DRW vs SRW safety, tire blowout
Every time the DRW vs SRW debate starts up, dually owners always point to the safety of having 4 rear wheels in case of a blowout while driving. What I am wondering is has anyone actually experienced ...
Forum Discussion
I am with you Mark. I don’t think the blowout probability on my SRW with commercial 19.5’s is high enough to worry about.
For brakes, I find my stock 1T brakes to be good as long as I don’t forget to downshift in the mountains and not ride the brakes. If I change my mind, I will buy a big brake kit.
Some of the handling characteristics are subjective. A truck that a more experienced driver would be fine in, a less experienced driver might be white knuckling. I drew out a free-body diagram for the rear axle and the rear track width and tire stiffness COULD affect rotational (body roll) stiffness, but with the addition of an anti-sway bar, you have three “springs” acting in parallel, so the question becomes, is the added stiffness of moving the tire “spring” point outboard negligible compared to the other springs. That depends on the stiffness of the other springs. I am not surprised that some people report an “outrigger effect” while others (especially those moving from heavily modded srw) do not. Depends on your specific rig/tire. Throw the dynamic aspect in there and now shocks are in play. At the end of the day, if you find you are white knuckling and thinking “oh sh*t” as the camper rocks laterally, probably time to “stiffen your springs” and or get better shocks to dampen the rocking more effectively. If cost isn’t a big factor, a 1T stock DRW seems to be a great plug-and-play option. I completely understand why so many people opt for this. If you aren’t comfortable modding your srw, then the stock drw is an even better choice.
For brakes, I find my stock 1T brakes to be good as long as I don’t forget to downshift in the mountains and not ride the brakes. If I change my mind, I will buy a big brake kit.
Some of the handling characteristics are subjective. A truck that a more experienced driver would be fine in, a less experienced driver might be white knuckling. I drew out a free-body diagram for the rear axle and the rear track width and tire stiffness COULD affect rotational (body roll) stiffness, but with the addition of an anti-sway bar, you have three “springs” acting in parallel, so the question becomes, is the added stiffness of moving the tire “spring” point outboard negligible compared to the other springs. That depends on the stiffness of the other springs. I am not surprised that some people report an “outrigger effect” while others (especially those moving from heavily modded srw) do not. Depends on your specific rig/tire. Throw the dynamic aspect in there and now shocks are in play. At the end of the day, if you find you are white knuckling and thinking “oh sh*t” as the camper rocks laterally, probably time to “stiffen your springs” and or get better shocks to dampen the rocking more effectively. If cost isn’t a big factor, a 1T stock DRW seems to be a great plug-and-play option. I completely understand why so many people opt for this. If you aren’t comfortable modding your srw, then the stock drw is an even better choice.
