Pickup truck tow vehicle stability tests
Always lots of anecdotal statements on rv.net around dual wheel vs single rear wheel "stability". Anyone have any links that point to actual testing results under controlled conditions?
Forum Discussion
msmith1.wa wrote:
Call me crazy but I am going to chime in on this.
The added width of the extra tires only helps tipping in a cornering or evasive manuveur beyond the point that a srw truck would start to lift the oposite tire. This will only happen after either there is not enough force to compress the spring further or it reaches the bump stop.
I recently was looking at rear springs for GM trucks. for GM it appears to me that the major difference is in the overload portion of the spring pack. With the drw having more leaves. This combined with two more tires is what gives the added load capacity. The stiffer springs will also make the body more difficult to tip sideways in relationship to the axle just like if a sway bar was installed.
Something that I have not yet seen mentioned in this thread, is given the same load with the four tires the drw would have less sidewall flex than a srw.
I agree complete with what you're saying here.
I eluded to the sidewall flex in my earlier post:
"A strong single tire at a narrow stance can certainly resist tilting as well as a weaker one(s) at a wide stance but most would not like riding on that firm of a tire."
Stock versus stock the DRW tires are typically a lower rated-tire but since there are two of them, the sidewall flex is probably somewhere above 1/2 as much as the SRW.
