How long do the tires last on your tow vehicle?

[Wayne]

We tow our Airstream with a Chevy 3500 single rear wheel. My guess is the tongue weight of the trailer is about 1,200 lbs and we have another 1,500 pounds of cargo, people, and fuel. We have 25,000 miles on the truck with 16,000 miles towing. I'd say the rear tires are about 2/5 of the way to the wear bars. This should extrapolate to the tires being worn out at 50,000, which seems to me that we should get better wear. Do you think this wear rate is normal, or would you expect a longer life from the tires?

 

[spasm3]

Mine tend to age out before wearing out. I only have 84k or so on my truck and its a 2003 . i only use it for towing or yard field work. about 6-7 years and and change them just because of age. If i was not towing , i might run them longer.

 

[Wayne]

Always a good idea to have very good condition tires when towing with your family in the truck. I've never had a blowout on a tow vehicle and from what I've heard it's not a fun experience. I think I'll let the tires get down to about 1/8" and change them. I've also had a hydroplaning experience and once you have, you pretty much don't every want to again.

 

[Zaedock]

My tires usually age before wearing out. I have a company car, so the truck is usually used around town on the weekend or towing the Jeeps/ATV's/Camper. I also have a 3" lift and E rated Cooper Discoverer AT3's on my F150, so they wear like iron.

 

[Wayne]

Zaedock,

We are in the same boat, I don't think I will wear my trailer tires out before they age out. The truck will be close, but my guess is they will wear out before they are 5 years old. I didn't plan on replacing the 5 year old spare with 0 miles on the truck or trailer, but I'm going to. Reading about oxygen breakdown of tire material has convinced me 5-6 years is the age limit for safety's sake.