Questions about DRW tire pressure

[Troy35]

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?

[TakingThe5th]

chuckm99 wrote:
TakingThe5th,

What do you use to monitor the temps of the tires?

Thanks.

Chuck

Chuck - I use a handheld temp gun. I usually take the temps of tires and brakes at a rest stop as soon as I stop and try to do 1 or 2 readings each day I travel. TPMS may be in my future but this works pretty well.

[Cummins12V98]

larry_kruzan wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I ran 80 front all the time 45 rear solo and 60 loaded with 5K pin on my 11 RAM LongHorn Dually. At 40K the tires looked great. Only rotated fronts side to side. My 15 I am running 80 front all the time 40 unloaded and 60 loaded rears.

Pic of MS2's at 40K.

I'm tire shopping for my dually right now. Due to your obliviously great life I think I'll give Michelin MS2's a try this time. I ran them on my vans a few years ago and had great service, but I've but the dually IS a lot different.

To tell you how sold I am on them I removed the NEXEN's that came on my new 15 Dually with 250 miles and installed the MS2's. I paid $1,270 out the door with tax at Discount Tire.

[larry_kruzan]

I can second the HF digital thermometer. I've been using one for several years too and have found it one of the best tools in my truck. When towing, every time I get out of the truck I check the tires and hubs. It has saved me one major problem on the road and is a fast way to check for a slightly low tire - A couple pounds will warm up the tires a few degrees - long before a tire will "look" low.

[GoPackGo]

chuckm99 wrote:
TakingThe5th,

What do you use to monitor the temps of the tires?

Thanks.

Chuck

Harbor Freight sells an infrared thermometer (item#69465) for $36. I've been using one for several years. It gets pretty good reviews.

I aim it at trailer tires and if they are all about the same, then no worries. Also aim it at the center part of the wheels where the bearings are. Again, as long as they are all about the same, then I'm happy.

Can be used for a million things. I also use it to see how my fridge and freezer are doing. Great for keeping an eye on boat trailer bearing temps.

[larry_kruzan]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I ran 80 front all the time 45 rear solo and 60 loaded with 5K pin on my 11 RAM LongHorn Dually. At 40K the tires looked great. Only rotated fronts side to side. My 15 I am running 80 front all the time 40 unloaded and 60 loaded rears.

Pic of MS2's at 40K.

I'm tire shopping for my dually right now. Due to your obliviously great life I think I'll give Michelin MS2's a try this time. I ran them on my vans a few years ago and had great service, but I've but the dually IS a lot different.

[chuckm99]

TakingThe5th,

What do you use to monitor the temps of the tires?

Thanks.

Chuck

[TakingThe5th]

I run 60 lbs in all 4 rear dual tires and I monitor the temperature on all the tires. On a recent trip in windy weather with temps in the 70's they all ran around 100 degrees with maybe a 20 degree difference at times. I attribute the difference to sunshine on one side only-heating the sunny tires. Also had higher temps on tires doing the hard work during strong crosswinds - again just a 20 degree difference.

To answer your question about the inside duals doing more work - I didn't see that with my temperature readings.

[marcsbigfoot20b]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I ran 80 front all the time 45 rear solo and 60 loaded with 5K pin on my 11 RAM LongHorn Dually. At 40K the tires looked great. Only rotated fronts side to side. My 15 I am running 80 front all the time 40 unloaded and 60 loaded rears.

Pic of MS2's at 40K.

Just had a blowout on the freeway 2 weeks ago. Bang, at 70 mph and a hell of a shaking. Too bad it took out my fender, inner fender well and lost the mud flap.
The cause of the failure with 50% tread left??
The damned tires were 9 years old looking at the date codes!! I had no idea since the tread was good, but I have only owned it for 8 months. Spare was ORIGINAL 15 years old. Had to buy 5 tires....the same as yours MS2's $$$ and the fronts are still good at 4 years.

[transamz9]

Bedlam wrote:
Some of the split feeds I found have a check valve at each tire to prevent one bad tire from taking out both, but leakage at multiple fittings is my concern.

We have these on one of our Semi trailers and yes if one blows out the check valve will shut but a slow leak and they both go down. One nice thing on ours though is you can walk by and see how much pressure is in them. There is a gauge on the hub that has the fill valve on it.

[Bedlam]

Some of the split feeds I found have a check valve at each tire to prevent one bad tire from taking out both, but leakage at multiple fittings is my concern.

[trail-explorer]

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]

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]

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]

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.