with the usual sudden lose of air pressures making a left hand 50 mph curve and a loaded 18k gvwr GN flatbed pushing me.
Off the road the rig went to the right and across the old style concrete culvert with a 10" tall concrete upright taking out the Fords front suspension....shoved the engine up into the firewall and dash. Tranny bell housing broke and jammed the tranny tail shaft up through truck floor right behind the front seat...and of course the rear axle was torn loose one side.

In that type of work and the miles we drove a blowout on those old bias ply 16-16.5" tires/wheels was a fact of life.
Soooo... we had plenty of run flats and actual blowouts on road service LDTs rear that simply was no problem getting the rig shut down....unlike a front tire blowout.
I've noticed some rv folks have some wild/funny theories about subjects like over loading....tire blowouts.....weights/etc.

BTDT with srw and drw blowouts. I'm in the moot point camp.

Any advantage of DRW trucks regarding blowouts can’t be discussed in a vacuum IMO. The extra cost, lower MPG, width inconvenience etc. need to be factored into the discussion. But if you need the weight carrying availability, discussion over.