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i was reading a blog today about the adventures of a full timer in a neoplan. he did a blog today about his tag tire change. and he showed a picture of a totally bald tire for the tag. he says his 90's neoplan has a steerable tag and it really causes a lot of wear on the tag.

so he runs them bald before changing them and always puts the tire from the front on the tag and gets new ones for the front. granted he drives alot so gets more miles on his tires than i will ever. but...i am curious as to how much life the tag on our rigs get.

and if i should do something similar and rotate the front tires to the tag (after getting bigger rims for the tag) when i need to change the fronts. in 4 or more years....

i have a really sharp backing up turn into my driveway.

what kind of wear do you guys with tags get on those tires?

i dont change the pressure on the tag when i back up either. do you guys? i have a switch that will put more or less pressure on the tag.

i am still a little puzzled when to use it.

any wisdom here?

thanks

tom
Tom,

I can't answer your tire wear question. I only wish I had the time to wear out a set of tires. But it does strike me that the steerable tags shouldn't wear out significantly faster than any other tire. They do have toe in and camber settings just like the fronts. I wonder if Sean has ever had the alignment looked at.
Wow, I've been reading Sean's blog for years, and never picked up the fact that he had a steerable tag. I did see the post with the bald tire.
I only have 30,000 miles on new tag tires & I am not seeing any abnormal or excessive wear. On your chassis you can put the 365s on the tag--on mine I cannot. I would put the 365s on the tag when I changed fronts if I could. I do not lighten the tag when I turn.
Tom, With the tag tires turning I would think that the tires that get the most wear would be the drive tires because they stay stable and are taking the twist while the turning is taking place. Ask Leo about it.
Wally
I have two Kenworth straight trucks (24' boxes) which run in excess of 56,000 lbs 100% of the time. They have passive steer tag axles on them. They never last as long as the drive tires (tandom drive axles with duels). We also run oversized steer tires and they don't last long either, lucky to get 20,000 miles out of them. And yes we have had the trucks aligned several times.

So I think it is safe to say passive and fixed tags don't typically last as long as drive tires. I'm sure in large part it has to do with less weight on the tags so they are the ones which do the most sliding in tight turns. With the passive tags you also get additional motion with the tire, even when going straight, which I'm sure adds to premature wear.

The active steer tags should eliminate most of the wear caused by sliding around turns, so I have no doubt those tires will last longer than passive steer and fixed tag axle tires.