How to rotate dually tires

BigToe wrote:

ticki2 wrote:
It seems you have switched from a 10 year cycle in Scenario A to a 7 year cycle in Scenario B . Not exactly apples to apples .

Scenario A leaves the drive tires alone, and therefore does NOT expose the drive tires to any of the accelerated wear cycle of periodic tours of duty on a front axle. Instead, the rear tires are shielded from that exposure, and remain true to the rear.

Remember, both Scenarios assume a problematic alignment issue, or a spirited and assertive driving style, or bad front shocks... something that causes front tires to wear out quickly enough to want to undertake a tire rotation regimen. Also, the spare tire is ignored in both scenarios.

Scenario A rotates only the steer tires, and assumes that in 5 years, the steer tires are done, requiring replacement. This Scenario was prescribed by the earlier respondent who assumed that I had purchased "8 or 10 tires" in the 10 year period that my drive tires lasted unrotated, because he assumed that I had replaced the steer tires "two or three times" during that same interval. I hadn't, but it was still worth recreating the scenario he assumed, so as to explore his idea.

Scenario B rotates all 6 operating tires, spreading the known tire wear issue over all 6 tires in rotation. In this scenario the rear tires are in fact exposed to all the cornering, steering, and scrub stresses typical of a front tire, as well as any alignment issues, bad shocks, and driving style characteristics.

Since Scenario B uses all 6 tires in rotation, the tire life before replacement is extended by 2 years, from 5 years to 7 years. That extension is afforded by the fact that the wear is distributed over more tires. But since it is being distributed over the rear tires, the 10 year life of the rear tires is reduced by 3 years. Hence the seven year life cycle for all tires in Scenario B.

Both Scenarios are hypothetical. A lot of folks burn through tires far more frequently.

The more frequently one churns through sets of tires, and the longer one keeps a truck, the more savings one can realize by not rotating in the four dually pairs on the drive axle.

However, an entire other group of folks change trucks every 3 to 5 years, so for them, none of this matters. For me, it matters, because in the past I have kept trucks for 20 years, but now that truck prices have climbed so high, I will likely keep this truck for 40 years, having already clocked 22 years into it, with only that one tire change 10 years ago.

As I shop for the next set of tires, I consider the entire life cycle of tire ownership, and share those considerations here, in one of the best threads I have found covering a variety of tangents on the topic.

Unless all 6 tires are wearing at same rate, scenario B will wear all tires faster, and likely wear the differential more than scenario A. At first rotation, the only 4 tires that are matched well enough to prevent axles spinning at different rates are the 4 that have been on the drive axle. If you split the pairs that have been running side by each, you will chew the tread off the more worn tire in very few miles, and that excess wear will speed up as it happens.