Would you like to see a single wide tire instead of two skinnier ones? I've been looking into this, and I think it would be a great idea to suggest to GM.
Some big rigs are starting to use them, so it might economically possible.

 

We are talking about semi-trucks and not passenger vehicles? Wow...this is certainly a different subject for this forum...

I thought the idea of having two duals per axle was to maintain control in the event of one of the duals blowing out out. Or do they have two for different reasons?

 

Here is a pic I made in microsoft paint. It isn't as good of quality as some of you guys can do it, but it is just to give you an idea of what I am talking about.


vs.



Doesn't the wider tire look better?

 

Oh...You had a pic of a semi truck up there at first before you edited it.



Now I get it.

Very very few people buy dually pickup trucks for show, most are bought for work and utility. I don't think GM can make a financial case for that wide of a rear wheel as a factory option.

Would be cool!

 

Oh, so now you mister hot shot think that these tires are for show, and have no utitily purpose huh?...
I think you need to take that up with the EPA
http://epa.gov/smartway/documents/sa...045-110105.pdf
..and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (the scientists that help devolop the atom bomb)
http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_relea...=mr20060630-00
and especially Motor Home magazine.
http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/for...d/19041417.cfm

edit: Jason is perdy.

 

The wide tires would look better on a fleetside with a narrowed rearend. Personally when guys replace their duallies with a single wide tire, I think it looks stupid. If you're going to do it, do it right.

 

I've never seen these tires on normal trucks, only on 18-wheelers?

 

Wow...neat stuff, Mr. Wizard! Nice research! You get an "A" for the day.



I was referring to the truck being bought for utility, and GM producing it for those buyers, not the tire. Still, good points made in this one and since I don't have any concrete facts to back my thoughts up (just speculating), you might be on to something.

 

I have. And it looks dumb when the rearend hasn't been narrowed and the tires tucked inside the bed walls.

 

Looks like those tires should be made by Mickey Thompson.

 

Wouldn't that be quite an expensive tire to replace?

 

#77:

One of the reasons big rig trucks are going to the wider single tires as opposed to duals are taxes. I asked about this a few years ago when I first started seeing them, and what I was told (IIRC) is in addition to truckers getting taxed on the number of axles they also get dinged on the number of tires, or something to that effect, honest. So that's one reason you see more wide single on truckes as well as trailers.

For a P/U, unless there's real utility value in a wide single (and there could be in agricultural apps where floatation on soft ground is a big benefit) it's be up to individual taste. The flotation issue could play well with farmers and constriction firms.

If you come up with something, I want in on the royalties.....

 

How about this?

The utility to them, besides marketing, is listed above in that they can help gas mileage on the big rigs(i dont' know if this is valid for the smaller trucks we are talking about here though). Weight savings (rotational is a big one), and cheaper because you are buying less tires.

 

Ive seen alot of trucks around here that have replaced the dual tires with the single wide tire. Some of them towing their drag cars to MIR. Theyve been around for at least 12 years.

 

This is true, but I think the idea is to figure out if GM is interested in making them that way from the factory.