Tire/wheel temps.

I have never considered maintaining a record of tire/wheel temperatures over time for my truck to establish a database or baseline of temperatures under various driving conditions but to do so would not be very complicated.

As previously stated by another poster, I measure temperatures of my wheels and tires looking for outliers (one wheel, hub, or tire being significantly hotter than the others).

I use to monitor but its very subjective-relative and unless you see really different temps not telling much IMO. However everything Ive seen points to above 160° reason for concern with 200° max. 80° ambient avg. might be 125° or plus 20-60° over ambient. Best is to monitor-see what your average rise is and use as base (& compare to what feels like with hand touch). Checking once stopped I just palm tires-generally sunny side will be 5-10° warmer with inside duals a few degrees higher. Ill palm rear hubs relative to each other. Never wheels-especially fronts. Trailer in tow, I pay a bit more attention to hub & tire temps.
I coulnt say you might stave off tire failure heat related unless you had in use monitors.

I would really like to have some absolute numbers...not relative..
EX; if all 4 wheels are smokin' hot this is OK as they are all the same?!
I don't think so...


So the rear wheels are hotter than front...is this normal?
I think so as they carry more load...

The old PYO aluminum wheels never felt warm...the new steel wheels do...is this just the delta CTE aluminum versus steel?

The tires are all cool...it is only the wheels that feel warm...is this normal?

Would really like to understand this whole tire/wheel/temp thing better.

What do others feel; are your rear wheels hotter than front?

What about the tires?

Have you ever had a wheel/tire feel HOT?
(I have never felt one hotter than I could put my hand on...ever...and that includes many LONG drives in hot summer temps...)

Thanks...I hope this leads to a good discussion.

Bill

You're not looking for a specific temperature or range of temps..

Like brirene said, just look for a noticeable difference in temperature of the tires or wheels.

If you don't have an IR thermometer, here's a Post from a few days ago.

The tires should never be so hot that you cannot hold the back of your hand to them. Although I have an IR gauge, I usually just put the back of my hand to the tires when we make a stop to feel for temperature differences. This would not easily work on a DRW, so the IR gauge is easier to point and measure.

What you're actually looking for is a difference between the temps for any one wheel. Keep in mind those on the sunny side may very well be warmer than the others, but should be within a few degrees relative to the other.