I just purchased a Ram 3500 DRW. VERY excited about it, however, this is my first experience with DRW and I had some questions about those inside tires.First, what method are you all using to fill them up? I plan on just getting a long rigid inflator to push into the inside valve stem. One with a gauge so I can easily check pressure while filling. I've seen other options that extend the valve stem or even tied the two tires together with a metal air hose.What do you all think about those?Second, I was reading that since the inside tire carries more weight than the outside tire it heats up more resulting in a higher PSI thereby making it more stiff than the outside tire causing the inside tire to wear faster. It was suggested to run 2 or 3 PSI lower in the inside tire to account for this. Thoughts??I can find this easily enough but while I'm here...how do you rotate 6 tires?

Never had an issue airing the inner tire or checking the pressure. My inflator is about 10 inches long and my air gauge is quite long also. Size does matter. My door jam sticker says 65 psi rear and that's what I keep in all four tires. There is 3,500 lbs on the pin and the tires are wearing great, all of them.

Hi,All the tires carry 'about' the same weight. Now the outside passenger side tire can sometimes sit out in free air, when you are 'really close' to the shoulder of the road. I have also watched a big rig towing a 45' trailer, and get to close to the curb, and put the outside dual tires on a curb, so that the inside tire was up in the air, over the hitch.The dual tires are rated for less than the normal weight rating of a 215/80R16 tire. I think that mine are rated at 2700 single and 2,450 dual, or 4900 total for each side. Probably you will not have more than about 2,000 pounds per tire, except for extreme towing. . .Fred.

Second, I was reading that since the inside tire carries more weight than the outside tire it heats up more resulting in a higher PSI thereby making it more stiff than the outside tire causing the inside tire to wear faster. It was suggested to run 2 or 3 PSI lower in the inside tire to account for this. Thoughts?? I can find this easily enough but while I'm here...how do you rotate 6 tires? Keep tire pressures equal across the four rear tires. They will wear better. As far as rotating tires the owners manual has a nice picture of how to rotate a dually's six tires. However, you may find that many dually owners never rotate if the tires are wearing equally.

Hmmm, 50 years around trucks and I never heard of running different psis in the duals. It IS important to keep them the same psi and rotate so you have the same diameters. The reason a tire with duals on a truck burn up is cuz it ran low and the low one can heat up til it catches fire... just saw a couple of tour buses on the news with tires on fire. The low psi tire is being drug across the road and that's what creates the heat. You NEVER see the full tire burn up on duals. It's always the low one cuz it's dragging and getting the friction. BTDT! I have an inflator that has a straight connector on the end, for the inside dual. The angled back connector is for the outer dual. I put 2" stems on my tires and that's JUST long enough to get the inflator on. I retrofitted my old Chinese truck tire inflator with one of my refrigerant compound gauges... 1% accuracy. Craig

Questions about DRW tire pressure | Good Sam Community

trail-explorer
Explorer
May 13, 2015
Troy35 wrote:
First, what method are you all using to fill them up? I plan on just getting a long rigid inflator to push into the inside valve stem.

That's what my father in-law uses.

Troy35 wrote:
I've seen other options that extend the valve stem or even tied the two tires together with a metal air hose.

Joining the two together is very bad, because if one tire goes flat, the other one dumps air through the hose and you have two flat tires.
transamz9
Explorer
May 13, 2015
I rotate every oil change. I cross the fronts to inside rear and inside rear straight to front. Outside rears always stay put. I run 80psi all the way around. My truck is 12-13,000# 100% of the time.

This is with 70,000 miles on my BFG's...........
Bedlam
Moderator
May 13, 2015
I have been wary of adding extenders due to all the stories I have heard of leaks. I have a long stem air chuck that works for me although it is not as convenient as when I had SRW trucks.

I haven't looked at my tires to see if the tread is directional and would prevent left to right tire rotations, but I don't plan on front to rear tire rotations with my DRW.
PA12DRVR
Explorer
May 13, 2015
Have run dual rear tires in a variety of trucks (from Ford to KW) since the '70's. Have not heard of differing pressures nor ever run differing pressures.

For the smaller dually rigs (including my prior F350 and my current F550), I've always found it worth the effort to put valve extenders on so that I didn't have to snake a chuck back in to the inside tire. Make sure that the tires have metal stems if you plan on doing this.

Rotation of duals has always been hit or miss, mostly miss.
The_Mad_Norsky
Explorer
May 13, 2015
Please do get only the style tire gauge or for that matter, that style tip for your air chuck to fill the tires on your new Ram as pictured in the previous post by Cummins 12V98.

I have the 2014 Ram DRW, so assuming wheels will be the same, the inner duals are a pain to air up. That was until I bought the correct airing equipment. I tried the angled gauge and air chucks, and they were just not the correct angle to work on that inner dual through the small holes in the wheels used by Ram.

So in desperation, I bought the straight line gauge (as pictured by Cummins 12V98) and the same style straight line air chuck to go for my air hose.

It was simple to fill or adjust air in the inner dual after that.

As others have said, I run 80 front, 65 empty rear, and right now, with my truck camper on board, 80 rear also.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 13, 2015
This one works well for me. US Made and is right on with tire sensors.
retispcsi
Explorer
May 12, 2015
I am on Ram Dually #2 and I run the air pressure on the door. 80 psi front and 65 psi rear. I use a long air gauge and a long air chuck. Yes the inners sometimes can be a pain in the behind. I have tire monitors on the truck part of the Longhorn package. So I can monitor the air pressure that way as well as a gauge.
NC_Hauler
Explorer
May 12, 2015
Where did you get the idea of a "Slime" gauge Rick:) It works great! I also have about a 10" long chuck hooked to my compressor that easily fills both outside and inside tires as described in an earlier post.....I run mine per the door sticker. I run 80 psi in the fronts and 65 in the rears.....I have 29,000 miles on my truck and the rear tires look almost as new as the day I picked up the truck...I don't rotate dually tires...Never have, never will.....From suggestions, I dropped psi in the rears for about 3 weeks on my 4 dually tires to 45 psi...ride was a tad smoother, but not THAT much different, and my mpg also dropped from 14.5 mpg to 14.1 mpg, (based on comparing the same type running around, to and from work...same route, everything)....So, I'm prone to stay with the 65 psi in the rears, (having an inside connection with General tires, I've spoken to a tire Engineer about his take on the tire psi discussions we have on this forum:))
GoPackGo
Explorer
May 12, 2015
I use a Milton gauge (Amazon). These are not cheap but they are heavy duty. Only rotate the fronts - I don't mess with the rears. The inner wheels on the rears are steel anyway (Ford). I did add extensions for all SIX wheels to make things easier. The inner rears got the bendable brass/copper (?) kind. Make sure you have metal valve stems if you add the extensions.

Don't trust the gauge on any inflator - buy a GOOD gauge.

I do not understand how the inner wheels could possibly carry more weight if both duals are aired up to the same psi.
45Ricochet
Explorer
May 12, 2015
Rotation and nice wheels on a dually don't mix IMO. A true rotation would mean unmounting the tires from the wheels each time. Don't want the kid at the tire store screwing up my wheels.
I also run 45 rears when not towing,65 PSI towing.
And check out aSlime gauge. Nice digital gauge for duals.