Operating cost of earthcruisers?

[Howard70]

.... recommendations that do not include the spare,,,

Hello Glen:

We've always rotated our spares through. On Prima Terra we had two spares rotated along with the running tires for a total of 6. With Prima Terra II we only have a tire on one spare so we'll rotate 5.

Waveslider - the only reason I can imagine a tire guy would suggest not rotating a spare into the mix would be you'd buy tires sooner (along you'd buy fewer)!

Any reasons offered for why rotating spares (especially at a 5,000 mile frequency) isn't advised? I assume Fuso's reluctance would be because they assume the trucks have duels in the rear, so adding a spare would be confusing?

Howard

 

[Cruisn]

Hello Glen:

We've always rotated our spares through. On Prima Terra we had two spares rotated along with the running tires for a total of 6. With Prima Terra II we only have a tire on one spare so we'll rotate 5.

Waveslider - the only reason I can imagine a tire guy would suggest not rotating a spare into the mix would be you'd buy tires sooner (along you'd buy fewer)!

Any reasons offered for why rotating spares (especially at a 5,000 mile frequency) isn't advised? I assume Fuso's reluctance would be because they assume the trucks have duels in the rear, so adding a spare would be confusing?

Howard

Most medium sized trucks that run dual rears also run the same size front tyre/rim. all my trucks have. from isuzu to mitsubishi. the lack of changing them is from what I have expieranced is that the rears wear out quicker anyways under weight and you always want good condition steers.

 

[waveslider]

Waveslider - the only reason I can imagine a tire guy would suggest not rotating a spare into the mix would be you'd buy tires sooner (along you'd buy fewer)!

Its been a LOOONG time since I had that conversation so I can't even recall the key points he had made. I was planning to return to the practice with the Kenworth and I'm gathering the necessary heavy-duty tools in order to accomplish it myself.
Glad to hear I won't be the only one doing it.

Are you all using the "normal" rotation patterns for 4wd with a spare? (See below) or something different? Sorry OP for the thread drift but at least its somewhat related to operating cost.

 

[gregmchugh]

When I had about 18,000 miles on our GXV Kenworth Patagonia I stopped in to the Goodyear Commercial Tire dealer in Springfield MO who supplies the tires to GXV to ask about tire rotation. They looked at the Goodyear G278 tires and did not recommend a rotation based on the wear of the rather large lugs on these tires. Looking at the front to rear wear on the lugs was the indicator used to determine when tire rotation was needed. As long as there wasn’t a significant difference in tread thickness between the front and back of the lugs there was no reason to rotate as long as there was no other wear pattern on the tires. When the lugs do show the difference in lug depth then the rotation is from side to side to even out the wear. You can also rotate front and rear to even out wear between drive and steer tires as long as you also do side to side was the recommendation. I now have 33, 000 miles and plan to have them look at them again next week to see if rotation is recommended.

I also had them look at a damaged lug on the side of one tire that probably happened from road debris at some point. The lug looked pretty badly damaged to me but after poking around with an ice pick they said that there was no damage to the structure of the tire and no reason to not keep using the tire. After another 15,000 miles I have seen no change to the damaged lug.

Waveslider, I had a brief look your truck today at GXV, looks nice. We are stopping back in tomorrow morning to finish dropping off our truck for service and I want to get a better look.

 

[waveslider]

Good info Greg. We have a Goodyear Ag supplier here that I intend to consult as our tires wear in. Impressive mileage you're seeing with even wear. My previous experience with large lug tires (albeit much smaller) was that it was difficult to spot wear patterns so it will be a learning process.

The other reason I intend to rotate the spare in is because when the time comes to get a new set, if I want to try something different I don't have a Gs worth of fresh rubber to try and offload for pennies on the dollar.

 

[Howard70]

The other reason I intend to rotate the spare in is because when the time comes to get a new set, if I want to try something different I don't have a Gs worth of fresh rubber to try and offload for pennies on the dollar.

This is a great point. Also, carrying a spare around without use for the several years it might take to wear out a set of tires can leave us with a pretty old spare with checked sidewalls etc.

Regarding switching sides in the rotation pattern - I wonder if a reason some manufacturers (Fuso for example) might suggest not switching sides might be that when moving a dual mounted rear tire to the front, the tire is rotated sideways if it remains on the same side of the vehicle, but not rotated sideways if moved to the other side. In other words if you "switch sides" with the wheel, the tire sees the same sides it did on the rear?

Howard

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

It is said that radials prefer to rotate in the same direction all of their life.
My Michelins are directional too.
Swapping sides makes them rotate "backwards", unless you also flip them on the rim.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[gregmchugh]

I have owned a couple of different earthroamers...and in my experience, not including depreciation, if you plan for $1/mile, you won’t be far off. there are many factors that influence this number...but that is a good rule of thumb. If you want to be safe, go to $2/ mile and you won’t be shocked.

What are the major factors besides fuel that get you to $1-2 per mile. Based on the first 33,000 miles on our Kenworth K370 I don’t think we are anywhere near that at this point but I haven’t really tried to calculate the cost per mile...

 

[rruff]

I think your typical car works out to ~$0.50-$1, so $2 isn't bad at all, considering.