LoudRam
New Jersey
Senior Member
Joined: 04/20/2008
View Profile
 Offline
|
This might be old news to some or maybe even most of you but I didn't know this.
My wife's minivan had a slow leak so I took it to my local tire guy Dave, he owns TireTech in Williamstown (for you local people). He's a great guy and he knows tires inside and out. Anyway while his guys were patching my wife's tire I commented about a set of tires he had in the show room. I wanted to get them when my Firestone Transforce AT's wear out. They were Toyo Open Country AT's. They were nice looking. Really deep tread, nice pattern.
He said they are a nice tire but then he asked me if I tow anything. I told him about my TT and he said that open shoulder tires are more unstable than closed shoulder design tires when it comes to towing heavier loads. He told me he had a guy who had a 5th wheel come in who just bought a set of open shoulder tires off him and said that he almost lost control of his rig. It turned out to be the tires. Dave warned him ahead of time but he didn't listen. He put closed shoulder tires on his truck and no further problems.
Like I said some of you guys might already know this but it's news to me. Here are some examples of tires.
Toyo Open Country AT's (open shoulder)
Here are my tires...
Firestone Transforce AT's (closed shoulder)
Todd
Desert Storm Vet (US Navy)
2002 Fleetwood Prowler Lynx 30'
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4X4 w/360 (not stock)
Predator DX2 brake controller
Equalizer Sway Control Hitch
If you can read this thank a teacher
If you can read this in english thank a vet
|
Paul B
Daytona Beach, Florida
Senior Member
Joined: 09/10/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
How much towing does your tire friend do?? Not doughting him but plenty of folks use the aggressive tread design with no problems. My Michline tires are probably open design and I don't have any problems.
Paul B
2001 Excursion-Powerstroke Diesel
2000 Honda CRV
2006 Flagstaff 31' - 7.5k lbs.
2004 Two Honda EU2000i's/parallel cables/extra fuel tank
|
LoudRam
New Jersey
Senior Member
Joined: 04/20/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
He said they tend to be more unstable. Maybe that's not true for every tire but in his experience that's what he noticed. And I think he has a boat, I'm not sure. I know this is going to be another thread where everybody is just going to agree to disagree but I thought I'd throw that out there.
Personally, I'd listen to him. So far he hasn't steered me wrong. And yes the Toyo's cost more than the Firestone's so that's not the motivation. (just wanted to head that one off at the pass)
|
coolbreeze01
Redding, Ca
Senior Member
Joined: 08/24/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
I used to get really aggressive tires for winter and they definitely handled poorly on dry or rain wet curvy roads. Great for snow and mud though.
2008 Dodge 3500 CTD LB SRW 4X4 6-Speed Auto
P3 Blue Ox Sway Pro
2007 Komfort 212
|
MAJESTYPOINTERS
MONROE, MI.
Senior Member
Joined: 04/08/2008
View Profile
|
Just a thought....
Your tire guy might have been refering to side wall strength and not just tire tred design...Most agressive (not all) tred tires are designed also for off high way use and as such have more flexible side walls. The idea is to give a more flexible and bigger foot print when off roading over uneven ground. A more flexible side wall (on the road) will give the same effect of a low tire (soft and sway) when loaded. I have not heard of tred design alone affecting towing other than in regards to wet, dry or snow conditions.JM2C
|
|
|
LoudRam
New Jersey
Senior Member
Joined: 04/20/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
MAJESTYPOINTERS wrote:Just a thought....
Your tire guy might have been refering to side wall strength and not just tire tred design...Most agressive (not all) tred tires are designed also for off high way use and as such have more flexible side walls. The idea is to give a more flexible and bigger foot print when off roading over uneven ground. A more flexible side wall (on the road) will give the same effect of a low tire (soft and sway) when loaded. I have not heard of tred design alone affecting towing other than in regards to wet, dry or snow conditions.JM2C
That might be it. A combination of both, tread and sidewall.
|
smkettner
Southern California
Senior Member
Joined: 03/21/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
Almost lost his fifth wheel because of tire shoulder. It may make a difference but that seems like streatching the truth a bit.
2001 F150 SuperCrew 5.4 Lariat Offroad 4x4 Tow Package 4.10 Truetrac
2006 Keystone Springdale 249FWBHLS
12K SuperGlide, KGE3000Ti 2.3kw rated 2.6kw max
Frank's voltage booster, Prosine 1800 powered by 4 GC2 batteries
|
rvert10
Utah
Full Member
Joined: 01/05/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
LoudRam wrote:This might be old news to some or maybe even most of you but I didn't know this.
My wife's minivan had a slow leak so I took it to my local tire guy Dave, he owns TireTech in Williamstown (for you local people). He's a great guy and he knows tires inside and out. Anyway while his guys were patching my wife's tire I commented about a set of tires he had in the show room. I wanted to get them when my Firestone Transforce AT's wear out. They were Toyo Open Country AT's. They were nice looking. Really deep tread, nice pattern.
He said they are a nice tire but then he asked me if I tow anything. I told him about my TT and he said that open shoulder tires are more unstable than closed shoulder design tires when it comes to towing heavier loads. He told me he had a guy who had a 5th wheel come in who just bought a set of open shoulder tires off him and said that he almost lost control of his rig. It turned out to be the tires. Dave warned him ahead of time but he didn't listen. He put closed shoulder tires on his truck and no further problems.
Like I said some of you guys might already know this but it's news to me. Here are some examples of tires.
Toyo Open Country AT's (open shoulder)
Here are my tires...
Firestone Transforce AT's (closed shoulder)
I had the same tire, Toyo Open country AT, never had a problem towing my 5ver throught the Rockies and Cascade ranges with them, but I sure didnt know about open and closed shoulders. Is this the same with all manufactures?
07 Dodge Mega Cab DRW,6spd auto, Exhaust break, 8'bed conversion (Best mistake I've made)
33' Teton Home Experience 3 slides, its not a trailer its a home
5500 watt generator
and a great Co-piolet
|
BurbMan
Long Island, NY
Senior Member
Joined: 09/20/2001
View Profile
|
An off-road, or all-terrain, or open shoulder tire will be slightly less stable on the highway because of the design. Because the outer tread blocks are not connected like on a closed-shoulder tire, they are more susceptible to squirm, especially under a load. They are also noiser on pavement than closed-shoulder hiway tires.
One of first questions I had when I went with my first set of ProComp all-terrain tires was how they handled on wet pavement. that in my mind is the most important feature of a tire and separates the good ones from the junk. Treadwear is important to me, but secondary. I was impressed with the wet weather handling on the ProComps, and am more impressed with the Bridgestome Dueller Revos I have now.
Back to towing, that guy with the 5er must have an incredible marginal setup or be overloaded to have a change in tread design cause him to almose lose the rig. I agree that tread pattern influences stability, but I guarantee there's more to this particular story.
Ironically, JBarca posted at length a while back about the Michelin LTX tires he put on his 2500 burb. Now, these are closed shoulder design but had a significant negative impact on the stability of his rig. So not sure if the correlation between stability and tires is as binary as to whether it has open or closed shoulder tread design, although that is certainly a factor.
|
chadsalt
sc
Senior Member
Joined: 04/04/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
I use/need my 4x4 and have won't run anything but "open shoulder".........haven't lost control yet??????????
Either your tire guy or the guy towing the 5'er was exaggerating. True, an open shoulder is going to handle different, get less miles, and be louder.......but I've never used a closed shoulder that was worth a******off the hardtop.
|
|
|
