Results of a tire placement test

[trimster]

When I replaced the drive axle(s) tires, I tried something. I had them put tires on the outside position of both axles. I kept the empty rims on the inside. Oh, was that a handful on the freeway.

The single tires wanted to roam in and out of the truck ruts. It was an active driving situation. When we got to Albq., NM, I had a shop put 2 more tires on the rear axle. Walaa... that settled the 'wandering' right down.

I'm happy with this final configuration. It's very 'driveable'.

[Wrknrvr]

    I have been running single tires on the outside since 2006, or there about.

it always drove great in my experience.

 

   Except when I had a set of (need Togo back in history to find the make of tires)tires. Within two miles I noticed a problem. Bought the new drive tire in Ocala Fl.

  But we had to pick up the fifth wheel and leave the next day for Arizona. While driving in Alabama, I had a situation arise that I had to do some hard braking.

 

   At one point I thought we were going to jackknife the rig, during that hard braking. Only thing ever changed were the tires.

    Went to the next Loves truck stop. Had a discussion about tires.  Had to use strong words. No swearing was used.

   They did not have the tires I originally wanted. But the next Loves truck stop did have them.

    Arrived at the next Loves truck stop . Had the tires installed that I originally wanted.

   I believe those tires are still on the truck.

[trimster]

Interesting. Might be tires as you indicated. I put on open shoulder with more aggressive tread. That might have something to do with how it was handling.

[Wrknrvr]

       I will find the brand and model tires later this week 

  my wife has surgery on Tuesday, so we are getting prepared for that subject. She needs to keep her head facing down say 50 minutes a hour for several days after the surgery. Even while sleeping?  

[Deezl Smoke]

On 6/8/2024 at 7:29 AM, trimster said:

When I replaced the drive axle(s) tires, I tried something. I had them put tires on the outside position of both axles. I kept the empty rims on the inside. Oh, was that a handful on the freeway.

The single tires wanted to roam in and out of the truck ruts. It was an active driving situation. When we got to Albq., NM, I had a shop put 2 more tires on the rear axle. Walaa... that settled the 'wandering' right down.

I'm happy with this final configuration. It's very 'driveable'.

 Do you have a local hd alignment specialist that you can consult about this? I am not familiar with Volvo at all, but 2015 is new enough to have lots of electrical sensors like traction control etc.

 I have driven many miles with  single outsides with no handling issues. But those miles were on older trucks without any sort of electronics.

 I just returned home from a short trip here in Oregon. My 2021 Pete has all that electronic crap on it. On US97 through Bend Oregon, those ruts you speak are studded tire caused, and in Bend, are small car studded tire ruts, making for very interesting driving of larger vehicles. My electronic "collision avoidance, predictive cruise" system noticed that the truck was wanting to wander in and out of these ruts, and put up a big red fault code, as well as automatically turning on traction control of which I could not cancel without stopping and shutting off the engine. Which I did as soon as I could safely do so. Thankfully that is a self cancelling fault. Traction control may mean different things to different manufacturers. I am currently running all 8 back there, but do plan to go to the four outsides soon.

 Before I left on this trip, I had replaced the air bags on the steering axle. It has that Paccar front air ride. (over rated IMO) So I called my local alignment specialist "Axle play" and had them come out to check alignment and make adjustments if needed. Everything was within Paccar spec, but not up to Axle play spec. So he adjusted the toe in. While visiting with the tech, he said they can make adjustments to make a truck drive any way the owner or operator wants them to drive. Incredible what they can do. But that they are limited on trucks with all this electronic equipment without having the owner sign a paper that they would have a tech with proper laptop software come in right behind the alignment to "re-calibrate" the system.

 Anyway, long way around saying maybe, not for certain, but maybe, it is not the tires that caused the wandering?

[trimster]

So, the traction control on mine is a switch. On or off. I'm sure there are some sensors active when 'on'. I rarely turn it on.

I do have mismatched steer tires. Same rating, size, and tread pattern, just different brands. One has a bit more wear than the other.

I did have the front-end suspension looked at, and it's within spec. Replaced the front shocks. They were toast. Probably need to dig into the rears one of these days.

So my only hard evidence/data.... with singles on each axle, it wanters. With the rear axle full, it doesn't.

[Jaydrvr]

By replaced, did you mean with new tires? Tall new tires typically feel like you're driving on rubber beads on the road and can be very squirrelly for a few thousand miles until they settle down. Eliminating half the tires would, I think, really exacerbate that. Jay

[trimster]

I gave them about 4k miles as a break in . Nothing substantial changed in the tracking behavior.

Concrete hwys that are flat, no issues. Asphalt with the ruts... It would dance side-to-side.

I did leave the empty rims on the inside position. Wonder if I pulled the empty set off the front drive axle, which would move those tires in about an inch, if that might help before I got the second set on the rear. Woulda, coulda, shoulda....maybe.

Edited June 10 by trimster

[Danfreda1]

Have open lug on the single axle kenworth. Drove like you described when it was new. Wasn’t until half of the tread was worn that it got better. Had a funny wear pattern, heal to toe on the lugs. Won’t put those tires on next time. Drives great on the flat concrete but the ruts are something else. 

[Randyretired]

I had a problem some years ago with a pickup.  Had open shoulder Cooper tires put on the rear in preparation for winter.  The truck wondered badly on the highway.   Had the front end checked, all was good.  Went back to the tire store and he drove it.  He said that truck is dangerous so he put the old tires back on.  The truck drove fine.  After talking with a Cooper rep he said sometimes different tires don't work together and refunded the cost.  Changed to another brand of open shoulder, traction tires and the truck drove fine.