Pickup truck tow vehicle stability tests

I've gotta wonder at my sanity for adding the 68th post to this thread but I noticed that nobody mentioned the weight of 2 tires vs 4 tires. Those of you who know farm tractors know that adding 100 lb weights to each rear wheel will do wonders to stabilize a tractor weighing - say 3,000 lbs. I'm sure you would get the same benefit with a dually. Just saying ... throw this in with the other dozen or so useful suggestions that were made here using less then a 100 posts. :)

IdaD wrote:
My problem with a DRW truck would be driving it offroad while camping, fishing or hunting. A full size truck is already a handful on many of those roads, but a duelly would be even worse. Plus they just don't perform that well on certain surfaces. If you're going to go DRW you pretty much need to go with a toy hauler so you can bring a Ranger (or equivalent) along.

And at the end of the day you can pull plenty of trailer with a SRW truck - anything that actually requires DRW would be too large to get into any good camping spots.

Never had a problem finding a camping spot with my almost 40' 5er hooked to my long bed crew cab dually....but maybe that's just where I go camping...Off road, I have no need to go "off road", though I have been in 10-12" of snow and truck did fine...been in some muddy fields and though the truck got EXTREMELY muddy, it got me in and out....(glad my dually doesn't know it's not supposed to be able to go good in the snow and/or mud):).

IF I were to go to a TH, wouldn't be to tow any "toy's" in the back, would be more for storage and exercise equipment.....:)

My problem with a DRW truck would be driving it offroad while camping, fishing or hunting. A full size truck is already a handful on many of those roads, but a duelly would be even worse. Plus they just don't perform that well on certain surfaces. If you're going to go DRW you pretty much need to go with a toy hauler so you can bring a Ranger (or equivalent) along.

And at the end of the day you can pull plenty of trailer with a SRW truck - anything that actually requires DRW would be too large to get into any good camping spots.

I believe Sir Fish may be mistaken.

Previous vehicle F 350 dually (2011).

My current vehicle (Ram to save reading - 2014) dually also.

No real difference in how they ride or rode as in the case of the Ford.

I run the tire pressures the same front/back in either vehicle.

Again, no real difference in ride quality.

FishOnOne wrote:
I will say when I ride in my BIL RAM 3500 DRW without a trailer attached that thing beats the hell out of you it's so rough, and that speaks volumes why many don't want one as a daily unloaded driver.

Personally I would never purchase a camper that would require having a DRW truck simply because I wouldn't want to drive one as my daily driver.

JMHO...

Give me a break! He must be one of these guys that run 80 in all tires if what you are saying is true.

Our F350 KR longbed SRW 4X4 friends have ridden in my 11 RAM Dually and they were very impressed with the ride, and interior.

FishOnOne wrote:
I will say when I ride in my BIL RAM 3500 DRW without a trailer attached that thing beats the hell out of you it's so rough, and that speaks volumes why many don't want one as a daily unloaded driver.

Personally I would never purchase a camper that would require having a DRW truck simply because I wouldn't want to drive one as my daily driver.

JMHO...

MIne is a daily driver...I've had a dually as a daily driver since 05'...just another slap at Ram by the fisher of insults...Do you have numbers as far as the "many" you used???? How many...sure seems like an AWFULLY lot of people you are kin to, and know and those that you are kin to that know those that own Dodge/Ram trucks....maybe that should tell you something about them, other than your usual venom spitting hate for a Ram....So would that mean you wouldn't want a Chevy or a Ford Dually either...you seemed pretty inclusive on what you'd own and not own...

Personally the wife and I wanted a big 5er, thus we have the right truck for it and unlike you, can handle riding in the lap of luxury in a loaded out Ram 3500 Longhorn...Guess it's something you get use to if you want a certain size 5er.....no regrets here.

I will say when I ride in my BIL RAM 3500 DRW without a trailer attached that thing beats the hell out of you it's so rough, and that speaks volumes why many don't want one as a daily unloaded driver.

Personally I would never purchase a camper that would require having a DRW truck simply because I wouldn't want to drive one as my daily driver.

JMHO...

I too brought it up. 4 tires at 50% load will have a lot less sidewall flex than 2 at 100% load... Given one RAW.

A DRW is over-tired for the load, which is never a bad thing. When I went from traveling with my rear tires at 95-100% loaded to 80% loaded my tire flex and stability went way up, despite adding about 15% more load and a higher CG.

Having made various tire and suspension mods over the years tire flex feels much different than suspension flex, even thou it is often in smaller increments.

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.

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.