Towed vehicle tire wear?

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RedandSilver

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Aug 25, 2016
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Was talking with a friend and he thinks towing a vehicle will wear those tires out quickly
by pulling them sideways vs. turning the tires.

So for you that pull a vehicle 4 down - do you see extra tire wear on your vehicles?
If I tow a vehicle 4 down it would weigh about 5000# GMC Acadia AWD

 
When we towed my wife's Accura MDX (which weighs about 5000 lbs) I never noticed any excessive tire wear. We towed it for thousands of miles over a three year period and didn't have to replace the ires any sooner than before we were towing it.

Kev
 
RedandSilver said:
Was talking with a friend and he thinks towing a vehicle will wear those tires out quickly
by pulling them sideways vs. turning the tires.
Click to expand...

First. There are multiple ways to tow 4 Down.. For example on my first towed I used an Axel Lock, (Front wheel drive)  Some folks use a Drive Shaft Disconnect (RWD) With these devices the wheels "Freewheel" like a trailer and wear..... Like a trailer. (Very slowly).

Now I use a transmission lube pump (This means there is some wear on the drive tires.

When you have the car aligned tell the shop that you tow it behind an RV. one of the settings (Castor?) they will set a bit differently....Still within factory Spec, but instead of going for the center of the range they go to one end.. This causes the front wheels to try to "Follow" the towing force better.

YOu tow with the ignition in the UNLOCKED but off position (If possible) or ON but fuse removed position (If the first is not) and thus the wheels turn and track normally, so there is no additional wear.. In fact on sharp turns I can see the wheels turn and start to straighten by watching my mirrors.

Thus wear is ... once again... Like a trailer
 
No, not if it's set up correctly. The tires steer as needed and don't get pulled sideways. We've towed three different vehicles over 100k miles with no tire problems at all.

Cars that have a locking steering column need to have the ignition key in the unlocked position (Acc works fine), thus allowing the steering wheels to turn as needed and avoiding the problem your friend described. Other than that, no concerns at all.
 
After about 20K miles of towing my Elantra, I have noticed some cupping taking place at the outside edge of the tires.  It seems this can be a consequence for some vehicles.
 
We rotate our RAV4 tires annually, and I haven't seen any significantly different wear on the front tires over the rear due to towing. Front drive cars do put more wear on the front tires, even without towing, but regular rotations pretty much equalizes the wear.
 
Wear on the outer edge of both front tires is an alignment issue. Cupping indicates the front wheels are bouncing a bit as they roll. Can be alignment on the vehicle, or bad shocks/struts, or possibly a tow bar that is too high.

However, on some light vehicles with a unit body (no rigid frame), the front end simply isn't stiff enough and sideways pressure from the tow bar distorts the front end geometry a tiny bit. The pull of the tow bar puts on slightly different stresses than the push of the drive wheels and odd wear can result.  That might be the case with the Elantra.
 
Keep in mind when you drive a car, your effort steers the tires.  When the car is towed, the road steers the tires.  I think that different wear patterns might be observed.
 
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