tires overloaded?
recently bought a new TC and fully loaded, ready for travel, weighed it at a CAT scale. left me just a few #'s under what the tires are rated for. It rides good, no sway, no sag but being so close to...
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I'll qualify with this is not a recommendation, but rather a personal experience. (And it's one that thousands or more test every day based on the trucks you see rolling down the road to work everyday.)
The bulk of the 30 or more company trucks I've had over almost 25 years have been 1/2 tons and every one of those work trucks came with the normal cheap, small, P rated tires.
Most of those trucks got worked hard. Up to 3 tool boxes or a big cross box and a 80gal slip tank and that was just the everyday 24/7 loads. Now add in additional load in the bed and/or pulling trailers with significant tongue weight at the same time. Most of those 1/2 tons got a set of add a leafs or timbrens or something to help the perpetually squatted and frequently "overloaded" stock rear suspension.
Probably average 20k miles out of most OE 1/2 ton tires. And being company trucks, I couldn't justify the cost of new heavy duty tires on a new truck. My recourse was and is, pump up 44psi rated rear tires to 50-60psi when needed and move on. So far so good and I average about 30k miles a year on company rigs.
Throughout that experience, I've yet to lose a tire while over loaded.
Based on that experience along with seeing many more overloaded situations that would make my experiences look like I was a rookie at overloading, I do not take exception to loading a tire or rim to it's max rating.
That said, I see the value in over engineering some things a bit and do so when I can.
Food for thought....
The bulk of the 30 or more company trucks I've had over almost 25 years have been 1/2 tons and every one of those work trucks came with the normal cheap, small, P rated tires.
Most of those trucks got worked hard. Up to 3 tool boxes or a big cross box and a 80gal slip tank and that was just the everyday 24/7 loads. Now add in additional load in the bed and/or pulling trailers with significant tongue weight at the same time. Most of those 1/2 tons got a set of add a leafs or timbrens or something to help the perpetually squatted and frequently "overloaded" stock rear suspension.
Probably average 20k miles out of most OE 1/2 ton tires. And being company trucks, I couldn't justify the cost of new heavy duty tires on a new truck. My recourse was and is, pump up 44psi rated rear tires to 50-60psi when needed and move on. So far so good and I average about 30k miles a year on company rigs.
Throughout that experience, I've yet to lose a tire while over loaded.
Based on that experience along with seeing many more overloaded situations that would make my experiences look like I was a rookie at overloading, I do not take exception to loading a tire or rim to it's max rating.
That said, I see the value in over engineering some things a bit and do so when I can.
Food for thought....
