towing & stock tires

rocnrol · April 11, 2015

Hey all, just got back from getting the travel trailer from the dealership with our new 2500, and wow!!!...... not what I expected at all it is all over the place! Not at all like the ol '96 dually it's replacing. That thing was rock solid. In all fairness, it is blowing pretty hard today, so that's not helping at all. My question is, how good are the factory Michelin 265/70-18 E rated tires for towing?

poncho62 · April 11, 2015

Cant expect a 2500 to be as solid on the road as a dually for towing.

Do your load levelly bars need to be adjusted up maybe?

rocnrol · April 11, 2015

Ponch, I hear ya, it's just that there is such an age difference in the trucks, I felt the new 2500 would be equal to the old 3500 dually. I have spent all day setting up the hitch, and it is WAY better, that includes playing with the bars. I think I may have to use the sway-slider that came with the hitch with this truck. But I'm wondering how much the stock tires may be playing into it. I was planning on replacing them right away.

[email protected] · April 11, 2015

those tires are solid towing tires. Use them on both 2500 and 3500 dually trucks for towing big loads. No complaints What are you towing? My first guess would have been the hitch set up and too much weight taken off the front axle from the trailer.

rocnrol · April 11, 2015

Matt, I was thinking I had too much on my bars, so not enough weight on the rears, I dropped a link with not much change. I'm thinking it's just the difference between the dual and single wheels I guess when in the real bad cross winds. I have a sway controller that came with the hitch that I'm going to go digg out and try.

calgator73 · April 13, 2015

Hey all, just got back from getting the travel trailer from the dealership with our new 2500, and wow!!!...... not what I expected at all it is all over the place! Not at all like the ol '96 dually it's replacing. That thing was rock solid. In all fairness, it is blowing pretty hard today, so that's not helping at all. My question is, how good are the factory Michelin 265/70-18 E rated tires for towing?

Are you porpoising?

pcf · April 13, 2015

What pressure are you running on the back tires?

Having gone from SRW to DRW the difference in towing is night and day.

rocnrol · April 13, 2015

Are you porpoising?

No, the trailer is swaying and draging the truck with it. I do want to repeat that the last two days the wind has been extreme. I added another link to my bars (put more weight to the front) and tightened up the sway-slider a little more, both those helped some more.

rocnrol · April 13, 2015

What pressure are you running on the back tires?

Having gone from SRW to DRW the difference in towing is night and day.

I put them to 80psi max for the tires. As for going from a DRW to a SRW, I never dreamed it would be this big of a difference. I truly thought the 20+ difference in years in the trucks, plus a 2000lbs difference in tow capacity in the new 2500 would be made up for the difference.

I'm pretty confident now that the way I have the hitch dialed in that under normal weather conditions it will be just fine. I've had the dually for so long that I forgot how much money I put into it to improve it for tow duties. If I need to add some air bags it's not the end of the world.

Blue2500CC · April 13, 2015

Rocnrol,

Do you have a CAT Scale near you? I would suggest taking the truck and trailer (packed, ready to hit the campground) to the scales and weigh it.

You want to weigh 3 times total:

1- Truck and trailer with wd bars hooked up

2- Truck and trailer with wd bars unhooked

3- Truck only- leave hitch head in though, bars in bed.

From this you can figure out your tongue weight, if you are transferring enough weight back to the front axle when you "latch" up the wd bars, total trailer weight, truck weight...

While it could very well be the difference between a dually and the new tow beast, you may have not had the bars adjusted properly.

Also, you just paroled the trailer from winter storage, could you have been light on the tongue weight if the trailer is fairly empty? Or is this a new trailer also??? Was the trailer level, or slightly nose down? If your were nose high, that can cause some issues also.

I know our tt was giving us some fits, and when I weighed the combo, I was at about 12.6% tw (I think it was), and was still having the trailer move around some. Even with a Reese Dual Cam system it wanted to sway some. Rearranged some things in the trailer to increase the tw some, and it is a lot more stable when towing. I haven't reweighed it yet so I can't compare the exact % change.

rocnrol · April 13, 2015

Guys, as usual some good help here.

Blue, not a new TT, it was just at the dealership getting warranty work done, just first time on the new truck. You're right though that it is prepped for winter storage, so no water and missing a lot of the clothes and no food in it. when it was behind the dually, I always pulled with it full of water (800 lbs) and all the other camping goodies. The unfortunate thing of this TT is the heavy TW, 1100lbs, it's a toy hauler, so I can only assume it's like that to counter when the garage is full. I'm pretty sure that the tanks are behind the axles too. So, yeah, right now now I'm sure it's pretty heavy on the tounge.

I have the hitch pretty dialed in now, the trailer is flat once on the hitch and once I do up the bars the truck is level, or slightly higher in the rear.

I agree I need to spend some time at the scales. I have a self weigh close to me that's usually empty with lots of room to mess around with changes if I need to.

peejaykay · April 14, 2015

Sounds like hitch setup to me. My TT (like it or not) weighs a hair over 10k loaded ready-to-go, and I'm not getting any sway at all. Granted, I'm using a propride 3P hitch and it's a beast. Wouldn't tow a TT any other way! I've put over 4500 miles on the setup as-is and I'm getting ready to move from Cali to Alabama in a few weeks for it's next long trip.

pcf · April 14, 2015

Michelin in their infinite wisdom hasn't published load data for 18"+ light truck tires. A lower rear tire pressure might help. The LTX AT2 in 265/70 -18 is rated at a single load 3525@80psi, at 80psi your tires can support 800lbs more than the max rear axle weight. If you're tires are overinflated your contact patch shrinks and your rear end is more prone to bouncing. Just a WAG on my part, but I bet your truck will settle down a bit with tire pressure around 65lbs.

rocnrol · April 14, 2015

Michelin in their infinite wisdom hasn't published load data for 18"+ light truck tires. A lower rear tire pressure might help. The LTX AT2 in 265/70 -18 is rated at a single load 3525@80psi, at 80psi your tires can support 800lbs more than the max rear axle weight. If you're tires are overinflated your contact patch shrinks and your rear end is more prone to bouncing. Just a WAG on my part, but I bet your truck will settle down a bit with tire pressure around 65lbs.

Hhhmmm....... interesting thought. We started out at 70 psi, then went up to the 80 psi. It would seem odd to me to go even lower.....